Heart of the Thousand Islands Riverboat Cruise Kingston

Kingston waterfront and the historic harbour

The cruise departs from the dock at 1 Brock Street on the Kingston waterfront, right beside Confederation Basin and the domed City Hall of 1844, built when Kingston was briefly the capital of the Province of Canada. As the boat pulls out you see the limestone buildings that give Kingston its nickname of the Limestone City, the marina, the Shoal Tower standing in the water and the Murney Tower on the shore, both Martello towers built in the 1840s to defend the harbour. The host begins the commentary here with the story of the city's naval and military past.

Kingston is about 260 kilometres east of Toronto and 190 kilometres west of Montreal, and a Kingston boat cruise is the easiest way to see the Thousand Islands if you are staying in the city, because the dock is a short walk from the hotels and the main street. Arrive 30 minutes before departure to board.

Fort Henry and the Royal Military College

Across the mouth of the Cataraqui River the boat passes beneath Fort Henry, the stone fortress on Point Henry built in the 1830s to guard the naval dockyard and the entrance to the Rideau Canal. It is part of the Rideau Canal UNESCO World Heritage Site and is still garrisoned in summer by the Fort Henry Guard, whose drills and cannon can sometimes be heard from the water. Below the fort on Point Frederick stands the Royal Military College of Canada, founded in 1876, with its lakeside buildings and the Fort Frederick Martello tower.

From the deck you get a view of the fort and the college that is impossible from land, with the whole defensive layout of the harbour laid out around you. The host explains how the fortifications were built against the threat of invasion after the War of 1812 and why Kingston never fell.

Wolfe Island and the start of the St. Lawrence River

Beyond the harbour the boat enters the wide water where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River, with Wolfe Island filling the southern horizon. Wolfe Island is the largest of the Thousand Islands, about 29 kilometres long, a farming island with a village at Marysville, a ferry link to Kingston and a line of tall wind turbines along its ridge that have become a landmark of the view from the city. The channel between the island and the mainland is the main route for ships entering the river from the lake.

This is the broadest stretch of the cruise and the place to settle on the open deck with the wind and the wide view. The host points out the shipping lanes, the lighthouse at the island's eastern tip and the way the St. Lawrence begins here, carrying the water of all five Great Lakes towards the Atlantic.

Howe Island and the Bateau Channel

The route then turns east into the Bateau Channel, the narrow passage between the mainland and Howe Island, named for the flat-bottomed bateaux that carried freight along the river in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before the Seaway was built. Howe Island is a quiet, rural island reached by two small cable ferries, with farms, cottages and wooded shores that come close to the boat on both sides, and the channel is calm even when the open lake is choppy.

The Bateau Channel is where the Thousand Islands scenery begins in earnest, with boathouses, docks and summer homes appearing on the rocks, and it is the part of the cruise that most passengers photograph. The commentary covers the early settlers, the river pilots and the smuggling days along the border.

The Admiralty Islands, heart of the Thousand Islands

At the far end of the Bateau Channel the boat reaches the Admiralty Islands, the first of the main island groups of the Thousand Islands, scattered between Howe Island and Gananoque. Many of the islands here are named after British admirals and ships, and they range from bare granite rocks to islands with a single cottage under the pines; several belong to the Thousand Islands National Park, the smallest national park in Canada. The vessel slows to pass between them before turning for the return to Kingston.

This is the heart of the Thousand Islands that gives the cruise its name, and the place where the host tells of the Gilded Age summers when wealthy families made the islands the Millionaire's Playground. The best time to visit the Thousand Islands from Kingston is late June to early October, when the water is calm and the islands are green; the return along the same channels brings you back to the Kingston dock about three hours after departure.