Cruise The Coast: A Scenic Motorcycle Adventure in Ontario’s Southwest
I tend to look north when considering my motorcycle adventures and road trips. I have always figured that up there there’s less people, more woods, more lakes, and more space for me to roam, right? But, am I missing something? Less people, sure, but that often means less amenities and less entertainment options. So, for something a little different, this summer I decided to explore a bit closer to home along with a couple trusted riding partners. To check out the new and improved Cruise The Coast in Ontario’s Southwest with Cyndi Martin of @chickandmachines and @idlegarageandcoffee, as well as Cecilia Lai who is the Toronto host for @themotosocial.
Ontario’s Southwest offers a different vibe completely. Being more “developed” with rich agriculture, quaint historic towns, expansive beaches, and picturesque marinas and lighthouses. What I discovered is that, there’s just more things to do here, and, as soon as you get off the 400’s and explore some of the back roads and coastlines, this area has some incredibly scenic riding and offers tons of drop-dead gorgeous photo opps along the way. Turns out you don’t always have to head north to have a great time on a motorcycle.
Seven Counties of Scenic Bliss
While we couldn’t possibly hit every single stop along the entire route, we did pretty well. Our journey took us through seven distinct counties, each offering its own flavour of scenic beauty and attractions. From quaint beach towns to rolling countryside, vineyards to historic lighthouses, this route offers a diverse mix of landscapes and experiences.
We kicked things off here, where the route is defined by the Grand River spilling into Lake Erie. Our first night at My Lighthouse Cottages right at the river’s mouth was perfect, a nice modern room, right next to the historic pier and lighthouse on the lake. And our cruise along the quaint shoreline the next morning really set the tone for a relaxing multi-day tour. If the relaxing bit gets a little too relaxing though, you can get your heart pumping with a quick visit to Canada’s premiere dragstrip and road course at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga.
The coastal tour along Lake Erie continued. Norfolk tags itself as Ontario’s Garden, which gives you an idea how rich the landscape is. Of course, we had to hit up Port Dover, best known for it’s HUGE motorcycle meet ups every Friday the 13th. With ample food options and places to stay (Erie Beach Hotel checks both boxes). This is where you really begin to check your sanity. As you stare across the expansive beach, the clear blue water, and the palm trees (huh?) you begin to ask, am I still in Ontario!? Question your sanity a little further with the excellent Mexican food at the appropriately named Tacos & Tequila at Normandale Century Inn. This most excellent pairing of delicious food reflecting the area’s multiculturalism in a quaint historic hotel is probably the perfect metaphor for the area. Check. it. Out.
As you travel a bit further southwest along the coast, there are some great little twists and turns through lush farms and dense forests with beautiful beach towns revealing themselves as you descent the escarpment along Lake Erie. Gorgeous riding.
The stunning shorelines continue into Elgin County. There are so many postcard-worthy towns and places to stop here. Some of our favourites were Shors Pub & Eatery right across from the gorgeous beach at Port Bruce Provincial Park, and Quai Du Vin, which is Elgin’s first VQA Winery. Port Stanley is another must-see, the stunning waterfront has a huge beach that is well protected by a berm and is one of very few to maintain “Blue Flag Status” for its commitment to water quality. It is well protected and right near the central areas of the quaint little fishing village that has a lot of cool little stops, like the Firehall Market and the Inn on the Harbour as an overnight option.
Where you stay along the route is entirely flexible, of course, but we found Erieau in Chatham-Kent to be a great overnight spot. Jeff from Willow Barrel Retreat was the perfect host. He describes the area as the “Key West” of Ontario as it rests on a spit of land between Rondeau Bay and Lake Erie. This is another one of those spots along the tour where I begin to question, am I still in Ontario? Jeff is keen to offer guided boat tours, great fishing, and all the water sports you can ask for here. Plus, you get to stay in a private cabin, and chill next to the campfire right along the water. The incredible sunset with barn swallows swarming all around was truly breathtaking, and it makes sense as the area is well known as a birding hotspot.
