Lake Ontario Circle Tour: Day Trips and Family Adventures in Durham and Northumberland

The Lake Ontario Circle Tour Sign That Made Me See Durham and Northumberland Differently

I am a full time REALTOR® and I also have a passion for travel, which is why I am a travel advisor with Expedia Cruises handling cruises, land, and air. So I genuinely laughed at myself when I saw a sign near the Durham Region and Northumberland County border that said Lake Ontario Circle Tour and thought… how did I not know this was a thing?

If you have seen that sign off Highway 2 and wondered the same thing, here is what it actually means and why it matters for us locally.

A circle tour is essentially a named road trip loop. It is a self guided touring route that circles a major destination, most often something geographic like a lake. The Great Lakes region has promoted circle tours for decades to encourage travellers to explore shoreline communities instead of simply visiting one major city. The broader Great Lakes Circle Tour network connects thousands of miles of scenic routes around the lakes .

Several of the Great Lakes have very well known circle tours including Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie . Lake Ontario is sometimes treated a little differently in official listings, but the idea of circling Lake Ontario as a travel experience is widely used in road trip planning and tourism marketing .

In simple terms, it is a structured road trip. You follow the shoreline, stop in towns, explore parks, beaches, and downtowns, and loop your way around.

Now here is the part that really caught my attention.

Durham Region and Northumberland County sit right on that loop.

When people search Lake Ontario Circle Tour online, they are usually not specifically searching Durham or Northumberland by name. They are searching for weekend road trips near Toronto, beaches on Lake Ontario, scenic drives, small waterfront towns, family friendly parks. They are searching for experiences. And those experiences exist here.

That is what made me rethink the sign. It is not just for someone driving around the entire lake over two weeks. It is an invitation to explore your own backyard differently.

You could build a full family day just within Durham. Start at the Pickering waterfront and access the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. Continue through Ajax Waterfront Park. Walk around Whitby Marina. Visit Lynde Shores Conservation Area. Head into Oshawa and explore Lakeview Park or the Second Marsh. Spend the afternoon at Darlington Provincial Park. Finish near Bowmanville or the Port of Newcastle marina.

If you move east into Northumberland, the energy shifts slightly. Cobourg Beach and harbour feel classic summer. Downtown Cobourg is walkable and charming. Port Hope’s Walton Street Heritage Conservation District is one of the best preserved nineteenth century commercial streets in Ontario . Presqu ile Provincial Park in Brighton offers beaches, marsh boardwalks, and bird watching .

And if you are a movie or television fan, this gets even more interesting.

Port Hope has become a filming favourite. It was transformed into Derry, Maine for the Stephen King movie It and It Chapter Two . If you walk Walton Street, you are literally walking where those scenes were filmed. Schitt’s Creek filmed scenes in the wider Durham Region including parts of Oshawa and surrounding areas . Murdoch Mysteries has also filmed in Port Hope . For families or couples who love film and television, that alone makes for a fun themed day trip. You can explore a heritage downtown and casually say this is where they filmed that scene.

Here is where I gently weave in real estate, because I cannot help myself.

When people explore towns on a circle tour, they naturally look at houses. Century homes in Port Hope. Lakefront properties in Clarington. Historic brick homes in Oshawa. Cottages near Presqu ile. Even if you are not planning to move, you are imagining life there. You are picturing front porches, sunset views, kids biking to the beach.

Circle tours are about discovering communities. And discovering communities often leads to curiosity about living there.

How long does a Lake Ontario circle style trip take? A full loop including both Canadian and American sides is often planned as a multi day or even two week road trip . But realistically, most families do not need to commit to that. You can treat it as segments. One shoreline stretch at a time. One conservation area. One heritage downtown. One beach day.

Can you bike it? Yes, especially in sections. The Great Lakes Waterfront Trail connects large portions of the Canadian shoreline including Durham . Some cyclists do full around the lake trips, which is impressive, but for most of us it is about choosing safe and scenic portions and building smaller adventures.

What I love most about this idea is what it does for our area.

It encourages people to get off the highway and into main streets. It supports coffee shops, ice cream counters, local restaurants, and small businesses. It keeps waterfront parks busy. It creates pride in place. It reminds us that we are not just suburbs outside Toronto. We are part of a shoreline destination people intentionally explore.

And if you already live here, maybe the circle tour concept is simply a new way to look at familiar places.

You do not need flights. You do not need passports. You do not even need a full weekend.

You just need to decide which stretch of shoreline you want to explore next.

If you tell me what kind of adventure you prefer beach day, heritage wandering, conservation trails, film locations, or simply driving and looking at beautiful homes, I will build you a realistic one day or two day Durham and Northumberland circle style itinerary that actually works for families.

Because sometimes the best travel ideas are the ones we have been driving past all along.

If exploring Durham and Northumberland has you thinking a little differently about where you live, or where you might want to live next, here are two helpful reads:

Thinking about schools in the area?
👉 Durham & Northumberland Schools: A Clear Guide for Families

Curious where first time buyers are finding value right now?
👉 Best Places to Buy Your First Home in Durham and Northumberland

Sometimes a day trip turns into something more. Sometimes exploring a waterfront or a heritage downtown makes you start picturing life there.

And if that happens, I’m always here to talk through it.