Great Canadian Cities

Toronto

Welcome to Toronto! Multicultural, bustling and dynamic, Toronto rightly deserves to be called a metropolis. You’ll be impressed by its pace, its stark lines, the cleanliness of its streets, its high class stores and its well-established reputation as a city of business. Transfer on your own to your downtown hotel and collect your
travel documents before setting out to ex-plore. Enjoy a guided tour of Toronto. See City Hall, Chinatown and much more. This afternoon take advantage of the opportu-nity to see even more of Toronto. Toronto is
one of the top centers of English-language theatre, after London and New York. If you enjoy museums, art centers and art galler-ies, you’ll find plenty to delight you in this effervescent city. Noteworthy are, among others, the famous Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Science Centre of Ontario. The Lake Ontario wa-terfront exerts a strong pull: you can stroll, visit Ontario Place or the Skydome, or admire the sunset from the top of the CN tower, the world’s highest free-standing structure.

Also visit Niagara Falls. Shaped like a gigantic, 675-metre-long horseshoe, these magnificent waterfalls are 54 meters high. Their incredible power and the flow of water of up to 6 millions liters per second make them one of the country’s most enduringly popular attractions. Long known as a honeymoon destination, Niagara Falls is without question a highly developed tourist centre. With boat cruises to the foot of the falls, helicopter fly-overs, underground tunnels, and dinner over-looking the top, the falls can be admired from every angle.

Ottawa

280 miles

Board VIA RAIL this morning for a trip to Canada’s capital. The Rideau Canal which winds through the centre of the city is a highly prized leisure spot. A stop at the Parliament Building is essential. Visit its galleries and the magnificent circular library, and watch the changing of the guard, or attend the famous question time. Check out the stalls at Byward market, look around the antiques market or stroll through the gardens and public rooms of Rideau Hall, house of the governor-general.

In the evening, visit the Hull Casino. Home to more than 29 museums, Ottawa is a hotbed of cultural activity. The Canadian Museum of Civilization has an impressive collection of totems standing in its historical gallery. The Canada Science and Technology Museum overflows with ingenuity. The National Gallery of Canada is also well worth a visit.

Quebec City

274 miles

Today, Québec, the only walled city in North America awaits. As you stroll through the streets and alleys of this
romantic city, you will see and feel the traces of history all around you. Poised on a headland below which the St. Lawrence narrows, the “Old Capital” was first a fur-trading post, and then became a major fort in New France. Close by, on the Plains of Abraham, the English and French fought one of the most important battles in the
history of the Americas. As a result, control over the colony passed to the British, who laid the political foundations of the Canada we know today.

You will soon understand why Québec City‘s historic district appears on Unesco’s world heritage list! Take the time to visit the museums, enjoy a drink in a sidewalk café, and take a short river cruise.

Montreal

155 miles

Today, you’re off to Québec’s largest city, Montréal. Its museums, concert halls, movie theatres, department stores and specialized shops justify the city’s inter-national reputation. Bilingual Montréal is also the world’s second-largest French-speaking city, after Paris. In Old Montréal, on the shores of the St. Lawrence river, you will find architecture dating back to the era when Canada was New France. The downtown area is home to the Fine Arts
Museum, La Place des Arts (a concert-hall and art gallery complex), and a host of other attractions. Mount Royal, the
wooded hill that dominates the city, is a park that is a pleasure to relax in. Visit the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Olympic Park and the Biodôme (where complete natural ecosystems are reproduced). Try your luck at the Casino de Montréal. 

Toronto

337 miles

Return to Toronto this morning to catch your homeward flight, taking with you memories of a very special holiday in Canada's great Eastern cities.