A Kingston to Montreal road trip on the scenic St. Lawrence
If you live in Southern Ontario or Quebec, you’re probably familiar with the chore of blasting across Highway 401. The stretch between Toronto and Montreal can be monotonous, especially if you take this drive often. But if you can dedicate more time and make a short detour, you can follow the north shore of the St. Lawrence River on a Kingston to Montreal road trip. You’ll discover beautiful scenery, plenty of fascinating history, great small towns and campgrounds, and much more.
The St. Lawrence River starts at the eastern end of Lake Ontario and ends at the Atlantic Ocean. In this article, we highlight key points of interest when road tripping between Kingston, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, including the Gananoque and the Thousand Islands, Brockville, Cornwall and beyond.
Our visit to the region was hosted by Visit Kingston and the Parks of the St. Lawrence. Have questions about planning your own Kingston to Montreal road trip? Join our Facebook community!
Kingston to Montreal road trip: What to know before you go
A drive between Kingston and Montreal along Highway 401 typically takes three hours. If you stay off the highway and follow Ontario Highway 2 and the Thousand Islands Parkway for the entire drive instead, you can cover the full distance in five hours.
If you’d like to follow the full road trip as outlined here with overnight stops in Kingston, Gananoque, Brockville, and the Long Sault Parkway, we recommend dedicating five to seven days to your Kingston to Montreal road trip. However, this entire route is easy to access from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and many other points in Ontario and Quebec. It would therefore be easy for people who live in these areas to visit these destinations across multiple shorter weekend getaways.
Kingston: A city steeped in history
Kingston is a fascinating city with a history that predates Canada itself. It was briefly the capital of the United Province of Canada in the 1840s. The city’s position where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River and the Rideau Canal gave it enormous strategic importance in Canada’s infancy. This military history shines through in several of Kingston’s main attractions.
In downtown Kingston, spend some time exploring the city’s bustling restaurants and artisan shops. Many are housed in buildings made with local limestone, a trait that has earned Kingston the nickname of The Limestone City.
To see one of Canada’s best-preserved city fortifications from the War of 1812, visit Fort Henry National Historic Site. Visit the one-time home of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, at Bellevue House National Historic Site. Or delve into Kingston’s long and haunting history with correctional services by touring the Kingston Penitentiary and Canada’s Penitentiary Museum. Head to Kingston Mills locks to kick off a road trip along the Rideau Canal National Historic Site, the historic waterway that connects Kingston with Ottawa.
Kingston is one of the Canadian departure points for cruising in the Thousand Islands. From here, a three-hour tour with Kingston 1000 Islands Cruises is the best option. You’ll sail past Wolfe Island and Howe Island toward Gananoque, where you’ll see dozens of smaller islands before returning to the city.
The City of Kingston is also home to the Tragically Hip, one of Canada’s most beloved homegrown bands. Since lead singer Gord Downie passed away in 2017, fans have flocked to the city to explore the band’s origins.
Check out our nine stop Tragically Hip Kingston tour >
Gananoque and the Thousand Islands
The view from the 401 offers no hints at all of the natural beauty in the Thousand Islands. To take it all in, take a quick detour off the highway to visit Gananoque and the Thousand Islands Parkway!
There are more than a thousand islands in the 1000 Islands region — 1,864, to be precise — and the town of Gananoque is the Canadian gateway to them all. Gananoque makes an ideal home base while exploring the islands with cozy accommodations, great restaurants, excellent local theatre at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, and much more.
Boat tours are offered throughout the Thousand Islands region, from one-hour tours to five- and six-hour excursions. If you’d like to try a hands-on boating experience, 1000 Islands Kayaking offers instruction and guided tours that are a great way to get out onto the water.
Take a look at our guide to the best things to do in Gananoque >
Gananoque is also home to 1000 Islands Helicopter Tours, one of the best ways to take stellar views of the 1000 Islands. These tours can even include an aerial view of the famous Boldt Castle!
How to see Boldt Castle in the 1000 Islands from Canada >
At the eastern edge of Gananoque, the Thousand Islands Parkway begins. This route leads you into Thousand Islands National Park and its many hiking, boating, and camping opportunities.
Check out our turn-by-turn guide to the Thousand Islands Parkway >
Brockville, home of Canada’s oldest railway tunnel
Just east of where the Thousand Islands Parkway meets back up with Highway 2, you’ll find Brockville. Here, the St. Lawrence River narrows and the opposite side is clearly visible from the shore. To see the best of what Brockville has to offer, head to the city centre to explore.
