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Try the Noretta, on Hwy 7 towards Kitchener. Rooms cost from $54 a double. Majers Motel, a little farther out, has rooms for about the same price. There are other motels along here, including the attractive but more costly Rose court Erie StY. Near the tourist office, the York St Kitchen (41 York Sf) turns out excellent sandwiches ($5) and picnic plates which might include a bit of smoked salmon or corn on the cob. There is a takeout order window and the park by the river (right across the street) makes a good eating spot. It also has a few tables inside where you could try a lamb curry or pasta dish ($10). Let Them Eat Cake is good for a cheap breakfast or lunch or simply a dessert and coffee.

Visit Trattoria Fabrizio 71 Wellington StY for Italian sandwiches and pastas under $7. It also has various snacks, desserts and espresso. As befits an English-style town, there are quite a few pubs about. Canada Stratford's Olde English Parlour Wellington StY has an outdoor patio. The Queen's Inn, with several different eating rooms, has a pub for inexpensive and standard menu items including a ploughman's lunch. The Queen's Sunday and Wednesday evening buffets in the dining room are good. Dining rooms in some of the other inns also cater to the theatre crowd with more costly fare. Expensive Rundles (9 Coburg StY, where a dinner is about $55 before wine, has a good reputation. Away from the centre, over the bridge and down Huron St about 2km, Madelyn's Diner Huron StY is a friendly little place to have any meal. Breakfasts are served all day (from 7 am) and are good, as are the home-made pies. It's closed Sunday evening and all day Monday. There are a few fast-food joints and a Chinese place on Canada Ontario St heading out of town. For making your own picnic check the Franz Kissling Delicatessen.

 Bus Several small bus lines servicing the region operate out of the VIA Rail station, which is quite central at 101 Shakespeare St, off Downie St about eight blocks from Ontario St. ChaCo Trails buses connect Stratford with Kitchener, from where you can go to Toronto. They also run buses to London with Windsor connections and some other southern Ontario towns. Train There are two daily trains to Toronto from the VIA Rail station. Trains also go west to London or Sarnia, with connections for Windsor. Some 12km east of Stratford along Hwy 8, this village is geared to visitors with the main street offering numerous antique, furniture and craft shops. To the west of Stratford, St Marys is a small Victorian crossroads with a former opera house and some fine stone homes as reminders of its good times last century. The Westover Inn tucked down Thomas St, and surrounded by lawns and trees, is a quiet, five-star hotel with a dining room. Several kilometres from the town, off Hwy 7 and back towards Stratford, is the Wildwood Conservation Area. It isn't particularly attractive for the Canadian tourists and travellers on vacation tours, but you can camp or go for a quick swim.

For better swimming, try the spring-fed limestone quarry just outside St Marys. It costs a couple of dollars and there are change rooms and a snack bar. 

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TILLSON BURG & DELHI

These two small towns are in the centre of a flat, sandy, tobacco-growing region. The number of smokers has been declining rapidly in Canada so various crop alternatives are being sought to keep the area productive. One of them is hemp. On Hwy 3 west of Delhi, there is the Ontario Tobacco Museum, with displays on the history and production of tobacco. It's open daily through summer, and on weekdays only the rest of the year. For males, casual work picking tobacco starts in mid-August. Ask at the Canada Manpower offices in these towns. Jobs last roughly a month. It's hard work, but room and board are often thrown in with the wage and you can have a good time. Watch your valuables in the bunkhouse.

LAKE ERIE SHORELINE WEST

As the shallowest of the five Great Lakes, Erie long suffered the most with pollution. However, continuing environmental work has brought the waters back from the brink. Scattered along the lake's Canadian northern shoreline, from Windsor to Fort Erie, there are government parks, some with camping, some for day-use only for the tourists and travellers from across the world. Most are busy on summer weekends. Port Dover is a busy little summer resort with a beach, riverboat tours, numerous tourist shops, a lighthouse and the large, attractive Erie Beach Hotel, with popular dining rooms, right in the heart of town.

