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The Best Day Trips from Toronto

Every distance below was measured on the road, not estimated. The times are free-flow, which matters here more than almost anywhere, because the QEW and the 401 rarely are.

See day tours from TorontoGuided trips and skip the line tickets
By Oliver6 min readPublished
Table of contents
A rainbow over Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, the day trip most Toronto visitors take
Photo: Gzzz · CC BY-SA 4.0

In Brief

What is the best day trip from Toronto?

Niagara Falls, and it earns it. It is 129 km each way, about an hour and forty minutes without traffic, and the falls are genuinely worth the drive. Hamilton is the better trip if you want a half day instead of a full one. Prince Edward County is the one to skip unless you are staying overnight.

Key takeaways

  • Niagara Falls: 129 km, the one that justifies a whole day
  • Hamilton: 68 km, the best short trip and the least visited
  • Anything past two hours each way needs an overnight, not a day
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The 7 best day trips, ranked

Ordered by how well they repay a full day - factoring travel time, what you can actually see, and how easy they are without a car.

  1. Niagara Falls, a day trip from Toronto

    129 km south · 1 hr 40 min by road without traffic

    Niagara Falls

    The one unmissable trip

    It is three waterfalls rather than one, and Horseshoe Falls carries the volume that makes the noise and the spray worth standing in. The Canadian side has the better view, which is the reason to do this from Toronto rather than from Buffalo. The boat that takes you into the basin is the part people remember.

    Getting there
    Driving is the QEW the whole way. Without a car, GO Transit runs a combined train and bus service from Union Station, and in summer a seasonal direct train, which takes roughly two hours. Guided coach tours leave from downtown Toronto and usually bundle the boat trip, which is the single thing worth pre-booking.
    Find Niagara Falls toursGuided day trips and skip-the-line tickets
  2. Niagara-on-the-Lake, a day trip from Toronto

    128 km south · 1 hr 45 min by road without traffic

    Niagara-on-the-Lake

    Wine and a slower afternoon

    A preserved 19th-century town at the mouth of the Niagara River, surrounded by the wineries that make the region's ice wine. It is the antidote to the falls: quiet, low and slow, and it works best as the afternoon half of a day that starts at Horseshoe Falls.

    Getting there
    Same road as the falls, then a further twenty minutes north along the Niagara Parkway. Almost everyone combines the two, and that combination is what most guided wine tours sell.
    Find Niagara-on-the-Lake toursGuided day trips and skip-the-line tickets
  3. Hamilton, a day trip from Toronto

    68 km west · 56 min by road without traffic

    Hamilton

    Waterfalls and a half day

    Hamilton sits on the Niagara Escarpment, and the escarpment is why there are more than a hundred waterfalls inside the city limits. Webster's and Tew's are the accessible ones. It is half the driving of Niagara for a trip most visitors never consider, which is exactly why it is the best value day out from Toronto.

    Getting there
    The QEW west, or GO Transit trains from Union Station to Hamilton in about an hour. It is the easiest of these trips to do without a car.
    Find Hamilton toursGuided day trips and skip-the-line tickets
  4. Elora and the Elora Gorge, a day trip from Toronto

    115 km west · 1 hr 40 min by road without traffic

    Elora and the Elora Gorge

    A gorge and a river town

    A limestone gorge with the Grand River running through it, and a small 19th-century mill town on top. In summer you can float the gorge on a tube, which is the main reason people make the drive.

    Getting there
    Driving only in practice. There is no useful transit connection, and that is the single fact that decides whether this trip is available to you.
  5. St Jacobs, a day trip from Toronto

    120 km west · 1 hr 40 min by road without traffic

    St Jacobs

    A market and farm country

    Ontario's largest farmers' market, in the heart of Mennonite country. It is a genuine working market rather than a visitor attraction, which is both the appeal and the reason it is disappointing on the wrong day of the week.

    Getting there
    Driving. The farmers' market is the destination rather than the village itself, so check its opening days before setting out.

  6. 150 km west · 2 hr 10 min by road without traffic

    Stratford

    Theatre, in season only

    A theatre town built around the Stratford Festival, which runs from spring into autumn and is the reason to come. Outside the season there is a pleasant river and not a great deal else.

    Getting there
    Driving, or a VIA Rail train from Union Station. At this distance the train is the more sensible option because the return leg is late.
  7. Prince Edward County, a day trip from Toronto

    212 km east · 2 hr 55 min by road without traffic

    Prince Edward County

    Wine, if you are staying over

    Wineries, sand dunes and a slower shoreline than anywhere closer to the city. It has become the weekend destination of choice for Toronto, and the food is better than the Niagara wine region.

    Getting there
    Driving, on the 401 east. There is no practical transit option.

Niagara Falls: is it actually worth a day from Toronto?

This is the question the whole page exists to answer, because it is the trip almost everyone considers and the one most often done badly. The honest answer is yes, with conditions.

  • The drive is 129 km each way, about an hour and forty minutes in free-flow traffic on the QEW. That figure is the floor, not the average: the QEW is one of the busiest corridors in the country and a summer Friday can add an hour in each direction.
  • The Canadian side has the view. Horseshoe Falls faces Ontario, which is the entire reason to do this from Toronto rather than from the American side.
  • Book the boat, not the coach. The boat into the basin below the falls is the part that justifies the day, and it sells out. The coach tour from Toronto mainly buys you the driving, so if you have a car the boat ticket alone is the thing worth pre-booking.
  • Leave early. The falls are busiest between roughly eleven and four, and the difference between arriving at nine and arriving at noon is the difference between a viewing platform you can stand at and one you cannot.
  • Do not try to add Prince Edward County or Stratford to the same day. They are in opposite directions and both are close to three hours away.
  • If you have a second day, Niagara-on-the-Lake is twenty minutes further north and turns the falls into a full and varied day rather than a single stop.

Day trips from Toronto: FAQ

The questions travelers ask most when planning day trips from here.

Three ways. Driving is the QEW, 129 km and about an hour and forty minutes without traffic, which on that road is an optimistic floor rather than a typical journey. GO Transit runs a combined train and bus service from Union Station year-round and a seasonal direct train in summer, taking roughly two hours. Guided coach tours leave from downtown and usually include the boat trip. Without a car, GO Transit is the cheaper option and the coach is the simpler one.

129 km by road, measured downtown to the falls, which is about an hour and forty minutes in free-flow traffic. Treat that as a best case. The QEW is heavily used and summer weekends routinely add a substantial amount in both directions, which is the single biggest reason people run out of day.

Hamilton, at 68 km and under an hour. It sits on the Niagara Escarpment and has more than a hundred waterfalls inside the city limits, with Webster's and Tew's the easiest to reach. It is half the driving of Niagara, it is reachable by GO train, and almost no visitors consider it, so it is the best value day out from the city.

Some of them. Niagara Falls works by GO Transit or a coach tour, Hamilton by GO train in about an hour, and Stratford by VIA Rail. Elora, St Jacobs and Prince Edward County have no practical transit connection and are effectively driving-only, so if you are not hiring a car those three come off the list entirely.

Prince Edward County at 212 km and close to three hours each way is an overnight rather than a day, unless you are content with roughly six hours of driving. Stratford at 150 km is workable but only really justifies itself during the festival season. As a rule of thumb from Toronto, anything beyond about two hours each way stops being a day trip and starts being a short break.

Every trip on this page starts in Toronto

Each of these is a day out and back, so the thing that decides the whole trip is where you sleep between them and how far that is from the station. These go into the detail:

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Photo credits (6)

Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.