Just off the 7 · 20 min south — Hwy 43 from Perth, or Hwy 15 from Carleton Place
Smiths Falls
The Rideau Canal's working heart — locks, trains, and a chocolate factory's second life.
Why detour
Smiths Falls is the biggest town near the corridor that isn’t on it, and it earns the twenty minutes south — from Perth via Highway 43 or from Carleton Place via Highway 15, whichever end of the loop you’re on. The Rideau Canal — the whole thing a UNESCO World Heritage Site — runs right through downtown, and watching boats work through the locks on a summer afternoon is the town’s founding entertainment, still free.
Train people should know about the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, based in the old Canadian Northern station — one of the better small railway museums in the province.
And then there’s the factory. For generations Smiths Falls meant Hershey — every Eastern Ontario kid remembers the factory tour. The plant closed in 2008, came back years later as one of Canada’s most famous cannabis facilities, and the town has ridden that whole strange arc with its sense of humour intact. The downtown that came through it is doing better than it has in decades.
The loop worth knowing: Perth → Smiths Falls → Carleton Place makes a natural triangle — down the 43, back up the 15 — that turns a Highway 7 day trip into a proper circuit.
Carved pumpkins from families, businesses and school classes line the Heritage House Museum grounds for a pumpkin walk, with a fall-themed prize for the winner. To enter one, call the museum at 613-283-6311.
The downtown business association's Halloween morning for kids. A costume parade sets off from the Town Hall bandstand, then it's trick-or-treating at the downtown shops with candy corn signs in their windows.
A costumed guide takes you through the museum's period rooms dressed for a traditional Canadian Christmas, and the old Eastern Ontario customs behind each one. Admission by donation. Book ahead by phone or Eventbrite.
The Victorian museum after dark, lit by candles and decorated for Christmas. Join a guided tour or wander through on your own. Ten dollars an adult, and spots should be booked ahead.
The Smiths Falls Community Theatre's Christmas show, a compilation of "The Gift of the Magi and other holiday stories to Warm the Heart" by Barbara Warren and Kimi Rinaldi, directed by Anne-Marie Laferrière. Ten days at the old railway station on Victoria Ave; the theatre has not posted curtain times yet.
A 104-kilometre rail trail running southwest to Strathcona near Napanee, the first 78 km of it part of the Trans Canada Trail. Its showpiece is a 1912 railway trestle carrying the trail over the Rideau Canal at Chaffey's Locks. Non-motorized, snowmobiles by permit.
Trailhead south of Hwy 15, southwest of town · Checked Aug 2026 · Cataraqui Trail management and Ontario Trails Council
A picnic-by-the-water classic, tucked between two Rideau Canal locks — benches, picnic tables, flower displays, and boats working through the locks all summer long. Two public beaches sit beside it, split by depth for waders and swimmers, sampled weekly by the health unit through the season.
2-22 Confederation Drive, Smiths Falls · Checked Aug 2026 · Town of Smiths Falls parks list and Swim Guide
An 1860s mansion by the Old Slys locks, furnished to portray upper-middle-class life on the Rideau. Municipally run, about 2 km from the railway museum.
11 Old Slys Road, Smiths Falls · Checked Jul 2026 · Town of Smiths Falls museum page
Sixty acres along the Rideau with a waterfront trail, docks you can swim or fish off, a splash pad, and courts and diamonds for everyone not in the water.
12-B Old Slys Rd, Smiths Falls · Checked Aug 2026 · Town of Smiths Falls parks list
The old Canadian Northern station, kept as a museum — rolling stock on the yard tracks, the station interior, and the town's railway history in the building that made it a junction.
90 William Street West, Smiths Falls · Checked Jul 2026 · museum's own site (rmeo.org)
Smiths Falls sits on three lock stations — Detached, Combined, and Old Slys, the last with a 26-foot drop, the system's biggest. The whole 202 km canal is a National Historic Site and one of only two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ontario — still hand-operated, still the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America.
One of the four main trailheads on the 387-kilometre footpath between Kingston and Ottawa, blazed and maintained by the Rideau Trail Association since 1971. Walking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing only — this one is not a rail grade and not open to bikes or ATVs.
Trailhead at Centennial Park · Checked Aug 2026 · Rideau Trail Association
A sixty-seat live music room and neighbourhood bar on Russell Street, open since 2019, pouring regional craft beer, cocktails and espresso with sandwiches until 1am. Open Wednesday to Saturday, plus a listening-room concert every third Sunday. No phone, so book by email or through its socials.
20 Russell St E, Smiths Falls · Checked Oct 2026 · Downtown Smiths Falls BIA restaurant list (downtownsf.ca/restaurants-pubs-1) and the club's own site
A 1912 Scherzer Rolling Lift bridge — the oldest surviving example of its type in Canada, designated a National Historic Site in 1983. Its roadbed stands permanently raised now, counterweight pointed at the sky, a genuinely strange and photogenic sight over the Rideau Canal.
Branch 95 on Main Street East, with four rooms let out at different sizes, from a meeting of twenty-five up to a dinner for two hundred and fifty. 613-283-2690.
7 Main St E, Smiths Falls · Checked Sep 2026 · the branch's own site, address from the Smiths Falls downtown directory
Italian, Indian, Sri Lankan and Canadian cooking side by side on Beckwith Street, from pizza and poutine to burgers and mains.
27 Beckwith St N, Smiths Falls · Checked Oct 2026 · Downtown Smiths Falls BIA restaurant list (downtownsf.ca/restaurants-pubs-1) and the restaurant's own site
Pub food made fresh daily and what it calls the best patio in town, on Beckwith Street South. Closed Mondays.
32 Beckwith St S, Smiths Falls · Checked Oct 2026 · Downtown Smiths Falls BIA restaurant list (downtownsf.ca/restaurants-pubs-1) and the taphouse's own site ("the best patio in town", closed Mondays)