Earlier, I wrote about the general experience of cycling in Waterloo, mostly in terms of infrastructure. The next question is then: where should you go, except for your workplace and grocery stores? Here are some suggestions, which are, of course, totally subjective.
A natural destination for leisure bike trips are cafés. Along the spurline trail, one finds for example the Café Pyrus Outpost or, at the train station, Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters. Popular cafés in downtown Waterloo are, among others, Midnight Run or the Seven Shores Café.
The next thing you should try is visiting the farmers markets. They are both, essentially, on the spurline trail and thus easily reachable by bike. Which days they are open depends on the season. The St. Jacobs farmers market, at the north end of Waterloo, sometimes has horse auctions. But generally, it is rather touristy. If you can go in the week, do that instead of Saturday since Saturdays are extremely crowded in the summer. Besides selling farm products, the farmers markets also have cafés and various other options for dine-in or take-away food. Close to the St. Jacobs farmers market are woodlots where Maple Syrup is produced. Be careful to not run into the pipes that connect the trees.
For longer-distance bike rides, one needs to plan ahead. Firstly, almost all forests and farmland is “private”. In Canada, that means that you are not allowed to enter it, so when the map doesn’t show a trail through a forest, this probably means that there simply is none. Secondly, most country roads don’t have bike lanes. In many cases, there are wide shoulders, sometimes shared with horse drawn buggies, that work well for bikes. Keep in mind that many of the larger roads have hardly any trees or bushes near them, so on long trips the sun and wind can get exhausting.
At least the smaller country roads are usually fine for biking, and they lead to the neighboring cities. Towards the south west, one gets to places such as Mannheim/Ontario, Petersburg/Ontario, and finally Baden/Ontario. The Baden Coffee company has a store with café where you can try out all their different flavors.
A few kilometers further west, New Hamburg/Ontario has a pretty city center with old store fronts and restaurants, and a park with something like a large water mill. Many of these towns also have markets or festivals, it is worth looking up the regional events if you plan a longer bike tour.
One famous such event is the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, typically in April (maple syrup is harvested when it is till freezing at night, but already warm during the day). Elmira is north of Waterloo, one easily gets there by bike. However, on Saturdays, there is also a historic steam train running from the St. Jacobs Farmers Market northwards to Elmira. The Maple Syrup festival itself is what it sounds like. You find anything from maple syrup infused spirits over maple syrup marinated steaks to maple syrup candy floss. A good place to buy Canadian gifts.
West of Waterloo is the city of Guelph. With 150k inhabitants, it is larger than Waterloo (but, unlike Waterloo, it is not merged with two large adjacent cities). I liked Guelph a lot. It used to be some sort of railway hub, there are traces of historic railway all over the place. Moreover they have the Speed River, which easily competes with the Grand River when it comes to velocity (but not necessarily in size). Along the river are trails and a park which even has historic ruins, the undisputed crown of tourist attractions.
Guelph has the additional feature that one of its historic railway connections was turned into a dedicated hiking and biking path from Guelph to Goderich, which is sometimes also called “Kissing Bridge Trail”. Compared to country roads and highways, this is obviously much more scenic and safer to ride. Being built for trains, it has the additional feature that it has almost no inclines and is overall very straight.
This trail leads to Goderich on lake Huron, but I only biked parts of it so that I could return to Waterloo the same day. The individual segments are maintained by various clubs and initiatives, which often gives them a personal note, and the “Kissing Bridge” is a wooden covered bridge in West Montrose, north of Waterloo. It is a shame that, besides the Kissing bridge, the historic bridges of the trail don’t exist any more, so that one has to use modern car bridges once in a while. You also shouldn’t expect there to be a dedicated “hiker’s restaurant” every few kilometers, but on busy summer days, local residents near the trail sometimes sell refreshments in their front yards.
If you are interested in farmers’ products, but the farmers’ markets are too crowded, consider buying directly from farms. There is a number of farms around Elmira who sell their produce or meat products, and of course maple syrup is widely available. You get to chat with local farmers, hear interesting stories about the region, and usually the prices are also cheaper than at the farmers’ markets. In 2024, maple syrup at the big farmers markets was typically $21/L, whereas from farms it was around $15.
Besides the farms themselves, the area north of Waterloo is generally quite rewarding for cyclists. It has rivers and villages and hills with a nice view. Possible stops include café Rumbletum in Conestogo, the bakery in Hawkesville, or Bonnie Lou’s café in Floradale. The latter is a restaurant I found by chance during a bike trip, it has the unique vibes of a “traditional country restaurant” with local guests and affordable meals. If you have family visiting from overseas, this can be a funny destination since it is totally different from the chain restaurants one finds in every bigger Canadian city. In fact, there are several restaurants in the villages surrounding Waterloo, but I mostly tend to stop at bakeries or cafés.
