Vaughan to Erie and Presque Isle: the Lake Erie beach weekend by chauffeured car

Erie, the beach across the lake

Presque Isle is a seven-mile sand spit that curls into Lake Erie from the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, and forms the bay the city was built on: a state park of thirteen beaches on the lake side with lifeguards and sand that Ontario's north shore does not have, a paved loop of thirteen miles for bicycles, lagoons for kayaks, the 1872 lighthouse, the Perry Monument where the fleet that won the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813 was built, and four million visitors a year — the most of any Pennsylvania state park. At its neck, Waldameer Park is a family amusement park of 1896 with the Ravine Flyer II wooden coaster crossing the road on a bridge and a water park on the same ticket; on the bayfront, the Erie Maritime Museum keeps the brig Niagara, the reconstructed flagship of Perry's fleet, and the Bicentennial Tower looks over the bay; and in winter Splash Lagoon's indoor water park is the reason a Vaughan family drives four hours in February. The Visit Erie site has the city; the border guide has the Peace Bridge.

The road, along the lake

From Kleinburg the 407, the QEW, the Peace Bridge, I-190 and I-90 west — the Thruway's last stretch through the Lake Erie grape belt past Dunkirk and Westfield, the Pennsylvania line at Ripley, and I-90 to Erie's exits — four and a quarter hours by the estimate and four and a half with the booth; Route 5 along the shore through the vineyards is the slower, prettier last hour, and the Chautauqua exit is on the way for a family that wants a lake town's lunch. The Sprinter carries a family and the beach's gear — the umbrellas, the chairs, the cooler, the bicycles on the rack — which is the vehicle's argument for a beach weekend.

Presque Isle, the park

The peninsula's road runs the loop from the entrance to the tip and back along the bay: Beach 1 and the Barracks Beach near the neck, Beach 6 and Beach 8 with the lifeguards and the concession stands, Beach 11 at the tip with the sunset and the lighthouse behind, Sunset Point, the Perry Monument and the Misery Bay lagoons where Perry's ships wintered and where the kayaks and the pontoon boats rent now; the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at the entrance has the exhibits, the seventy-five-foot observation tower and the big-screen theatre. A family's beach day is Beach 8 from ten to four with the Sprinter in the lot beside it, a bicycle loop for the older children on the rented bikes, and the lighthouse and Sunset Point at seven; the park's page has the beaches' lifeguard schedule.

Waldameer and Water World

Waldameer Park at the peninsula's neck is free to enter — the rides are paid by wristband — and the Ravine Flyer II, a wooden coaster of 2008 that crosses Peninsula Drive on a bridge and drops into the ravine, is one of the country's best-ranked wooden rides; the Comet's classic wooden track, the Steel Dragon's spinning cars, the Whacky Shack dark ride of 1970, the children's rides, and Water World's slides and wave pool are on the same wristband, and a family's day is the beach in the morning and the park from three to close. The park's site has the wristbands and the season, May to Labor Day.

The bayfront, the Niagara and the tower

Erie's bayfront is the Maritime Museum with the brig Niagara at its dock — the reconstructed flagship of Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, which sails in summer and takes day-sail passengers — the Bicentennial Tower's 187-foot observation deck, the Bayfront Convention Center's hotels where the family sleeps, Dobbins Landing's restaurants, the Erie Zoo ten minutes south and the SeaWolves' minor-league baseball at UPMC Park downtown. The museum's site has the Niagara's sailing schedule; a family with a Grade 7 student who has done the War of 1812 stands on the deck of the ship that won it.

Splash Lagoon, and the winter version

Splash Lagoon at Peach Street's hotel strip is one of the country's larger indoor water parks — the wave pool, the slides, the lazy river and the arcade at eighty-four degrees under a roof, with the Residence Inn and the Comfort Inn attached — and it is the February weekend that Vaughan families with children under twelve book when the March break is too far: two nights, the park's passes with the room, the Peace Bridge in the snow with the chauffeur, and the Millcreek Mall across Peach Street for the parents' hour. The Splash Lagoon site has the packages, which the travel desk holds.

