Toronto Airport to Kingston & the Thousand Islands

How do I get from Pearson Airport to Kingston and the Thousand Islands?

The honest alternative is VIA Rail from Union to Kingston — two and a quarter hours, many times a day — which for one traveller with one bag is the right answer to Kingston and this page says so; it starts at Union rather than Pearson, ends at Kingston's station on the city's north edge with a taxi to the waterfront, and does not reach Gananoque or the Parkway. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the hotel's door or the cruise dock in one movement, and the Queen's University page covers the same 401 drive and the campus.

Kingston: the waterfront, the fort and the penitentiary

Kingston's waterfront on Ontario Street is the city's front — Confederation Basin's marina, the city hall's dome, the Market Square behind it, the hotels along the water — and the chauffeur drops at the hotel's door: the Delta on Ontario Street, the Holiday Inn on the water, the Residence Inn, the Frontenac Club and the Secret Garden's rooms in the old town. Fort Henry on the hill across the causeway — the nineteenth-century British fort with its Sunset Ceremony's drill and cannon on summer evenings — is ten minutes; the Kingston Penitentiary's guided tours through the closed prison, the most-booked tour in eastern Ontario, are on King Street West five minutes from downtown; the Royal Military College is beside the fort, Queen's on the west side, and the Visit Kingston site publishes the fort's ceremony dates and the penitentiary's tour times. The Kingston 1000 Islands cruises leave from the waterfront at the foot of Brock Street, and the trolley tour and the haunted walk leave from the same square.

Gananoque, the Parkway and the cruises

Gananoque, thirty minutes east, is the town the Thousand Islands cruises leave from — the Gananoque Boat Line's one-hour, three-hour and five-hour cruises from the dock on Water Street, the five-hour one crossing to Boldt Castle on Heart Island in New York State with passports required to land — and the Thousand Islands Parkway runs east from it along the river for forty kilometres past Ivy Lea, Rockport (the Rockport cruises' dock) and the 1000 Islands Tower on Hill Island by the bridge, with the lookouts, the picnic grounds and the bike path along the water. The chauffeur drops at the cruise dock for the sailing time — the cruises sell out on summer weekends and the 1000 Islands Tourism site publishes the schedules — holds by the hour or returns, and the Parkway is the chauffeured afternoon after the boat. Gananoque's own base is the Gananoque Inn on the water and the Thousand Islands Playhouse's summer theatre beside it.

Boldt Castle and the border

The five-hour cruise's landing at Boldt Castle — the unfinished Gilded Age castle George Boldt built for his wife on Heart Island — is a landing in the United States, and passengers need the passport or the Nexus card they would carry across the bridge; the castle is also reached by the shuttle boats from Alexandria Bay on the American shore, which a visitor with a car crosses the Thousand Islands Bridge to. The cross-border service covers the bridge for a visitor who wants Alexandria Bay, Clayton's antique boat museum and the American Parkway on the same weekend, with the border wait read before leaving; the Ogdensburg and Watertown airports on the American side are the alternative gateways for a visitor from the United States.

The eastern Ontario weekend

The weekend from Pearson that works is this: the Friday arrival three hours east to a Kingston or Gananoque hotel, with the Shorelines casino at Belleville or a winery in Prince Edward County as the stop on the way; the Saturday as the cruise in the morning and the Parkway or Fort Henry in the afternoon on a chauffeured day; the Sunday as the penitentiary tour and the departure timed to the flight, or the continuation to Ottawa two hours north on the 416 or Montréal three hours east for a visitor working through the corridor. A family with a student at Queen's adds the weekend to the Homecoming or convocation trip, and the Queen's page covers the campus.

Groups, cruises and the Sprinter

The islands' group traffic is the family reunion at a Gananoque cottage, the company's summer outing on a chartered cruise, the theatre club for the Playhouse, the wedding on the water: the Executive Sprinter carries ten from the airport or the city on one manifest, delivered to the dock or the inn, with the fare one figure split however the group likes; a company's charter of a cruise boat books the Sprinter and the coach from the office on a corporate account, and a wedding at a Kingston or Gananoque venue is on the wedding pattern with the guests from the airport and the hotels.

Winter: the frozen river and the 401

Kingston in winter is the Fort Henry's Christmas, the frozen harbour, the penitentiary tours running through the year and the university's calendar; the cruises stop in October and the Parkway is a snow-covered road until April. The drive in January crosses the open country east of Oshawa where the snow drifts off the lake, and the 401 between Port Hope and Belleville closes 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, with a trip under way waiting out a closure at the Port Hope or Trenton service centre.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to Kingston or Gananoque is fixed by vehicle class for the address and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, the 407 toll, 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 cruises, the fort and the penitentiary tours are the visitor's bookings, and the long-distance page explains how a three-hour fare is set.

The islands' summer houses and the cottage week

The Thousand Islands' Canadian side is cottage country as much as cruise country — the summer houses on the islands off Gananoque and Rockport, the cottages along the Parkway's shore, the marinas at Ivy Lea and the boat that meets the car at the dock — and the family week on an island is a transfer with a boat at the end of it: the chauffeur delivers to the marina's dock at Gananoque or Ivy Lea with the week's groceries from the Kingston supermarkets in the boot, the island's own boat takes the family across, and the collection at the dock a week later is booked with the drop. The family page explains the seats and the gear, and the Sprinter carries a family's week with the fishing rods.

Kingston's harbour, the sailing and the Wolfe Island ferry

Kingston is the fresh-water sailing capital — the Olympic sailing venue of 1976 at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, the CORK regatta each August that fills the city's hotels with sailors from across the continent, the yacht clubs along the shore — and the sailor flying into Pearson for the regatta books the three-hour transfer with the sails and the gear in the Sprinter and the departure timed to the flight. The free Wolfe Island ferry from the foot of Barrack Street crosses to the island's farms and its wind turbines in twenty minutes, and a couple's afternoon on the island — the bicycle loop, the winery, the view of the city from the water — is a chauffeured drop at the ferry dock and a collection when the boat comes back.

Book Pearson to Kingston & the Thousand Islands