Vaughan to Brockville: the river town Vaughan families discover second

Brockville, past Kingston, before Ottawa

Brockville is the town Vaughan families find on the second trip east. The first trip is Kingston or the Thousand Islands; the second, a year later, is the one where someone says "we never went further than Gananoque", and the Sprinter continues another forty minutes down the 401 to a riverfront that most Ontarians have never seen. Brockville's downtown is a compact grid of nineteenth-century buildings on King Street, its waterfront is a run of parks, marinas and the tall-ship dock, and its two family attractions — the Aquatarium and the Brockville Railway Tunnel — are the reason a Vaughan family with children between five and twelve books it.

The two family attractions

The Aquatarium sits on the waterfront at Tall Ships Landing: an interactive discovery centre about the river, with otters, a touch tank, climbing structures and enough hands-on exhibits that a rainy Saturday disappears into it. A block away, the railway tunnel — the first railway tunnel in Canada, opened in 1860 and reopened as a pedestrian walk with a light-and-sound installation — runs half a kilometre under the downtown from the waterfront to Pearl Street; children walk it twice. Together they are a full morning, and the afternoon is the waterfront: Blockhouse Island, the marina, and a boat to the islands from the Brockville docks, which run the eastern half of the archipelago the Gananoque boats do not reach.

The road from Vaughan

The route is the Kingston road continued: 407 east, 401 east past Port Hope, Belleville and Kingston, then the last stretch beside the river to exits 696 and 698. A family leaving Vaughan at 8 a.m. with a Kingston stop is on the Brockville waterfront by one. The chauffeur uses the 407 from Concord or Woodbridge to reach the 401 without Scarborough; the toll is in the fare.

Brockville also makes sense as the overnight on a two-day Ottawa trip. Rather than the five-hour push, a family drives to Brockville on Friday, does the tunnel and the waterfront on Saturday morning, and takes the 416 north to Ottawa — an hour — for the rest of the weekend. The Sprinter stays with the family for the loop and the fare is daily hire.

Vehicles and the river weekend

A family of four to six is a Luxury SUV; two families or a three-generation group, an Executive Sprinter. The waterfront hotels and the inns in the old town have street drops; the Aquatarium has a lot at Tall Ships Landing; the tunnel's waterfront entrance is a walk from the marina lots. None of this is difficult, and the value of the chauffeur here is the four hours of 401 each way, not the parking.

A couple books a Premium Sedan for a quieter version: the riverfront inn, dinner on King Street, the tall-ship sailing in the summer, a Sunday drive along the river to Prescott's Fort Wellington before the return.

Around Brockville

Prescott, twenty minutes east, has Fort Wellington, the War of 1812 fort that older children take to; the international bridge at Johnstown crosses to Ogdensburg, New York, for a family with passports; and Upper Canada Village, the living-history museum near Morrisburg, is another forty minutes down the river road — its own post, and a strong second day. The Thousand Islands Parkway begins at Brockville's western edge and runs to Gananoque, so a group that has done the Gananoque boats can drive the Parkway from the other end.

Costs and the case for the chauffeur

Brockville is not a place with a parking problem or a difficult approach; the chauffeured fare here is for the road. Seven hours of 401 in a weekend, with children, is a job, and families who have done it once in their own car and once in a Sprinter with the children at tables and the parents facing each other do not go back. For a single family the fare is a comfort choice shown before booking; for two families sharing a Sprinter it is a saving against two cars and a rented roof box.

Seasons

The Aquatarium is a year-round, all-weather attraction and the tunnel is open through the summer season; the river boats run from spring to fall; the Brockville waterfront in October is one of the better foliage drives in eastern Ontario. Winter turns the trip into an Ottawa-bound stopover, and the 401 between Kingston and Brockville in a January squall is precisely the road you want a professional on winter tires for.

A two-day plan for a family of five

Saturday. Pickup in Maple at 7:30, the 407 and 401 with a Port Hope stop, Kingston at eleven for lunch by the harbour, Brockville by one. The Aquatarium from one thirty to four — plan for it to take longer than you think — then the waterfront hotel, dinner on King Street, and the railway tunnel after dark, when the light installation is at its best and the children are still awake.

