Ontario is Canada's second-largest province, and the most populous, with more than 14 million inhabitants. It is home to the Canadian capital city of Ottawa, and Toronto, which is Ontario's capital and Canada's largest city. Stretching from the shores of Hudson Bay (an arm of the Arctic Ocean) in the north to four of the five Great Lakes in the South and from Manitoba in the west to Quebec in the east, Ontario is truly massive at over a million square kilometres (almost half a million square miles).
Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributors.
In addition to being Canada's most populous province, Ontario is also a major tourist destination, especially around the Niagara Falls. More than 90% of the population resides in the four regions that make up Southern Ontario, which covers a much smaller land area than the expansive north, making them worlds apart in topography and local culture. Due to its massive size, Ontario can provide the visitor with access to Canada's most populous city, Toronto; the world's largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior; and even a polar bear park in the Subarctic.
Ontario is a large province and, as a result, the car is nearly always the most convenient way to explore it. If you are arriving by plane, cars are easily rented if you are over 23, but easiest if you are over 25 years of age. There is more to Ontario than Southern Ontario and Toronto (or Hamilton, or Niagara), and driving to and through the vast and varied regions of Ontario can be an adventure. Coming from the USA or other provinces, your options are numerous. In Northern Ontario, the car is a must if you wish to get from place to place.
Niagara Falls will be at the top of the list for many travellers. More water goes over the three falls here per minute than over any other falls in the world. The city of Niagara Falls has many other places of interest, from beautiful gardens, to butterfly conservatories to ticky-tacky tourist traps. The Niagara region is the most important of the Wine Regions of Ontario. Toronto is a busy, cosmopolitan, multicultural city with theatre, museums, galleries, shopping, professional sports, and restaurants offering the cuisines of the world (half of Torontonians were born outside of Canada).
Ontario offers many outdoor activities every season of the year. In the northern part of the province, you can hike the Sleeping Giant, a series of mesas that resemble a human figure, near Thunder Bay, hike through Temagami's Old Growth Forest, or climb the Fire Tower and canoe Lake Temagami. At Fathom Five National Marine Park at Tobermory, you can dive around or take a boat tour of shipwrecks.
The Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Golden Horseshoe, and Niagara Falls/Niagara Peninsula each offer you a wide variety of Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian, Latin American, Japanese, fast food, and French cuisines (all formal and informal). Toronto and Ottawa have large immigrant populations, and have an unusually high variety of quality specialty cuisines, that cater to Western, Asian, European palates.
In Ontario, the legal drinking age is 19. In Southern Ontario, you will find a great variety of beer and spirits at your disposal, while in Northern Ontario your options are usually limited to the most common North American standards. Drinking in public is discouraged by law in Ontario and most parts of Canada, exceptions being licensed patios and the like. Beer is available from the Beer Store (run by Molson, Labatt and Sleeman), while beer, wine and other alcohol is available from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, commonly called the LCBO (run by the government).
Guide content from Wikivoyage contributors (CC BY-SA) — abridged; the full article has much more.
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In Jul, Ontario typically sees ~32°C daytime highs and 0 rainy days.
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