Ontario - Great Lakes and Wilderness Wonders

Day 1 London - Toronto Titan’s VIP door-to-door travel service collects you from home, for your journey to London Heathrow Airport and your direct, scheduled Air Canada flight to Toronto. On arrival we transfer to the Sheraton Centre Hotel (4T). Day 2 Toronto Our exploration of Canada’s great city includes an exhilarating ride in glass-fronted elevators to the top of the country’s tallest structure - the CN Tower. The 58-second journey takes you to a glass-floored observation deck 342 metres above Toronto, where the views can take in over 100 miles of city, lakes and parkland. The remainder of the day is free for you to discover areas like Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown and Little Portugal; Toronto is unmistakably multi-cultured. Day 3 Toronto - Huntsville We travel north through charming rural villages to Muskoka cottage country and on to Huntsville, just outside Algonquin Provincial Park surrounded by several freshwater lakes and rivers. We stay at Hidden Valley Resort (4T) or Deerhurst Resort (4T), on the picturesque shoreline of Peninsula Lake, an ideal location for an afternoon stroll. Day 4 Huntsville - Killarney We drive further into Ontario’s hinterlands today, passing small towns that have grown up around lumber, mining and pulp industries. On reaching Killarney, we check in at the rustic Killarney Mountain Lodge (3T), on the shore of northern Georgian Bay. This huge bay is part of one of the Great Lakes - Lake Huron - with a shoreline that measures 1,240 miles of the lake’s entire 3,827-mile circumference. It was the first of the Great Lakes to be discovered by European explorers in 1615. Day 5 Killarney Killarney Provincial Park is a 400-square mile wilderness of granite mountains, sapphire lakes and pine forests that inspired the ’Group of Seven’ landscape painters JEH MacDonald, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, AY Jackson, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael, all strongly influenced by European impressionism. Spend your day exploring this strikingly beautiful area with opportunities to go boating to view the lake’s many islands and historic lighthouses, or follow a hiking trail into the forests to glacier-polished shorelines and rocky bluffs with beautiful, unspoilt views. Day 6 Killarney - Timmins Today we continue north to Timmins, an area rich in minerals, especially gold. It also has beautiful scenes with over 500 lakes and rivers, majestic forest and rocky terrain. We stay at the Senator Hotel (4T) in downtown Timmins. Day 7 Timmins Explore the small city of Timmins, deeply rooted in aboriginal and European cultures, to find local art galleries and the Timmins Museum National Exhibition Centre, where displays reflect the area’s history, geology and art. Surrounded by untamed wilderness, it is also an ideal base to discover more of Canada’s natural beauty. Day 8 Timmins - Sault Ste Marie Leaving Timmins we head west, travelling through very remote areas of the province. The impressive scenery along the way includes long stretches of Boreal forest, dramatic cliffs and lakes that almost touch the road. Turning south at Wawa, we follow the Trans-Canada Highway through Lake Superior Provincial Park and along the scenic, rocky coast of Lake Superior, arriving in Sault Ste Marie. We stay at Delta Hotels by Marriott Sault Ste Marie Waterfront (4T). Day 9 Sault Ste Marie Venture into the Agawa Canyon by train, taking in unspoiled scenes that inspired the ‘Group of Seven’. As we journey alongside picturesque lakes and rivers, and through thick forests and incredible granite rock formations, tour attendants will offer information on upcoming points of interest and tell stories of the Ojibway, explorers and entrepreneurs who lived along the route. After we descend 152m to the floor of the Agawa Canyon, we have nearly two hours to follow trails to waterfalls and lookout platforms, before returning to Sault Ste Marie. Day 10 Sault Ste Marie - Manitoulin Island Today you have a second opportunity to visit the provincial parks or nature reserve as we return along the top of Lake Huron and make our way to beautiful Manitoulin Island. The world’s biggest freshwater island, surrounded by Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, contains an impressive 108 lakes, some of which contain their own islands. Spend the remainder of the day exploring its cultural and geographic history before retiring at Manitoulin Hotel & Conference Centre (3T). A few minutes’ walk from the hotel is Little Current, a lovely town with waterfront parks and a harbour for passenger freighters and pleasure boats. Day 11 Manitoulin Island With five First Nations reserves on Manitoulin Island, it is one of the oldest settlements in North America, dating back nearly 10,000 years, and Wikwemikong remains the only unceded Indian Reserve in Canada. We have an excursion to experience the beautiful ‘Island of Great Spirit’ from an Aboriginal perspective and experience the ‘Voice of the Drum’, an introduction to native song and drum with a thrilling hand drum performance. For your free time today, the abundance of water makes this a sailing and snorkelling paradise. Or if you prefer dry land, the Assiginack Museum shows life for the island’s earliest European settlers, with artefacts displayed through a pioneer home, blacksmith shop and school house. The Little Current-Howland Centennial Museum holds a variety of artefacts of the town’s founding families, plus information on the Sheguiandah dig, which unearthed 10,000 year old fossils. Day 12 Manitoulin Island - Tobermory This morning we drive to the island’s southern shore to board the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry for a leisurely two-hour cruise on Lake Huron. On reaching Tobermory, we disembark and make the short journey to the Tobermory Princess Hotel (3T+). It sits right on the edge of Bruce Peninsula National Park, a biosphere reserve renowned for its rugged beauty of bluffs, cliffs and caves. The nearby park visitor centre offers an introduction to the life of the park, and a climb up its 20m-high observation tower is rewarded with views of Georgian Bay. Day 13 Tobermory - Niagara Falls Today we drive along the Bruce Peninsula and through lush orchards and vineyards to Niagara Falls. We take tea in the pretty village of Niagara on the Lake, where British loyalists sought haven after the American Revolution, before settling in to the Old Stone Inn Boutique Hotel (3T+) on Fallsview Boulevard in Niagara Falls. Many of Niagara’s attractions, including restaurants and Horseshoe Falls, are just a short walk away. Day 14 Niagara Falls Board a passenger boat for a journey on the Niagara River, taking in the American Falls before sailing past massive rock formations to the magnificent Horseshoe Falls, getting close enough for you to feel the mist from the thundering spectacle. Afterwards, you can take in the scenes at leisure or book an optional helicopter ride to appreciate the scale of the falls. Day 15 Niagara Falls - Toronto - In flight Enjoy some time at leisure before we transfer to Toronto Airport and our direct, scheduled Air Canada flight to London. Day 16 London Arrival at London Heathrow Airport where you will be met and guided to your Titan vehicle, for the journey home.