Niagara on the Lake is a small town in the province of Ontario Canada and certainly among the nicest small towns to visit in the province.
It's also just a stones throw away from the border of the United States.
Nestled in the heart of wine country it's situated along on the water of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River.
It's approximately 30 minutes from Niagara Falls by car and about an hour away from Hamilton.
The town is steeped in history and quaint charm and it all becomes apparent as soon as you set foot along its streets.
The Colonial style resident homes with their white picket fences scream historic small town Americana and buildings along the main strip now house numerous artisinal shops and boutique restaurants.
The copious amounts of flowers and lush gardens certainly help the vibe as well.
The one thing that it really should do but hasn't as of yet is block off the main street and make it only for pedestrians.
Horse drawn carriages can remain of course.
Cars line the roads on both sides and that really detract from the scenery.
The town is busy with tourists too so it would warrant this small change, at least for the summer months.
A little about the history now.
In the late 1700's the town went by the name "Newark" and it was actually the capital of the province of Ontario. This was way back when Ontario was still being called "Upper Canada."
The capital later moved to Toronto leaving Newark (Niagara on the Lake) behind. This might have been to get the capital a little farther away from the American border, who they were in and out of conflict with.
During the war of 1812 the city was captured by the United States after a bloody battle and two days of heavy bombardment.
When the US eventually withdrew their forces back to Fort Niagara they burnt the city to the ground, leaving the residents to rebuild the city.
We visited Niagara on the Lake in the summer of 2024 and spent a few hours there as a weekend day trip for something to do.
The town is relatively close to where we live but it's not somewhere that we go often.
Actually this was the first time that I had been with my wife and I believe that the trip was her first time ever visiting the city.
We spent some time checking out the many shops, walking the park, and eating fresh apple fritters.
After that we went to a nearby winery and vineyard to sample some Niagara wines and take a tour of the property.
There are a ton of wineries in the area that give tours and tastings so if that's your thing then it's pretty easy to do it as an activity.
You can book a tour or just pop into some of them though to guarantee a spot in the busy season it may be best to book ahead.
You can "winery hop" by bus, bike or self directed driving (drink responsibly though).
The winery we chose was called Two Sisters, a lesser known but very nice vinyard.
We sampled three wines each and then bought a few bottles to take home to save for a special occasion.
The tasting was good but it wasn't inexpensive.
We walked the grounds afterwards to burn off the alcohol we drank.
The samples were fairly small and probably totalled one full glass of wine all in, so I was fine to drive afterwards.
We plan to open the first bottle from that vinyard this year on our anniversary so maybe I'll do a follow up post to let you know how it was.
