Vaughan to Alexandria Bay: Boldt Castle and the American Thousand Islands by chauffeured car

The American side of the islands

The Thousand Islands are one river with two shores, and Vaughan families who have done Gananoque's cruises from the Canadian side cross the bridge for the American half: Alexandria Bay, the village on the river where the Gilded Age's millionaires built summer castles, with Boldt Castle on Heart Island — the six-storey Rhineland castle that George Boldt, the Waldorf-Astoria's proprietor, began for his wife Louise in 1900 and abandoned the morning she died in 1904, left to the weather for seventy years and restored since 1977 by the bridge authority — a ten-minute shuttle boat from the village dock; Singer Castle on Dark Island downriver, the Singer Sewing Machine president's 1905 castle with its secret passages and dungeon, reached by tour boat; the Uncle Sam Boat Tours' two-nation cruise through the islands' narrows with the millionaires' houses on both banks; and the village's Bonnie Castle and Riveredge resorts on the water. The Visit Alex Bay site has the village; the border guide has the Thousand Islands Bridge, which is the quietest crossing on this site.

The road, and the bridge

From Maple the 400 and the 407 to the 401 east, Kingston's exits at the three-hour mark, the Thousand Islands Parkway's river road from Gananoque for a family that wants the water beside it, the Thousand Islands Bridge at Ivy Lea — two spans over the Canadian channel to Hill Island and the American span to Wellesley Island, with the CBP booth on Wellesley Island — and I-81's first exit to Route 12 and the village: just over four hours by the estimate and four and a quarter with the booth, which on this bridge is usually ten minutes. The SUV carries a family of four; the Sprinter two families for the river weekend; Kingston is the lunch on the way.

Boldt Castle

The shuttle boat from the village's James Street dock crosses to Heart Island in ten minutes and the castle is a self-guided two hours: the restored ground and first floors with the ballroom, the dining room, the library and the Boldts' story on the panels; the upper floors in their unfinished state; the Alster Tower's playhouse, the Power House on its own islet with the bridge, the Hennery, the gardens, and the Yacht House across the channel on Wellesley Island with the Boldts' boats — a separate shuttle and ticket. The castle's site has the season (mid-May to mid-October) and the tickets, and the story — the heart-shaped island, the work stopped the day the telegram came — is the one the children retell in the car.

The two-nation cruise and Singer Castle

Uncle Sam Boat Tours' two-nation tour is two hours and fifteen minutes through the islands' narrowest channels — the Lost Channel, the millionaires' row of summer houses on both shores, the world's shortest international bridge between two private islands, the Canadian side's Half Moon Bay and Gananoque's islands — with the Boldt Castle stop-off included for a family that combines them; the Singer Castle tour runs downriver to Dark Island for the castle's guided hour — the four storeys of 1905 with the hidden passages behind the panelling, the dungeon, the tower view — and back. The Uncle Sam site has the schedule and the combinations; a family does the two-nation cruise with the castle stop as the day's spine.

Wellesley Island and Clayton

Wellesley Island State Park across the bridge from the village has the beach on the river, the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center's trails, the campground and the golf course — the family's swim after the castle — and the Thousand Islands Park's Victorian cottages at the island's tip are the walk; Clayton, twenty minutes upriver, is the quieter village with the Antique Boat Museum — the country's largest collection of freshwater boats, with the 1903 houseboat La Duchesse and the speedboat rides — and the Thousand Islands Museum's decoys. A family with a boat-loving father does Clayton's museum as the Sunday morning.

The river weekend, in shape

Friday at 1 from Maple, Kingston's lunch at 4, the Thousand Islands Parkway, the bridge at 5:15, the Riveredge Resort on the village's waterfront by 5:45 with the castle across the water, dinner on the deck; Saturday the two-nation cruise at 10 with the Boldt Castle stop-off for two hours, the Yacht House at 2, Wellesley Island's beach at 3:30, the village's evening; Sunday Singer Castle's tour at 10 or Clayton's boat museum, lunch, the SUV at 1:30, the bridge at 2, the Canadian booth with the 48-hour exemption, the Parkway to Gananoque and the 401, Maple by 6:15. Two nights, the SUV as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine, and the travel desk holding the resort.

