Third time’s the charm is the adage that perfectly sums up my spring 2025 travel to Canada. For having been around the world a few times, I somewhat surprisingly had never crossed the northern border of the U.S. to visit our good-natured neighbors, even though it’s closer than other regular road trips I take with family. But it wasn’t for lack of effort. Before this trip over Memorial Day Weekend, I had previously planned two other trips to Canada that fell through due to sickness/snow storms and someone realizing they didn’t have a valid passport 3 weeks before the trip (it wasn’t me!).

My best friend, Emily, had been part of planning the other trips and was equally interested in making Canada happen. In March, when our Spanish friends, Natalia & Eva, mentioned that they wanted to go to Niagara Falls in the late spring, we all sprang into action to mark our calendars for the road trip. Since we only had four total days for the trip (two of which were full travel days in the car), we decided to stay in Hamilton, Ontario, for its relative equidistance between Niagara and Toronto.

As a nervous-Nelly, I wasn’t actually sure that we’d make it to Canada; more out of superstition that I wasn’t meant to ever visit the country than real-founded fears. So, even though I told people about our plans, I was holding my breath a bit in anticipation. But, we did it — honestly with less pomp or circumstance than I would have liked (and no passport stamps on the way in our out). Also rather disappointing was that southeast Ontario looked an awful lot like northeast Michigan, which is to say beautiful flat farmland. But it was Canada!

We pulled in on Friday night in time to settle our belongings and head out in search of dinner. Downtown Hamilton was pretty quiet for a Friday night, but we found a cozy place for burgers and one of Canada’s most famous sides: poutine. I have to say I didn’t love the fries covered with cheese sauce and gravy, but I also don’t love gravy in general, so perhaps that should have been expected.

On Saturday, we found (after a few failed Google Maps attempts) a coffee shop to grab drinks and pastries for the road before driving about an hour to spend our day in Niagara/Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Niagara Falls State Park actually has multiple attractions spread over miles of preserved land. After leisurely enjoying the falls (read below for a more in-depth review), we drove about 15 minutes to the Butterfly Conservatory, which was magical. Each attraction has a separate entrance fee, which could add up fast. But I thought that doing the falls-related things and the butterflies were both worth it. We finished our day in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the much prettier neighboring town to the city of Niagara (which is full of fast-food chains, towering hotels and casinos). In Niagara-on-the-Lake we bought traditional Canadian pastries at a cute bakery and enjoyed dinner at an Indian restaurant (all delicious)!

On Sunday, we again found local coffee/pastries and drove the opposite direction to go downtown Toronto for the day. The drive was easy and much of it was along scenic views of Lake Ontario. We found a public parking garage near the Hockey Hall of Fame and walked about 20 minutes to start our city experience going up in the CN Tower. The views were great, until they weren’t. While we were up in the summit, a huge storm rolled in, and never rolled out. We managed to walk about half of the way back toward the car inside through Union Station and other connected buildings, but ended up just in the rain for the rest of our walk to have lunch at St. Lawrence Market (which was a must-do). The rain really extinguished our explorers’ mindsets and after lunch, we had a difficult time finding inspiration to continue walking around the city. We did stumble onto a film set (for what we later confirmed was Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent) and spent a while watching a car scene get set up. After grabbing an afternoon coffee to warm up/dry out from the rain, we took a car ride through the city to see a few of the many diverse neighborhoods. Our final night in Canada, we opted to grab some groceries from a local store.

We got up early on Monday morning for a quick stop at Tim Hortons (had to!) before hitting the long road home. Success! I finally added Canada to the list and have such lovely memories & photos look back on. And since the trip was so short and so focused in one area, I’m already looking forward to future opportunities to see more of the country!

A few notes: For being the end of May, it was pretty chilly. I think we were still in “shoulder season” and crowds felt manageable. Many touristic attractions accepted USD as long as you were ok with receiving CAD as change. I love having a bit of local currency, so that was handy, especially at gift shops or cafés. I also felt very safe being in a small group of women, but I think I would have felt equally ok on my own.

The Highlights

Niagara Falls. CN Tower. Trying Ketchup chips & poutine (though I didn’t particularly like either). Butter tart bars & Nanaimo bars from Niagara Home Bakery). Durand Coffee. Stack’d Deli Kitchen from St. Lawrence Market. Tim Hortons. Saskatoon berry pie. Having a butterfly land on me at the conservatory.

The Remarkable

Niagara Falls was truly remarkable and is warranted to be ranked as a wonder of the world. I loved it so much. We stayed fully on the Canadian side for the day and took advantage of the different modes of enjoying the falls. We started with the quintessential boat ride on Niagara City Cruises. We suited up in our red ponchos and took the 20 or so minute ride past the smaller Bridal Veil and American Falls to the pièce de résistance: the Horseshoe Falls. Word to the wise: you will get soaked, even with the poncho. The “mist” is more like a torrential downpour. After a quick trip through the giftshop for some postcards & stamps, we grabbed coffees (admittedly at the nearby Starbucks) and walked along the river back toward the falls. From up above, the waterfalls were still stunning. It was also crazy to see how far the boats don’t go near the falls. I can’t even imagine how drenched you would get if you were closer!

We capped off our Niagara experience with the Journey Behind the Falls that you enter at the visitor’s center. We were again given ponchos (yellow this time) and rode elevators down to tunnels that were carved out of the rocks behind the main Horseshoe Falls. There were two “lookout” points where you could look at the back of the falls (not really through to the outside though) and one actual viewing area near the side/base of the falls. That was one of my favorite spots. The mist was mistier and you could actually look at the waterfall from pretty close by. The sound of the water rushing past was totally overwhelming and I felt small in the face of nature. I love moments in life like that — it’s truly awe-inspiring to recognize that there is so much happening in the world that is so much bigger than me. If Niagara Falls aren’t on your bucket list yet, add them now.

SDG