Pearson Airport to the Stratford Festival

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the Stratford Festival?

The alternatives are the festival's own bus from downtown Toronto — scheduled on performance days, not from the airport — and VIA Rail from Union to Stratford, two hours on the train a few times a day with the UP Express first and a taxi from Stratford station to the inn. For a single theatre-goer with a small bag the train is a fair option and this page says so; for a couple with a weekend's luggage, a curtain to make from a landing, or a group of four sharing the car, the chauffeur is ninety minutes from the curb to the inn's door at a fixed fare. The Kitchener-Waterloo route covers the first hour of the road and the Waterloo page the university town on the way.

Four stages and their doors

The Festival Theatre on Queen's Park Drive above the river is the flagship, with its thrust stage and its drive off Queen's Park Drive where the chauffeur drops at the front doors; the Avon Theatre on Downie Street downtown is a proscenium house with the drop on Downie at the marquee; the Tom Patterson Theatre on Lakeside Drive, rebuilt in 2020 with its glass pavilion on the river, has a drop on Lakeside; and the Studio Theatre on George Street behind the Avon shares the Avon's drop. The pickup after the performance is at the same door with the point texted at the interval, and on a sold-out night at the Festival Theatre the chauffeur waits on Queen's Park Drive's lower loop rather than at the doors; the Stratford Festival publishes the schedule, and the chauffeur knows which stage is which.

Curtain times from a landing

The festival's matinees are at 2 pm and its evening performances at 8, and the arithmetic from a Pearson landing is the question this page answers most: an international arrival needs an hour from touchdown to the curb on a good day and ninety minutes on a bad one, the drive is ninety minutes to an hour and three-quarters, and the walk from the drop to the seat is five minutes. A flight landing at 9 am makes a 2 pm matinee with a stop at the inn; a flight landing at 3 pm makes an 8 pm evening performance comfortably with dinner in the town; a flight landing at noon does not make the matinee and should not try. The chauffeur tracks the flight and tells you from the live feed whether the curtain is safe; when it is not, the festival's box office holds the tickets for the evening performance or the next day, and the chauffeur says so at booking.

The inns, the bed-and-breakfasts and the theatre weekend

Stratford's lodging is the reason the weekend works: the Bruce Hotel and the Parlour Inn downtown, the Foster's Inn on Downie Street beside the Avon, the Arden Park on the Ontario Street edge, the Mercer Hall's rooms above its restaurant, the Swan Motel for the value, and the bed-and-breakfasts in the Victorian houses along the river and the streets behind the Festival Theatre, many of which have hosted the same theatre-goers for decades. The theatre weekend from Pearson is the Friday arrival to the inn, the evening performance, a Saturday matinee and evening with the chauffeured afternoon in between — the swans on the Avon, the shops on Ontario Street, the Stratford Chefs School's restaurants, the drive out to St. Marys' quarry — and the Sunday departure timed to the flight, on one confirmation. A couple who see four plays in three days book the same car for the whole weekend.

Groups, subscribers and the theatre bus alternative

The festival's audience travels in groups — a theatre club of eight from Buffalo or Rochester across the border, a university's drama department, a company's client weekend, a family of four generations — and the Executive Sprinter carries ten from the airport or the city on one manifest, delivered to the inn and the theatre's door, with the fare one figure split however the group likes; the festival's own bus from Toronto is the alternative for a single subscriber on a performance day. The festival's visiting artists, its board and its donors book on a corporate account with a manifest, and a theatre-goer flying in from New York for an opening books the Pearson arrival, the evening on the event pattern and the departure timed to the flight.

The Region of Waterloo airport and the London alternative

The Region of Waterloo airport at Breslau is forty-five minutes from Stratford and, for the few flights that land there, the closer arrival at a lower fare; the London airport is an hour the other way. Most festival visitors land at Pearson because that is where the flights from New York, Chicago and London are, and the ninety-minute drive is the trip this page covers; the alternatives are the ones to check when the itinerary is being built.

Winter: the festival's off-season and the town

The festival's season ends in October and its winter is the town's own — the Christmas lights on Ontario Street, the Stratford Chefs School's winter dinners, the Lights On Stratford festival in January and February with its illuminated installations along the river — and a winter visit is a couple's weekend rather than a theatre one. The drive in January crosses the snowbelt west of Kitchener, where the squalls off Lake Huron close Highway 7/8 a few times each winter; the chauffeur reads Ontario 511 before leaving, the vehicles run winter tyres, and a drive that cannot be made safely is rescheduled rather than attempted.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to Stratford is fixed by vehicle class for the Stratford address and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, tolls, taxes, curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area, a stop on the way and the included waiting with the flight tracked; meet and greet is the paid add-on; gratuity is never added; a cancellation before dispatch is free; the festival's tickets are bought from the box office, not from us, and the long-distance page explains how a ninety-minute fare is set.

Perth County: the country around the theatre

Stratford is a country town first, and the theatre weekend's afternoons are the country around it: St. Marys' limestone town and its quarry swimming hole fifteen minutes south, the Mennonite farmland and the St. Jacobs market forty-five minutes east, Shakespeare's antique shops on the road in, the Grand Bend beaches on Lake Huron an hour west for a swim between plays, and the Perth County cheese and pork producers whose farm gates the Stratford Chefs School's restaurants buy from. A chauffeured afternoon from the inn covers any of them between a matinee and an evening performance, and the town's own Avon River — the swans released each April in the swan parade, the paddle boats, the gardens along the bank — is the walk before the curtain.

The festival's calendar: openings, the season and the Meighen Forum

The season opens in April with the previews and the first-night openings in late May and June, runs at full repertory through the summer, and closes in late October; the Meighen Forum's talks and concerts run alongside, and the festival's fundraising gala and its opening-night parties are the corporate account evenings for the board and the donors. A subscriber who flies in from New York or Chicago for the opening week — the busiest week of the year for the inns — books the Pearson arrival on the Tuesday, four plays in four days with the same car, and the departure on the Sunday; the festival's box office and the Stratford Festival site publish the calendar, and the chauffeur plans the week around the curtains.

Book Pearson to the Stratford Festival