The weekend, in shape

Friday at 1 from Kleinburg with the beach gear in the bay, the Peace Bridge at 2:40, Route 5's vineyards, the bayfront hotel by 6, the SeaWolves at seven; Saturday Beach 8 at ten, the Perry Monument's lagoon kayaks at two, Waldameer from four to the fireworks, Sara's hot dogs at the park's gate; Sunday the Tom Ridge Center at nine, the Niagara's deck at ten, Beach 11's last swim, the Sprinter at two, the Peace Bridge at 6:15 with the 48-hour exemption, Kleinburg by 8. Two nights, the Sprinter as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Four hours each way along the lake with a family and a beach's worth of gear; the Peace Bridge as the driver; the peninsula's lots on a July Saturday, which fill by eleven and which the chauffeur manages while the family is on the sand; and the Sunday drive home sunburned. For a couple the trip is a car's; for a family of five with bicycles and a cooler it is the Sprinter's one fare and the parent who did not drive I-90 home.

Seasons

July and August for the beaches and Waldameer, with the lifeguards on from Memorial Day; September for the warm lake and the empty sand; the Lake Erie wine country's harvest weekends in October along Route 5; February for Splash Lagoon's version; the Erie snow — the city is one of the snowiest in the country — is the winter road's variable and the chauffeur's watch.

Pairing it

Erie pairs with Chautauqua forty minutes east for the lake town and the Institution, with the Lake Erie wine country's tasting rooms on Route 5 and Route 20 for the parents, with Cleveland ninety minutes west for a family continuing to the Rock Hall, and with Buffalo for the wings on the way home.

The beach day, in order

Saturday for a family of five from Kleinburg: the Sprinter from the bayfront hotel at 9:30 with the cooler and the umbrellas, the Tom Ridge Center's tower at 9:45 for the peninsula from above, Beach 8's lot at 10:15 — the lifeguards on, the concession open, the sand warm — until 1:30; the bicycle rental at the Waterworks for the older two and the loop's six miles with a parent while the youngest naps in the Sprinter's cool; the Perry Monument's lagoons at 2:30 for the pontoon boat's hour among the herons; Waldameer at 4:30 with the wristbands, the Ravine Flyer II twice, the Whacky Shack, Water World's wave pool until the sun drops; the park's fireworks at ten on the summer Saturdays; Sara's hot dogs at the gate; the hotel by 10:30. Thirteen hours of a daily-hire Saturday, and a family that had a beach, a bicycle ride, a boat and a coaster in one day without moving the car themselves.

The Lake Erie wine country, on Route 5

Between the Peace Bridge and Erie the lake's shore is the largest Concord grape region in the world — the vineyards that Welch's built — and Route 5 and Route 20 through Silver Creek, Fredonia, Westfield, Ripley and North East have two dozen wineries' tasting rooms, from the Concord juices and sweet wines the region is known for to the drier vinifera at Johnson Estate and Mazza; a family's Friday drive down takes Route 5 for the last hour and stops at two, and the Lake Erie Wine Country's site has the trail. The Grape Discovery Center at Westfield is the children's stop, with the juice.

Costs, plainly

The Erie weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine; the hotel, Waldameer's wristbands, the bicycle rentals and the boat are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the shop. Against the fare are four hours each way with a beach's worth of gear, the Peace Bridge as a driver, the peninsula's lots on a July Saturday and the Sunday drive home sunburned; a couple does it in a car, and a family of five with bicycles and a cooler books the Sprinter for the bay, the rack and the parent who did not drive I-90 home.

Erie's downtown, for a rainy afternoon

Erie's downtown has the expERIEnce Children's Museum on French Street for the under-eights, the Erie Art Museum's galleries and Perry Square's restaurants, and — ten minutes south — the Erie Zoo with its rhinos and its train; the Millcreek Mall on Peach Street and its Pennsylvania sales-tax-free clothing are the parents' rainy hour, since Pennsylvania charges no sales tax on most clothing, a fact Vaughan shoppers learn on the first rainy afternoon. The Visit Erie site has the museums' hours.

Presque Isle's lighthouse and the Perry story

The 1872 Presque Isle Lighthouse on the peninsula's lake shore opens for tower climbs in summer — seventy-eight steps to the lantern room and the lake from above — and the Perry Monument at Misery Bay marks where Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet was built from the peninsula's oak in 1813 and where his ships wintered after the battle; a Grade 7 student who has done the War of 1812 stands at both and on the Niagara's deck in one afternoon, and the park's page has the lighthouse's hours.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for the weekend; tell us the beach gear, the bicycles, the hotel, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Erie beach weekend