Marc Atchison spends a few nights in the heart of Ontario’s Niagara wine country and discovers an historic inn nestled among the vines where hospitality and history intersect.

Annie Tsu visits tiny Elora and discovers the Ontario hamlet is an oasis of calm for city dwellers.

Bruce Sach meets much of Canada's history and some of the country's legendary heroes while on a stroll through the nation's capital - and they are all standing tall.

PERTH, ON — In the local museum of this historic Upper Canada town, where much is made of the fact that Canada’s last fatal duel took place, the past comes to life.

KINGSTON, ON - We were in this city’s historic City Hall when it really hit me. Sure, I knew that Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, had made his mark in Kingston, and had lived here for years. But when I saw his old desk, (a partners’ desk) carefully preserved in City Hall, I finally had tangible proof of his having lived and worked here.

BARRY’S BAY, ON - Theirs had a sauna. Big bonus. Theirs had a wasps’ nest. Big minus. (The spray stuff you buy in grocery stores to eliminate the kamikaze pests, by the way? Good luck with that.) Theirs had a swimming raft with a kid-friendly slide on it. Check. Theirs was well equipped for a family of four, two adults and two kids, ages 2 and 6.

WASAGA BEACH, ON - Ahhh, the dog days of summer are about to end and another year of enjoying this wonderful weekend retreat with my family and friends has come and gone too soon.

WOODVIEW, ON - Sometimes, the best vacation destinations are the ones closest to home. Take this sleepy little hamlet, located just two hours north of Toronto in Ontario’s pristine Kawartha Lakes District, for example.

OKA, QUEBEC - We didn’t really blend in with the festive Canada Day crowds because our bikes were laden with heavy saddlebags. It was mid-afternoon and the sky was heavy with rain but it didn’t matter – the energy at the intersection of Rideau and Sussex streets in Ottawa was electric. We dismounted our bikes and pushed past the throngs dressed in red and white and waving their Canadian flags, our bulging saddlebags jostling the ankles of adults and the strollers of toddlers.

KEMBLE, ON - The road that winds along lovely Georgian Bay and past the rolling countryside known as Georgian Bluffs, reminds me of the seaside Massachusetts highways I normally travel on vacation -— before the Canadian dollar became a Third World currency, that is.