I’m already living in a rural area near Albany, NY. After this election, my wife and I are seriously considering at least getting a vacation home in Canada. Ontario’s stright up the map … what’s it like up there (along the Border and the lakes/St.Lawrence, specifically)? Nice farmland? You guys grow almost as many apples as we do here in NY, don’t you?
Quite honestly, the only difference between upstate NY and Ontario is that in Ontario, gays can get married, and in NY the shopping is better. The region is very similar. I love both areas.
Ginger said it. 
Plus, we’re cleaner and our parks are much nicer.
And there’s some awesome farms (not to mention apple orchards) up here!
Sweet. I think the little lady and I may take a weekend sight-seeing drive up to Ottawa and back once I’m finished my current work project.
AND, the beer’s better!!! Well, some of it.
“Ontario” is an awfully big and heavily populated place to characterize it as in a single description. but yes, we grow many apples. Brighton and Colborne are the heart of the Ontario apple industry - many types of apples were invented there. Brighton has an “Apple Fest” every September. There’s a giant apple with a store and stuff right off the 401 in Colborne.
Ontario has a pretty large and active economy, with more or less every conceivable kind of industry and agriculture. Cars and car parts are the largest industries, but you’ve got high tech, government (both the federal government and the country’s largest provincial government are here) service, media, financial, mining, forestry, farming, and manufacturing of every conceivable sort.
Eastern Ontario, which is north of where you live, is quite similar to upstate New York, with similar weather and urbanization pattern. Outside of Ottawa, the largest city in the area would be Kingston, about 120,000 residents. Housing prices outside Ottawa are good. Lots of cottage country north of Kingston and in almost any direction an hour outside Ottawa. The terrain once you get away from the Lake Ontario lowlands is a little rockier than you might be used to, heavily forested, dotted with farms.
Moving westward you have south-central Ontario, which is increasingly more populated with moderate sized towns and cities ringing Toronto, which is an enormous city and is essentially unbroken urbal sprawl from Pickering to around the lake through Hamilton, covering probably six million inhabitants. As big cities go it’s very nice; low crime rate, clean, multicultural, lots to do. Within an hour to an hour and a half’s drive are other midsized cities like Guelph, Peterborough, Kitchener, Cambridge, and other nice towns.
North of this area between Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay/Lake Huron is a much less densely populated area, including Bruce Peninsula. Excellent cottage country, national and provincial parks, and the like.
West of that is southwestern Ontario, which includes London and Windsor. Much softern terrain here, and the climate is noticeably warmer. Population density is about the same as eastern Ontario. The farmland here is outstanding. Tomatoes are a huge cash cow in particular.
Northern Ontario, past Ottawa, is sparsely populated but has a few good sized towns along the lakes like Thunder Bay and North Bay. We call it “Northern Ontario” but if you look at a map, Thunder Bay is actually only about halfway between the southernmost and northernmost parts of Ontario. REAL Northern Ontario is largely inaccessible by road. It’s rugged wilderness - rocks and trees. Very few towns.
Ontario is fairly well populated (about 12,000,000 people) and there’s pretty much any lifestyle you want available here, from cottages to highfalutin’ city living. I don’t know that the shopping is any worse… we have nothing to compare to Times Square but for regular stuff I’ve been all over the State of New York and malls look the same everywhere.
Largest cities in Ontario, from my memory:
Toronto, 4.5 million residents (incl. Mississauga, Brampton, and Durham)
Ottawa, 1 million
Mississauga, if you don’t count it as part of Toronto: 650,000
Hamilton, 500,000
London, 350,000
Kitchener-Waterloo, 250,000
Windsor, 200,000
Barrie, 130,000
Kingston, 120,000
Forgot Sudbury (150,000) and Thunder Bay (120,000). Damn Southern Ontarians, always forgetting the North.
And water.
“Trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and water” (Arrogant Worms).
Recommended overnight trip:
Up I-90 to Utica or Syracuse. NY-12 from Utica to Watertown*, or I-81 from Syracuse. Continue on I-81 across Thousand Islands Bridge, pick up the 401 westbound to Kingston. Several hotels right on the water, excellent restaurants within walking distance (3-4 blocks), island tours, vibrant night life.
Reverse the trip home.
If you find you like the area, check with local realtors about rentals and sales of summer places.
Lovely extension of trip if you have longer – up the Rideau Canal to Ottawa.
There are also quite nice places to visit on the American side in the Thousand Islands area; I grew up quite near there and can make recommendations if it’s not essential to go into Canada.
I understand there’s some absolutely beautiful wilderness and rustic-vacation areas in Northern Ontario, but have not been there myself.
- About an hour longer than 90 to Syracuse and up 81, but a beautiful drive through the Black River Valley.
Kingston and surroundings is one of my favourite areas of Canada. As others have commented, lots of cottage county in that area, plus Kingston (with two universities) is a very attractive regional and cultural centre.
There are no people and no roads in much of Northern Ontario, so if you want you can paddle about for weeks without seeing anyone. Kattawagami River
Thanks all! We’ll try the Kingston area first.