Twelve acres of pick-your-own strawberries at a farm that has worked the same land since 1964, then Canada's largest year-round farmers' market, then a sandy beach on a quiet reservoir. About seventy minutes out along the 401 and somebody else drives.
Pick your date and seats below. Food and anything you buy from a vendor is pay as you go.
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Leaving Toronto in the meantime
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
Nobody leads the day. The bus drops you off, you do what you like with the time, and you meet it again where it left you.
Flat and short, on even ground, with no climbing and no rush. This is a walk rather than a hike, and you set the pace.
Most people from Toronto have passed the Waterloo Region exit on the 401 a hundred times without coming off it. Just up the road is one of the densest stretches of farm country and food culture in southern Ontario, and this day strings the best three parts of it together.
Herrle's Country Farm Market in St. Agatha is a family operation that has been growing on the same land since 1964. By early July twelve acres of pick-your-own strawberries are at their peak, with several varieties ripening in turn across the field. You take a container, get pointed at a row, and pick. The farm market itself is worth the stop on its own: a bakery turning out pies and apple fritters, a cooler of local cheese and meat, and a gelato counter where the hazelnut has a following.
The St. Jacobs Farmers' Market has run since 1975 and now draws around a million visitors a year. Waterloo Region is home to the largest population of Old Order Mennonites in Canada, and a number of the vendors arrive from nearby farms by horse and buggy. Across three buildings and an outdoor flea market you get maple syrup, summer sausage, perogies, samosas, doner kebab, quilts, antiques, flowers, and apple fritters with a queue that never really shortens.
Then Laurel Creek Conservation Area, 294 hectares on the edge of Waterloo with a sandy beach on a quiet reservoir. No motorised boats, so the water stays flat. There are six kilometres of trail through woods and wetland boardwalks if you would rather walk lunch off, and picnic tables and shade trees for anyone who packed a book and means to use it.
Come hungry. Bring a tote.
Strawberries first, before the heat of the day. Then the market at lunchtime, then the beach for the afternoon.
We pick you up
Just north of Yonge and Bloor subway station. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the bus. Get there fifteen minutes early.
The first stop, deliberately early so the picking happens before the day gets hot. You take a container, weigh it empty, get directed to a row and pick until you are done, then weigh out and pay at the strawberry shack. They run a flag system so you are always sent to rows nobody has picked over. The farm market beside the field has a bakery, a cooler of local cheese and meat, produce stands and a gelato counter.
Good to know:
Facilities: Strawberry shack for weighing and paying, taking cash, debit and credit, Bakery, produce stands and a gelato counter, Containers for sale if you forgot yours
Note: Herrle's asks that pick-your-own customers can walk at least a kilometre, since some rows are a fair way from the parking area. Wear closed-toe shoes you do not mind getting muddy.
Canada's largest year-round farmers' market, and the food stop of the day. Hundreds of stalls across three buildings plus a sprawling outdoor flea market. Prepared food runs the full international range, and a number of vendors come in from nearby farms by horse and buggy. Waterloo Region has the largest Old Order Mennonite population in the country.
Good to know:
Facilities: Indoor and outdoor stalls, Washrooms, Most vendors take cards, some are cash only
Note: Bring some cash. Most vendors take debit and credit but not all of them do.
The afternoon, and the wind-down. A sandy beach on a reservoir with no motorised boats allowed, so the water stays calm enough for a real swim. Six kilometres of well-maintained trail run through woods and over wetland boardwalks, with benches and shade for anybody who would rather sit.
Good to know:
Facilities: Flush washrooms and hot showers near the beach, Picnic tables and shade trees, 6 km of maintained trail
Note: The beach is unsupervised and the drop-off is steeper than at some lake beaches, so swim within your comfort. Water quality is tested through the summer by Swim Drink Fish Canada. Canoe and kayak rentals are currently listed as unavailable here.
We drop you back
The bus returns to the same place it left from, so you go home the way you came.
This is our estimated return time, not a guarantee. Traffic can change it and some trips do run late, so please leave yourself some room afterwards rather than booking something tight against it.
A day with a field, a market and a beach in it, so a slightly longer list than usual.
The beach at Laurel Creek is unsupervised, and the drop-off is steeper than at some lake beaches.
Water quality is tested through the summer by Swim Drink Fish Canada. Swim within your comfort level.
A soft cooler or insulated tote makes a real difference for strawberries, dairy or meat you pick up at either farm stop. There is room under your seat for a small one.
Most market vendors take debit and credit, but a few are cash only, so carry a bit of both.
If crouching in a field is not your idea of a morning, the farm market itself is open the whole time we are there. Bakery, gelato counter, produce stands.
It is also the accessible option: the market building is level, while the field is uneven ground with some distance to walk.
This one runs in strawberry season, which in Waterloo Region usually falls between late June and mid July.
Placeholder dates · the real ones come from our booking system
We are Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car. You bring a tote bag. We handle everything with wheels.
Herrle's has grown food on the same land since 1964. In early July half a dozen strawberry varieties ripen on a rotating schedule, and you spend an hour low to the ground in the smell of warm fruit.
St. Jacobs has been running since 1975 and draws around a million people a year. Three buildings and a sprawling outdoor flea market, with hundreds of stalls.
Laurel Creek is 294 hectares on the edge of Waterloo with a sandy beach on a reservoir. No motorised boats are allowed, so the water stays calm enough to actually swim in.
The loop is about a hundred and ten kilometres. Doing it yourself means a rental, three car parks and a designated driver who cannot have the gelato.
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Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
The version of a Waterloo Region day where nobody has to be the driver.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
