Toronto-Montreal is not terribly long. I guess this depends on what method of transportation you're looking at; train, car, bus?

By car, you should estimate 7 hours (usually less). It's rougly 500KM. If you were to break for a night, Kingston is a cute little town. Not all that much to do or see, but it's a halfway point, more or less, if you feel that you need to break it up.

Quebec is roughly 270KM from Montreal; you're looking at a good 3 hours on the road. You MUST visit Quebec; it is the oldest city in North America, and is very charming and beautiful.

feel free to ask more questions...

best of luck

rob

If it is as hot in August as it has been in June, you will want to spend less time in the cities. Check-out the Parc de la Gatineau and Parc Omega websites. They are both great places to visit with children. Montebello, where Parc Omega is located, is a beautiful village, with many inns and the famous Chateau Montebello hotel.

ditto to other posts - June has been a killer for heat. I don't even want to think about what TO or Montreal will be like in August!!!!!

What are your family's interests? You mention canoeing, but you're visiting cities. Niagara Falls is fine, but kitschy - do the Maid of the Mist and Marineland. There's the wine region, but kids can find that boring.

East of Toronto, there's Kingston, Gananoque and the Thousand Islands. This is on the river, so will be a little cooler, and there are lots of kid-focussed places with assorted watersports. Probably your best bet if want to have the 'cottage life' experience. Don't forget Fort Henry in Kingston and Upper Canada village in Morrisburg. At 7 & 14, your kids may never want to leave! And all this is halfway to Montreal.

Montreal with kids must sees: Biodome, Old Montreal/ Vieux Port, museums, festivals, cycling along the river.

Qu��bec city must see with kids: the Citadelle, Plaines d'Abraham, aquarium. The rest of Qu��bec city is cultured, and my kids tend to whine when exposed to culture. There's lot of kid stuff just outside Quebec city, including rock climbing, chutes Montmorency and Village Vacances Valcartier.

Driving times for me:

Montreal - Toronto: 5 hours without traffic. Requires local knowledge to avoid traffic. Trucks on the 401 can be scary.

Montreal - Quebec city: 5.5 hours on the 40. Only traffic is in Montreal. Traffic is highly variable.

Toronto to Quebec city: If you do this, avoid Montreal completely by taking the ferry across from the 401/40 from Hudson to Oka, then get on the 640.

Montreal - Quebec City is 2.5 hours!!!!

Bortiuk from the UK has some great ideas. Lots of driving but if you had planned to drive to Ottawa from TO in any event, taking in Parry Sound might add 150 miles to the total trip. An alternative would be go straight up from Barrie to Huntsville and in to Algonquin from there. That wouldn't be much more than the direct TO-Ottawa trip at 240 miles each way.

As for days itinerary, here are some suggestions.

During your 4-5 days in TO, stay downtoen the first t 3 days and take in 1) Ontario Place 2) the CN Tower (right beside SkyDome so you'll see that too , 3) The Eaton Centre 4) the Spaghetti Factory on The Esplanade for lunch or dinner-great for families 5) Toronto Island. If you stay downtown-rates should be decent this time of year-all are within walking distance of the core except for Ontario Place, which is a short cab ride.

Then take in Wonderland on youe way north. Stay in Barrie the night of your Wonderland visit. If you're beat, go straight north to Huntsville to shorten your total mileage. Otherwise go to Parry Sound first then over to Huntville, which is a gateway to Algonquin Park. Either way Barrie is your jumping off point.

If you take in Parry Sound the drive up is worth the trip because the expanded highway has been cut through solid granite and it is more pictureque than the drive to Huntsville. Take 141 over to Huntsville from Parry Sound-also a pretty trip. Stop in Rosseau on the way over.

Huntsville has become a hotspot but tastefully developed. Being that far north you will also have a terrific apppreciation for the beauty of the Canadian Shield rock formations.

Ottawa---there's so much to see! Take in the Museum for sure, Parliament Buildings, the Aviation Museum (there's a piece of our venerable Avro Arrow in it-at least the piece that wasn't destroyed alongwith the five prototypes by our own gov't when it cancelled the Arrow program in 1959. The Arrow was a Mach 2 all-Canadian (engines included) fighter that made it through flight tests only to be scrapped for finaincial and other reasons.

It was the world's first fly-by-wire fighter.

If you have time, also take in the new War Museum.

Exhausted yet?

Have a great trip.

Chas