Sunday. The Brockville cruise in the morning if it is running, or the Thousand Islands Parkway west with the Skydeck at Ivy Lea and a swim at Brown's Bay in summer; lunch in Gananoque; the 401 home with the children asleep by Belleville. Home by six.

The fare is daily hire for two days with the vehicle staying, which is what makes Sunday's Parkway possible. A return pair — drop Saturday, collect Sunday — works if the family will stay in the town, and it is the cheaper booking.

What Brockville does in October and December

Brockville's downtown does a fall festival season along the waterfront, and the Parkway west of the town in mid-October is a foliage drive Vaughan families photograph from the Sprinter's windows; the tunnel's light show runs into the fall. In December the town lights its riverfront and the trip pairs with the Alight at Night evening at Upper Canada Village, forty minutes east — a two-night version that Vaughan families book as one daily hire with the vehicle staying, because a December evening at the village followed by a drive back to a Brockville hotel is not a family-car job.

The three-day river loop

For a family with a week in the summer, Brockville is the middle of a three-night loop this site can book as one hire: Kingston the first night with Fort Henry and the boat; Brockville the second with the Aquatarium, the tunnel and the Parkway between them; Upper Canada Village and the Long Sault Parkway on the third day with a night in Cornwall or a push on to Montreal; then the 401 home in one run on the fourth. The travel desk books the hotels; the chauffeur carries the plan.

Vehicle and pickup notes

A family of four to six is a Luxury SUV; two families a Sprinter. The Brockville hotels on the waterfront drop at the door; the Aquatarium's lot at Tall Ships Landing takes the vehicle; the tunnel's south entrance is by the marina. From Vaughan the 407 is entered at Weston Road for Woodbridge, Jane for Maple and the VMC, Dufferin or Bathurst for Thornhill. Give us the hotel, the Aquatarium day and whether the vehicle stays; the chauffeur sets the departure from there.

Brockville by boat

The Brockville docks run their own cruises into the eastern islands — the stretch the Gananoque boats do not reach — and they are shorter and quieter than the western ones, which suits a family that has done the Aquatarium in the morning. Passports are not needed unless the sailing stops on the American side, which the Brockville boats generally do not; check the operator when booking the sailing and give us the time. The docks are at the foot of the downtown, a two-minute walk from the tunnel's waterfront entrance, so a morning of tunnel, boat and lunch happens on foot while the vehicle sits in the marina lot.

Prescott and Ogdensburg, as a half day

Prescott is fifteen minutes east along the river: Fort Wellington's stone blockhouse and its summer garrison programmes are an hour for a family with school-age children, and the town's waterfront has a lighthouse and a park for the picnic. Across the Ogdensburg-Prescott bridge is upstate New York, and a family with passports and an afternoon books the crossing for Ogdensburg's Frederic Remington museum or simply for the drive — the border guide covers what to carry and what the chauffeur does at the booth. It is a small crossing with short waits, and it is the least stressful introduction to a cross-border chauffeured trip that this site offers.

What the chauffeur replaces, in numbers

Seven hours of driving over a weekend; two service-centre stops each way with children; a downtown hotel's parking; the Sunday evening on the 401 behind the Toronto-bound traffic. The chauffeured fare is one number in the booking engine for a vehicle that carries the whole family and its weekend bags, with the 407 inside it; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars, and for one family it is the price of arriving on the river as a passenger.

Timing the tunnel and the lights

The railway tunnel's light-and-sound installation runs on a loop and is at its best after dusk, when the entrance on the waterfront is lit and the half-kilometre walk under the downtown feels like the attraction the town intends it to be. Vaughan families do it after dinner on the Saturday, walking from the King Street restaurants; the chauffeur, if the vehicle has stayed, collects at the Pearl Street end so nobody walks back. The Aquatarium is a daytime, any-weather booking; the boat is a morning one; and the three together are a full Saturday with the Parkway left for Sunday.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address to the Brockville hotel, or a daily hire if the trip continues to Ottawa or Upper Canada Village; tell us the Aquatarium timing and any child seats. The travel desk can reserve the waterfront hotel and the boat.

Book the Brockville weekend