Grimsby

Pinned between Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment, Grimsby is one of the most scenic municipalities in the region. The town runs from sandy lakefront beaches up to the cliff edge of the Escarpment, with Forty Mile Creek cutting through the middle and the Bruce Trail tracing the heights above.

The historic core, around Main Street West and the old downtown, has the look of a small Ontario town from a generation ago: heritage storefronts, independent cafés, a beautifully restored Carnegie library, and the Grimsby Public Art Gallery. Up at Beamer Memorial Conservation Area, a stone overlook is one of the best raptor-watching spots in eastern North America, with thousands of hawks and eagles passing through every spring.

Down at the lake, Grimsby Beach is a one-of-a-kind neighbourhood of brightly painted gingerbread cottages dating back to the 1850s — built around a Methodist camp meeting ground that became a Victorian resort. Add the wineries of the Beamsville Bench just to the east, the Grimsby Farmers' Market and a wave of new lakefront condo and waterfront-trail development, and you have a town that's rapidly being rediscovered as the most Toronto-accessible piece of Niagara wine country.