The ultimate guide to Canada & the USA's Great Lakes

Spanning the Canadian-US border, the Great Lakes – Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior – make up the largest freshwater system on the planet.

From fur traders to French explorers, history runs deep in these fabled waters. Whether it’s cold-water wreck diving in Superior’s ‘Graveyard of the Great Lakes’ or ziplining in Niagara Falls’ spray, this region promises thrills above and below the water line.

In a few kilometres, you can experience a landscape that morphs from rippling sand dunes to lake-kissing vineyards.

Also straddling its shores are Toronto and Detroit, where world-class museums and revitalised neighbourhoods spill out along the waterfront.

Lake Ontario

Marked on maps as early as 1656, Ontario is the most easterly of the Great Lakes. It’s the smallest, too, but it packs a punch thanks to its cinematic coastal scenery, a wealth of wineries and lush green spaces such as Sandbanks Provincial Park, where trails snake between bridal-white beaches and undulating dunes.

Until the early 19th-century construction of the Welland Canal in its southwestern corner – a high point of Great Lake sailings – Ontario was naturally separated from its four sibling lakes by the legendary Niagara Falls.

To experience this thunderous trio of waterfalls, soar in the spray 70m above Niagara River Gorge on WildPlay’s zipline, board a vintage shuttle bus or a take a boat tour. Tip: you’ll want a poncho as you go nose-to-nose with the 13-storey-high Horseshoe Falls.

Bloggers Richard and Helen Chalu sailed on Viking’s Niagara and the Great Lakes itinerary in September. Richard says, “Niagara Falls attracts more than 12 million visitors annually, and was a bucket-list destination for us. The Hornblower boat tour takes you for a soaking right into the heart of Horseshoe Falls.”

Many cruise itineraries begin or end in Toronto, which is home to one of the world’s longest urban waterfronts. At least 200 languages are spoken here, and this multiculturalism is reflected in a diverse culinary scene. Toronto native and food blogger Alice Phan says, “Brunch is massive here. My go-to dish is Maha’s mind-blowing chicken sandwich, as you get all the flavours of Egyptian food, the spices and freshness.”

In fine weather, you’ll find Alice in one of Toronto’s 1,500 parks having a takeaway with friends. “Coronation Park is one of my favourite spots. It looks right out over the lake. People play sports or just chill and watch boats drift by.” For a city escape, Alice heads to Prince Edward County (PEC).

Not to be confused with Prince Edward Island (PEI) off Canada’s eastern coast, PEC hugs Lake Ontario’s northeastern shore. “When people think of wine country they think of Niagara, but PEC is a hidden gem,” she adds. Fanned by the lake’s breezes, its 40 or so wineries can be visited and combined with field-to-plate fare by Vintage Car Wine Tours, and artisan cheesemakers and pear orchards make for one delicious afternoon.

Lake Erie

This luminous lake takes its name from the Erie people or ‘people of the panther’ – the native North Americans who called its southern shore home and crisscrossed its waters in birchbark canoes.

Bordering four US states as well as the Canadian province of Ontario, it’s the warmest and most southerly of the Great Lakes, which is good news for beach-goers. Come September, Erie becomes a stopover for migratory monarchs which paint the skies in orange butterfly clouds. See the spectacle at Point Pelee National Park. Flop on the mainland’s southernmost beach, paddle through freshwater marshes or weave along an elevated 800m-long boardwalk, keeping your eyes peeled for Pelee’s turtles. There’s also year-round stargazing, thanks to the park’s designation as a dark sky reserve.

Another mecca for migratory species – this time songbirds – is the Lake Erie Islands. Local man Tom Bartlett has been ringing birds’ legs on behalf of the US Geological Survey for more than half a century. “It’s possible to see 30 species of warbler here in spring,” he says. “Other birds move through too, so seeing 100 species in a day is fairly easy. There is even a Kelleys Island owl festival.”

The largest of the Lake Erie Island archipelago, Kelleys has another drawcard in the form of its glacial grooves. These remnants of the last Ice Age have been gouged into the bedrock by rubble embedded in the ice as the glacier moved.

Erie also holds plenty of urban appeal thanks to Cleveland – home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – and the comeback city, Detroit. Better known as the birthplace of Motown and the home of American motoring, Michigan’s largest metropolis is also the place to see Art Deco architecture and an ice hockey or baseball game.

In a few hours you can tick off one of the US’s most visited galleries – Detroit Institute of Arts Museum – as well as Eastern Market, which opened in 1891. Visit for street food, wine and crafts such as goats’ milk soap.

Lake Huron

Despite being the first of the Great Lakes that Europeans discovered, Huron has retained a raw and unspoilt feel. Its 6,160km shoreline – the longest of the quintet – is freckled with craggy cliffs, rippling dunes and rare species habitats.

As well as being a protected marine sanctuary, its waters teem with Atlantic and chinook salmon, walleye and pike, making it an angler’s paradise.

Turn the clock back and visit some of Huron’s 31 historic lighthouses or Mackinac (pronounced ‘mack-in-awe’) Island, which harks back to a bygone era of horse-drawn carriages. Listed as a National Historic Landmark, Mackinac has banned motor vehicles since 1898, creating a unique old-world atmosphere.

Its namesake state park – where limestone bluffs meet emerald forest – is scarcely a few hundred metres from downtown, where Mackinac’s famous fudge makers churn out edible souvenirs.

The concierge team at the island’s Grand Hotel recommend hitting the Jewel Golf Course’s greens. “It’s the only course in the country with horse- drawn carriage rides between nines,” one says.