This is also a centre for commercial lake fishing. Local restaurants specialise in Erie perch and walleye although some people are leery of eating any - Tillsonburg & Delhi of the lower Great' Lakes catch due to possible chemical contamination. The Harbour Museum details the lake's fishing industry for Canada travellers. Turkey Point Provincial Park, and even more so, Long Point are good and popular. Despite an excellent beach at Long Point, the parks along the Lake Huron shoreline are superior for swimming. Also, beware of deer ticks at Long Point; be sure to read the available information on these serious pests.

Apart from these Lake Erie recreational orcas, the region is mainly summer cottages, small towns and farmland. The shoreline itself is surprisingly scenic at points with cliffs edging turquoise waters. Port Stanley has the agreeable atmosphere or an old, second-rate summer tourist town that doesn't care to be overly pretentious. It also has enough happening to not need to pander obsequiously to its visitors. It has a fine summer programme at the Port Stanley Theatre, 302 Bridge St, several low key restaurants, cafes and a pleasing waterfront location.

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Entertainment Parks Sportsworld is a massive entertainment park containing, among other diversions, a water slide, wave pool, go-kart track, video arcades and restaurants. tickets are available. Canada Bingeman Park on the River offers much the same thing, but l bn has 600 camp sites.  The station is at 15 Charles St W in Kitchener, a five-minute walk from the centre. There are frequent services to Guelph and Toronto and around five buses a day to London. Train There are two VIA Rail trains a day to Toronto and one hI l.ondon with a change for Windsor. The station is on the corner of Victoria and Weber Sts, an easy walk north of downtown Kitchener, See under St Jacob's for train service from Waterloo to this nearby Mennonite village.

Canada Tourism never ends without visiting Kitchener Waterloo - AROUND KITCHENER-WATERLOO St Jacobs About 15km north of town (take King St N) is St Jacobs, a small historic village with a busy mix of traditional Mennonites tourists. Numerous arts and crafts and in shops housed in original buildings dating from the 19th century line the main street, King St. See the Meeting Place, a very good interpretive centre on the Mennonites and their history at 33 King St. It's open daily through summer (afternoons only on Sunday). Through the winter, it's closed weekdays. Admission is by donation, At 8 Spring St, the Maple Syrup Museum and Antique Market has exhibits on the production of this Canadian speciality. The museum is open daily all year, except for Monday in January and February.

The St Jacobs Farmers' Market is a country version of the Kitchener farmers' market, with horse-and-buggy sheds still in place. It's 2km south of the village and is open Thursday from 7 am to 3 pm and Saturday from 7 am to 3 pm year-round. There's also a flea market here and on Tuesday and Thursday cattle are auctioned next door at the Livestock Exchange. More authentic (and cheaper) is the less touristy Saturday Waterloo Market aeross the street. For cheap brand-name, goods check the nearby St Jacobs Factory Outlet Mall. The St Jacobs B&B Association can fix you up with singles/doubles averaging $55/65. In town, Benjamin's is an upmarket inn with a good dining room. The Jakobstettel deluxe guesthouse is another higher end, well-established place to lay the head. Whether you stay or not, a visit to the Stone Crock Bakery on King St near the comer of Albert St, should be considered.

The Waterloo-St Jacobs Railway operates a 1950s-style train between here and Waterloo from April to December, but the schedule varies so call. A day pass is $9. In Waterloo, the station is at 10 Father Bauer Drive. Elmira Some 8km north ofSt Jacob's up Hwy 86 is Elmira. It's less touristy than St Jacob's; more a real, working country town but with a significant Mennonite population. In Canada, at 10 Church St W, the Old Town Village Craft Market has some Mennonite goods including fine quilts which are not cheap, as well as other crafts, furniture and antiques. Further along at 58 Church St W, is the Elmira Mennonite Church and cemetery. Oddly juxtaposed are the modem, suburban-like townhouses across the street. In spring, the Maple Syrup Festival, with street activities and pancake breakfasts, is considered the province's biggest and best-attracting thousands of visitors. The area has quite a few B&Bs, many on farms and with owners who speak German. To locate one, call the Elmira Chamber of Commerce at 5 First St. Rates start at $45/65 for singles/doubles.