Toronto's multicultural flavor is best captured in Kensington Market. Since the early 1900s, it's been home to European Jews, later supplanted by Portuguese, Chinese and West Indian immigrants. Elderly Chinese and Portuguese ladies still haggle over vegetables and fruit as Rastafarians hawk spicy beef patties nearby. When the sights and smells generate hunger pangs, try the Last Temptation, a café renowned for tasty platefuls at reasonable prices. You'll get a heaping avocado and Brie salad for US$3.95 or a spicy pad thai for US$6.95. For Portuguese fare, head to Amadeu's, where daily specials range from octopus to sardines. Their mixed shellfish special – steamed clams and mussels, calamari, shrimp, half a lobster, king crab legs and more – goes for US$35 and is a perennial favorite.

Adjoining Kensington Market is the biggest of five Chinatowns. Bustling with activity long into the night, Chinese and, now, Vietnamese stores sell everything from silks and jade to jewelry and rice cookers. Ten Ren's Tea takes its merchandise very seriously, selling some leaves for well over US$100 per pound.

Homage is paid to North America's favorite winter sport at downtown's Hockey Hall of Fame, where simulation technologies enable fans to call the play-by-play during a hockey broadcast or to stop Wayne Gretsky's shots as they fly from a virtual reality screen.

The prestigious Royal Ontario Museum, Canada's largest museum, is beloved by the under-10 set for its dinosaur gallery (20 skeletons displayed in realistic environments) and Bat Cave.

The Toronto Islands offer an escape from the hubbub of the city. Several islands form the 600-acre park, ten minutes away by ferry. Centre Island offers manicured landscaping, bicycle rentals and Centreville Amusement Park. All islands are connected by bridges and are easy to explore on foot or by bike, from the folksy cottages on Ward's Island to the secluded beaches of Hanlan's Point.

When you're ready to hit the road, take Hwy 401 east out of Toronto until you reach the exit for Port Hope. From here, the itinerary continues much closer to Lake Ontario, along Hwy 2.

After the American Revolution, some 5,000 United Empire Loyalists (colonists still faithful to the British Crown) moved to the north shores of Lake Ontario. Forty Loyalist families settled in what is now Port Hope, on the Ganaraska River, in the 1790s. Amongst the 200 historically designated buildings and Ontario's best-preserved Victorian streetscape are stores such as Walsh Mountain Ironworks – where Greg Walsh's attention-grabbing furnishings, such as 4-holder-candle chandeliers (US$89) and Gothic bar stools (US$269), offer pleasurable browsing. The cold-water Ganaraska River attracts anglers year-round with its bounteous supply of rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon.

At Ste. Anne's Country Inn & Spa, just east of Cobourg in Grafton, you can experience a full-immersion bath in nutrient-rich mud extracted from one of Ontario's glacial lakes. Utterly pampering, it costs US$90. Available treatments include Caribbean therapy, an aromatic moisturizing skin wrap. Ste. Anne's spectacular 560-acre domain slopes down to Lake Ontario.

Victoria Hall in Cobourg is an enormous building fronted by Corinthian columns. Opened by the Prince of Wales in 1860, its Courtroom – still in use – was modeled on London's Old Bailey, England's most important Crown Court. It also houses a Concert Hall with a 35-foot ceiling and splendid acoustics, and the Art Gallery of Northumberland.

From Cobourg, Hwy 2 becomes the Apple Route and winds through a 200-year agrarian heritage of gently rolling hills, pick-your-own apple orchards, tiny hamlets and sprawling farms. Colborne boasts the widest main street in Canada, vintage architecture and eye-catching murals. The Colborne Art Gallery, run by a local artists' cooperative, offers stimulating exhibitions while guided (or self-guided) tours of Hoselton Sculptures illustrate how its stunning castings, made from recycled aluminum, are made. Many have been presented to heads of state around the world. Tiny hummingbirds, loons and Canada geese can be bought for around US$11; larger pieces – beavers, sailboats and even moose – may be purchased for hundreds of dollars more.

Trenton is home to Canada's largest airbase and the National Air Force Museum of Canada, which features an immaculately restored Halifax bomber shot down over Norway in 1945 as well as aircraft ranging from a DC3 Dakota to a MiG 21 fighter.