A limo tour works best when you pick a route, not a list of landmarks. Something with a spine — one continuous drive, two or three stops — instead of ten boxes to tick. These are the four we get asked for most, ranked by how much of the year they actually look good.
Niagara Parkway is the obvious one and deserves the reputation. We usually pick up in Toronto around 9 a.m., stop at Queenston Heights for the lookout, lunch at Peller Estates or Riverbend Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, then Niagara Falls from the upper observation deck before the tour bus crush hits at 3 p.m. The whole loop is a 9-hour round trip from downtown. Best between late September and late October for the foliage.
The Lake Ontario run to Cobourg is our quiet favourite. Highway 2 east through Whitby, Oshawa, and Port Hope takes longer than the 401 but the waterfront stretches and the town stop in Port Hope (Queens Hotel for a coffee, the old Capitol Theatre if you like detail) make it a real drive instead of a commute. Add a stop at the Big Apple in Colborne only if you are travelling with kids — you know what you signed up for.
Muskoka via Gravenhurst and Bracebridge is the summer option. Avoid it on a Friday afternoon — the 400 corridor is punishing. A weekday round trip with a lunch at the Muskoka Brewery in Bracebridge and a late-afternoon boat tour on Lake Muskoka out of Gravenhurst is one of the nicer ways to spend a day in the GTA without leaving it. Book the Chevy Suburban; the Escalade ESV is overkill for this.
For something inside the city: the Humber Bay Shores to Sunnyside Pavilion to Leslie Street Spit loop is a surprisingly good 2-hour drive, especially at golden hour in the summer. We have done this as an anniversary surprise more times than you would expect. Our dispatcher will help you plan the stops if you tell us what the occasion is.