The two-shores day

A family that has a Gananoque day planned crosses for the castle: Vaughan at 7, Gananoque's morning cruise at 10:30 on the Canadian side, the bridge at 1, the Boldt Castle shuttle at 1:45 for two hours, the village's ice cream, the bridge home at 5 and Vaughan by 9 — eleven hours of the Sprinter on daily hire with both countries' islands in it, and the Gananoque post has the Canadian half.

What the chauffeur replaces

Four hours of the 401 each way; the bridge as the driver; the village's summer parking, which is the river's own problem; the Parkway's river road, which a chauffeured family watches; and the Sunday drive home after two days on boats. For a couple the SUV is a treat; for a family of five, or two families in a Sprinter, it is one fare for a castle and two nations' islands.

Seasons

Mid-May to mid-October for the castles and the boats, with July and August the fullest; September for the warm river and the empty boats; the village's Bill Johnston's Pirate Days in August for the children; the winter closes the castles and the river weekend is the Kingston post's version. The bridge is open year-round.

Pairing it

Alexandria Bay pairs with Gananoque across the river as the two-shores day, with Kingston as the lunch and the Canadian night, with Syracuse ninety minutes south on I-81 for a family continuing, and with Lake Placid two and a half hours east for the Adirondacks week's first night.

The castle's day, in order, for a family of four

From the Riveredge at 9:15 on foot to the James Street dock: the Uncle Sam two-nation cruise at 10 — the Lost Channel, the millionaires' row, the shortest international bridge, Half Moon Bay — with the Boldt Castle stop-off at 11:45; the castle's ballroom, the library, the Boldts' story on the first floor, the unfinished upper floors, the Alster Tower's playhouse and the Power House's bridge until 1:45; the shuttle to the Yacht House at 2 for the boats; the village dock at 3 and Wellesley Island's beach in the SUV at 3:30 for the swim; the village's Cavallario's dinner at 6:30 with the castle lit across the water. The Uncle Sam's combination ticket covers the cruise, the castle stop and the shuttle, and the company's site has it.

The Thousand Islands Parkway and Rock Port

The Canadian approach — the Thousand Islands Parkway from Gananoque to the bridge — is thirty-seven kilometres of river road with the islands beside it, the bicycle path, the 1000 Islands Tower on Hill Island for the view from four hundred feet, and Rock Port's Rockport Cruises for a family that wants the Canadian boat too; the chauffeur takes the Parkway rather than the 401's last miles because the family is on holiday from Gananoque on, and the Thousand Islands Ontario site has the Parkway's stops.

Costs, plainly

The Alexandria Bay weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine, or the two-shores day is one daily hire; the resort, the cruise and the castle tickets are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the castle's shop. Against the fare are four hours of the 401 each way as a driver, the Parkway watched from the wheel and the village's summer parking; a couple does this in a car, and a family of five or two families in a Sprinter book it for one fare and a parent on the boat deck rather than the 401.

Singer Castle, in detail

Frederick Bourne, the Singer company's president, built the castle on Dark Island in 1905 from a Walter Scott novel's description — four storeys of granite quarried on the island, twenty-eight rooms, a dungeon for show, a chapel, a tower with the river's view, and the hidden passages behind the panelling from which the servants and, the guides say, the host watched the guests; the Singer Castle tour boat from the village runs downriver in forty minutes with the river's freighters passing, and the guided hour is the castle's rooms, the passages and the tower. The castle's site has the season, and the two castles in one day are the family's Saturday when the two-nation cruise is done on Friday evening.

The seaway's ships

The St. Lawrence Seaway's freighters pass Alexandria Bay's dock at arm's length — the lakers and the ocean ships bound for the Great Lakes' ports, seven hundred feet of hull sliding between the islands — and a family on the Riveredge's deck at dinner watches two go by; the Seaway's ship-tracking page tells the children which one, and the bridge's span above is the photograph. It is the river's other show, free and constant from April to December.

The Wellesley Island booth and the way home

The Canadian booth on the bridge's Hill Island span asks the day's questions — how long, what was bought — and the castle's shop and the village's fudge are declared under the 24- or 48-hour rule as the trip's length decides; the Parkway home from Ivy Lea to Gananoque is the river at dusk, and the 401's three hours to Vaughan are the children's sleep. The border guide has the exemptions in full.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for the two-shores day; tell us the cruise, the castles, the resort, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the boats' sailings on it.

Book the Alexandria Bay weekend