The Brockville Railway Tunnel dates back to 1860, making it the oldest railway tunnel in Canada. Today, you can walk underground for the tunnel’s entire 525-metre length, or four city blocks! Along the way, you’ll experience a dynamic light show synchronized to music. Entry to the tunnel is by donation, making this an affordable and family-friendly destination.
Nearby on Brockville’s waterfront, the Aquatarium is a fun stop, especially for families with young children. This aquarium highlights the area’s marine history and conservation efforts with displays and hands-on activities. It’s also home to several aquatic animal exhibits, including fan favourite Justin Beaver. (Get it? His name is very similar to that of another Canadian superstar!)
Prescott, the defence of Upper Canada
For its size, the town of Prescott has had an awful lot of responsibility throughout history for protecting the lands that became Canada!
To get a taste of this, visit Fort Wellington National Historic Site. This fortification is one of very few remaining in Canada that has seen active combat. During its time as a working fort from 1814 to 1869, Fort Wellington played a role in the War of 1812 and the Upper Canada Rebellion.
Today, the remaining historic site consists of a blockhouse surrounded by ramparts. Take a look at recovered artifacts from the 19th century as interpreters explain the fort’s history. Many of the items you’ll see were found during an archaeological dig in the fort’s latrine. (That’s right: soldiers threw all this stuff down the toilet!)
To dive deeper into the stories of the Upper Canada Rebellion, visit the Battle of the Windmill National Historic Site not far from the fort. This simple site has a fascinating history. Learn why the structure here was transformed from windmill to functioning lighthouse amid its important role in a young and changing Canada.
Iroquois to Cornwall and the Lost Villages
As you continue east along Highway 2, you’ll discover the riverside towns and villages here tell an interconnected story.
It begins in the village of Iroquois, home to one of the canals on the St. Lawrence Seaway. This marine transportation system was built in the mid-1950s to create a thoroughfare from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. You can watch from the shore as massive ocean freighters travel through the locks to go around the control dam to the east. It can take some time for boats to arrive, but it’s a lot of fun to watch once they do.
Next, you’ll pass through Morrisburg before reaching Upper Canada Village. This replica of a British loyalist village appears frozen in time in the 1860s, just before Canadian Confederation. You can visit the flour mill, bakery, blacksmith, newspaper office, and more to see how each location contributes to the village’s daily life. You can even purchase some of the fresh bread, cheese, wool blankets, and posters made on-site to take home.
The origins of the Long Sault Parkway
A little further to the east, you’ll reach the Long Sault Parkway. This scenic road is made up entirely of parkland maintained by the Parks of the St. Lawrence, a provincial entity along the same lines as Ontario Parks. It’s responsible for maintaining many of the parks and campgrounds found along the river between Kingston and the Ontario-Quebec border, including Upper Canada Village and Kingston’s Fort Henry.
The Long Sault Parkway itself is a 10-kilometre road that connects 11 islands in the St. Lawrence River. But what’s especially interesting is these islands weren’t always here. Remember that lock and control dam in Iroquois? They were built to flood this section of the river and develop this portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway as well as a hydroelectric station near Cornwall.
Back in the 1950s, these 11 islands were hilltops above six villages and three hamlets. The surrounding land was expropriated by Ontario Hydro for the seaway project, and some 6,500 residents were displaced ahead of the floods. These communities are now collectively known as the Lost Villages. Many of the area’s parks are named in memory of these villages, including Milles Roches, Farran’s Point, Woodlands, and more.
In Ault Park, just off the eastern terminus of the Long Sault Parkway, the Lost Villages Museum preserves the stories of families who were removed from their homes in the name of progress. At the Lost Villages Museum, you can explore structures relocated from the villages through a self-guided tour. If you can arrange it, a guided tour with Jim Brownell is a rare privilege. Mr. Brownell is President of the Lost Villages Historical Society, and his family was displaced by the Ontario Hydro project when he was a child. His stories and memories bring this area’s history to life.
Coteau-du-Lac National Historic Site
For a final stop before the St. Lawrence River reaches Montreal, visit Coteau-du-Lac National Historic Site. It’s located on the north side of Grande Île, while on the south side is another component of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Beauharnois Canal. The latter diverts around an impassable series of rapids on the north side of the island that has been confounding sailors for millennia.
This site offers a view into the evolution of boat travel as navigators have tackled these challenges, from a rough rigolet dug out by the French to the remains a British-built lock from the late 1700s, one of the oldest in North America. The site is also home to a blockhouse, a replica of the one built on this site by the British during the War of 1812. It’s a fitting final stop on this scenic and historical tour of the St. Lawrence!
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