Niagara-on-the-Lake, 20 km north along the Niagara Parkway, is everything Niagara Falls the city is not: quiet, handsome, and thoroughly walkable, with tree-lined streets of Georgian houses, good restaurants, and an excellent collection of wineries on the surrounding escarpment. The Shaw Festival — one of Canada's major theatrical events, running April through October — performs in three theatres in the town each summer.
The drive up the Niagara Parkway from the falls to the town is itself a pleasure: a boulevard of mature trees running along the edge of the gorge, with views of the river and (on clear days) the Toronto skyline across Lake Ontario. Wineries line the road and the surrounding country roads — Inniskillin, Jackson-Triggs, and Peller Estates are among the most visited. The ice wines produced here in January, harvested from frozen grapes in temperatures well below zero, are among the finest in the world.