The world is opening again, and it is time to start booking those romantic weekends away. One of my favourite Ontario getaways is Niagara- on-the-lake, a perfect combination of relaxation and fun.
STAY
My favourite place to stay is Queen’s Landing, a beautiful hotel on the water. I’ve stayed there a few times now and it remains one of my top Ontario destinations. This is part of Ontario’s Vintage Hotel brand which means that you have access to their other NOTL hotels: Pillar & Post and Prince of Wales.
All these 5* hotels ooze charm and elegance: they each have a spa, award winning restaurant and special seasonal packages. Being in one of these hotels gives you access to their sister properties, although this may change with Covid restrictions. If this level of access is important to you, I highly recommend checking in with your hotel before you book.
EAT & DRINK
We loved eating at many of the NOTL wineries. Nearly all of them have unique and distinctive dining rooms with pairing menus and close connections to local farms. With many hosting large groups, celebrations and weddings, the food offerings are bound to be delightful.
We enjoyed a fantastic lunch at PondView at Bella Terra Vineyards, sipping wine and sharing a delicious charcuterie at one of the tables between the vines. It was painfully romantic.
We were also looking forward to a hearty lunch at The Farmhouse Café located on Caroline Cellars, but it appeared that everyone else had the same idea. The place was packed with seemingly very happy customers. We have added this to our ‘next time’ list.
In the evening, we dined in the garden patio at Zees Grill (which is part of The Shaw Club). The cuisine was defined as ‘Upscale New Canadian’ and while I am still a tad unsure of what that actually means, our fish and beef carpaccio were delicious, the wine perfectly paired, and the atmosphere unpretentious, lively and inviting. I would definitely eat here again.
Finally, both of our nights ended at The Irish Harp, a fun, upbeat Irish pub with live music most nights. We are suckers for live music, a pint and perhaps, a sip of whisky. We danced and snacked, and I dare say that we made a friend or two. The second night, we ran into some other fantastic writers, Andrea from Mommy Gearest and Georgia from Extra Sparkles Please and their partners. What started out as fantastic conversation turned into a fabulous party – It was so much fun. I WILL say, get there early and put your name on the entry list. This pub fills up fast and with Covid, it will be even faster.
PLAY
A wine tour is an obvious must and if the weather allows it, I highly recommend visiting wineries on a bike. There are many different bike tour winery options, but we chose to rent Zoom Bikes and conducted our own self-guided wine tour. Each bike had a basket for belongings and a bag to store the wine that we collected on the way.
We easily booked our bikes online ahead of time at a very reasonable price. We loved the included transportation from hotel to the bike shop and Zoom collected the bike from our hotel when we were done. For me, not much tops this level of convenience.
On our self guided tour, we tended to avoid the huge wineries (except for Two Sisters Vineyards because it is a beautiful property) and found most tasting flights came in around $5 (except for Two Sisters which was $20! Per person!). We met some fantastic, knowledgable winemakers, heard some great vineyards histories and tasted some delectable wines. A few of our favourites (in no particular order):
If you’re a golf fan, consider a round at the Niagara-On-The-Lake Golf Club. This is a semi-private club that is both unique and picturesque. It is a full-length course with two par 5’s, five par 4’s and two par 3’s. It isn’t overly challenging but definitely offers an enjoyable day on well-manicured course.
Niagara on the lake will always be one of my favourite Ontario couples’ weekends away.
What did I miss? Where do you go when you visit NOTL?
*Note: Should you have a breastfeeding child that you left at home, please remember to bring a breast pump on your trip. Otherwise, you will be hand expressing in winery bathrooms throughout your wine tour over the toilet to stop the pain.