Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal

After breakfast at the hotel, a small-group day tour of Toronto. Ride the glass-fronted elevators up the CN Tower, the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere, and look out over the city and Lake Ontario. A harbour cruise shows the skyline from the water, with the Toronto Islands just offshore. Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival castle built in the 1910s for the financier Sir Henry Pellatt, with towers, estate gardens and an underground tunnel to its stables. At St. Lawrence Market, named the world's best food market by National Geographic in 2012, there is time to try something local, such as a peameal bacon sandwich. A narrated drive links the stops and fills in the history of Canada's largest city.

After breakfast your guide drives you from Toronto to Niagara Falls, Ontario, for a small-group day tour. On a Niagara City Cruises boat you sail from the Canadian shore into the mist at the base of the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls on the Niagara River, which here is the border with New York State. At Journey Behind the Falls an elevator takes you down about 125 feet (40 m) through the rock to tunnels and an observation deck beside the falling water. The Skylon Tower gives a bird's-eye view of both the American and the Canadian falls, and a narrated drive shows you the rest of the city, from the parks along the river to the busy streets above the gorge. Tonight you stay in Niagara Falls, so the evening is yours: the falls are lit up in colour every night.

Free time: Evening free

Breakfast, then a small-group day tour of Canada's capital. At the Royal Canadian Mint you get a behind-the-scenes look at how Canada's collector coins, medals and gold bullion are made. An Ottawa River cruise with Capital Cruises shows Parliament Hill from the water and the Gatineau shore in Quebec on the other side. Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica, with its twin silver spires and starry blue vaulted ceiling, is the oldest and largest church in the city. The Rockcliffe Lookout looks out over the river, and a narrated drive ties the capital together. Afterwards we take you to the station for the VIA Rail train to Montréal, meet you at Central Station and drive you to your hotel.

After breakfast at the hotel, a small-group day tour of Montréal. Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montréal is a Gothic Revival church known for its deep blue vaulted ceiling scattered with gold stars and for stained glass that tells the religious history of the city. A St. Lawrence River cruise with AML shows Montréal from the water and passes the nearby Boucherville Islands. From the 360-degree Observatoire at Place Ville Marie you look across downtown to the river and the mountain. Mount Royal, the hill that gave the city its name, is a park laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York's Central Park, and a narrated drive takes you over it. After the tour we take you to Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) for your flight home.