Our route would dip into Chatham-Kent a couple of times along the way, as later sections of the route follow the Thames and Sydenham Rivers. The sections along the Thames, in particular, offers some excellent riding with high-speed sweeping turns. Each time we found ourselves in Chatham-Kent, we were never far from a great local brewery with a patio so we could grab a bite, and pick up a few beverages for later that we could enjoy safely once we’d settled in for the night. Be sure to check out Red Barn, Bayside, Sons of Kent, and Glasstown which each offer great restaurant/patio options and bottle shops along the route.
This area offers a pretty grand finale for the Lake Erie portion of the coastal route as we dipped into Point Pelee National Park. The incredible tree-covered ribbon of asphalt which took us twisting deeper into the park was pretty much a perfect cruising road. You could not design a more scenic road. Couple that with the expansive marshlands that are teeming with wildlife, and this is a spot you truly cannot miss.
After a short stop at the Pelee Island Winery in Kingsville to stock up on some bottles to be enjoyed later in the evening, the route shifted trajectory north along the Detroit River to Windsor. The Caesars Windsor is worth the stay, if only for the incredible view across the river where the giant freighters offer a mesmerizing display as they travel this busy shipping route. Plus, you’re in a casino that offers incredible entertainment and nightlife, and a short distance from everything Downtown Windsor has to offer. We loved Walkerville Brewery and dinner at Spago. The industrial charm of the old brick architecture at Walkerville was a refreshing contrast to the natural beauty we had experienced along the route, and this is pretty typical for this area with so many beautifully maintained historic towns.
Sarnia-Lambton shifts gears a bit as we met up with the St. Clair River. Gorgeous waterfront riding along the St. Clair Parkway had our heads on a swivel. The turquoise-blue water here is simply breathtaking. With two Blue Flag beaches and perfect sunsets, this area is a photographer’s dream. The riding is relaxing with nice sweeping turns that lead up to the mouth of the river with Stunning Lake Huron at the Blue Water Bridge.
Bad Dog Corunna is a great food stop along the river, and there are generally some great food trucks at the Waterfront Park which is an irresistible photo opportunity.
Further up the coast along Lake Huron you can eat and stay at the Ipperwash Beach Club. I definitely recommend the Lobster Mac n’ Cheese. We enjoyed live music on the lawn before walking a stone’s throw to the beach to enjoy the sunset. The beach is even vehicle friendly (though not technically for parking, only as a boat launch), which added some novelty of doing a short beach ride, even if it was only just for a short loop around the boat launch and back onto the main road and back up to Grand Bend.
Middlesex offered a whole new experience to the route, closing the loop though rolling countryside roads and historically significant towns. A lot of the Experiences and the Restaurants here really reflect the agricultural heritage. The Clocktower Inn illustrated this perfectly as the tastefully restored historic building took us back in time in stunning Victorian-era rooms. The Inn is owned by its executive chef and unsurprisingly, it has an incredible restaurant, too.
There are many other fantastic stops here, but a few of the biker-friendly ones we recommend that you cannot miss are Hogtown Cycles, Arva Flour Mills (historically significant, with a great shop and cafe), and any one of the fantastic restaurants on the itinerary.
Summing it Up
Our little riding crew had come from all over. I am a prairie boy who is now Toronto adjacent, Cyndi lives in Montreal, while Cecilia grew up “nearby” and went to school in Ontario’s Southwest. Even so, none of us had really experienced the area like this, and I can confidently speak for everyone when I say that the area surprised us.
Cecilia said it best when she mentioned to me that even she, having grown up here, still experienced many instances on the ride where she discovered not just attractions, but entire towns that she had never even heard of before. And what we discovered were countless stunningly preserved historical towns, unique attractions, restaurants with great food and incredible views, endless silky beaches, and so on. Everywhere we turned there was another stunning main street, a beautiful patio restaurant, a wildlife sanctuary, or a historic lighthouse to greet us. And for some of the larger metropolitan areas that we had been to or heard of, we found a new appreciation for them by slowing down and truly taking them in.
When we tend to make our way to some of these locations, whether it's the beach, or the big concert at the casino, or wherever. We tend to do those trips by hopping on the 400 series highway and cutting straight past the places that are highlighted on this route. What makes Cruise The Coast truly great, is it allows you to really slow down, cruise along some gorgeous scenic roads, and take things in at a pace where you can truly appreciate it. It is worth the time!