Killarney is another popular port of call. One of Canada’s oldest villages, it nestles on the pink granite northern shores of Georgian Bay, referred to as ‘the sixth Great Lake’ for its sheer size. An outdoorsman’s playground, Killarney sits among sapphire lakes and cloud-piercing pine forests where bears, beavers and bobcats roam.

Besides wildlife-watching, the lake also boasts a 19th-century engineering marvel. Tethering Huron to its northern neighbour, Lake Superior, the impressive Soo Locks allow 10,000 vessels each year to bypass the rapids of St Marys River. The river is home to tasty whitefish, once harvested by Native Americans and now served as ceviche in upscale restaurants.

Soo Locks’ US side has a museum and viewing tower where you can watch ocean freighters known as Salties and Lakers pass through.

Lake Michigan

With its fur trade and timber shipping days behind it, today the US’s ‘third coast,’ as Lake Michigan is known, is a place of all-natural superlatives.

The only one of the famous five to be entirely within the US, it boasts more coastal wetlands than any other great lake and has Earth’s largest freshwater sand dunes. Along its shores stands prosperous Traverse City, known as America’s cherry capital and also as a hotspot for wine-making.

Culture runs deep here, too, especially in Wisconsin’s harbour cities such as Algoma; a firm fixture on Great Lake sailings thanks to its postbox- red Pierhead Lighthouse, Victorian-style homes and Crescent Beach boardwalk.

It’s sandwiched between the city of Green Bay and Door County: yet another highlight of Great Lake sailings. Jutting into Lake Michigan, Door’s namesake limestone peninsula is full of surprises, from lavender farms and lobster-bisque lunches to live concerts held in a starlit amphitheatre.

Its conifer forests, marshy bays and rocky bluffs, meanwhile, are ripe for adventure. Hikers can enjoy a guided prehistoric ridge walk on part of the Niagara Escarpment: a unique geological formation running 1,610km east to west from New York to Niagara Falls.

Many sailings begin or end in Milwaukee – of 70s sitcom Happy Days and Harley-Davidson fame – which is sometimes called ‘the big city of little neighbourhoods’ (all 191 of them!).

Known for its beer heritage, the city has a thriving craft brewery scene along its lakefront, where you will also find a sprinkling of enticing museums.

Heading 145km south to Chicago, cruisers can rent bicycles from Bobby’s Bike Hike and cycle a scenic 30km stretch of lakefront or swim in the shadow of the high rises along Lake Shore Drive.

A Wendella boat cruise is a popular way to drink in the skyline of the city that birthed the skyscraper.

Another Chicagoan invention – this one born in its suburbs circa the mid-1900s – is aerosol spray paint. The co-owner of Chicago’s Offbeat Street Art Tour, Brian Murray, says, “Chicago’s street art scene is a mix of public and vandal art, and private and commercial murals. The Bucktown and Logan Square neighbourhoods are chock-full.”

A lesser-known location, he reveals, is “an alley just northwest of the six-corner intersection in the Wicker Park neighbourhood. You can enter it by the alleyway across Damen Avenue from The Goddess & Grocer café. Most visitors wouldn’t think to wander that way and most Chicagoans have no idea about it!”

Lake Superior

Superior by name, superior by nature, this is the northernmost and largest of the five Great Lakes, holding a staggering 10 per cent of Earth’s surface freshwater.

Superior’s original name, gichigami or ‘great sea’, was given by the Ojibwe people, who traded beaver pelts for tobacco and other goods with the British and French in the 1600s. Thankfully, these days its shores brim with wildlife, including bobcats, coyotes and even the elusive lynx.

A geologist’s playground, 2.7 billion-year- old rocks rest on its northern rim, where agate beaches also attract avid rock collectors.

Said to have the cleanest, chilliest and clearest waters of the five lakes, Superior is primed for top- class cold-water diving, with underwater visibility reaching up to 30m in areas such as Thunder Bay. A city and inlet in northwestern Lake Superior, Thunder Bay has a rich maritime history, which you can discover via the glass-bottomed boats of Alpena Shipwreck Tours.

Alternatively you can enjoy a guided kayak with Such A Nice Day Adventures, or go on an organised wreck dive with Thunder Country Diving.

Some 350 sunken vessels are believed to lie beneath the waves on the once perilous 129km stretch of water between Munising and Whitefish Point – dubbed ‘the shipwreck coast’ – and more are found every year.

Corey Adkins, who works for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point Light Station, says, “A law was passed in the 1980s whereby all artefacts on the bottom of the Great Lakes must stay there. When we discover a shipwreck we take only video and pictures and give the public the story of what happened to the vessel.”

The museum’s executive director, Bruce Lynn, says, “My favourite exhibit is the recently restored Type TR Motor Lifeboat/CG 36381. It was delivered in dramatic fashion in October 2023 – a crane allowed it to ‘fly’ over the museum buildings.”

Duluth, a popular port of call on many Great Lakes sailings, lies 644km away on Lake Superior’s western tip, at the mouth of the St Louis River. The hometown of the singer-songwriter legend Bob Dylan, this unsung city is home to the USA’s only freshwater aquarium, where you can feed a Great Lakes ‘living fossil’, the formidable bottom- dwelling sturgeon.

The appearance of this ancient fish hasn’t changed for millions of years – much like stretches of the Great Lakes shores, whose stories are written in their banded orange agate stones and boreal forests, where wild orchids scatter the winding paths like confetti.