Toronto 
From spectacular fall colours, harvest activities, festivals and Halloween events, there are plenty of ways to celebrate this transitional season in Ontario. Here are fifty fun activities that will have you celebrating the autumn season to its full potential.
Credit: AmaranthTownship
Doors Open
Visit London, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Woodstock, Mississippi Mills, and Whitby to explore unique buildings, museums, and heritage sites for free.
Ontario Craft Cider Week
Ontario cider producers will mark the apple harvest with Craft Cider Week, running September 19 to 26. The province-wide celebration will feature exclusive cider releases, entertainment, food pairings, and farm activities as part of the Craft Cider Trail.
International Plowing Match and Rural Expo — West Lincoln
Enjoy a five-day celebration of agriculture and rural living. There are plowing competitions, a range of activities for people of all ages, numerous opportunities to learn about agriculture, near-constant live entertainment in multiple venues, hundreds of vendors and exhibitors (large and small equipment, lifestyle items and much more), a wide variety of food … the list goes on.
- Fall Fairs: Fall Fairs in Ontario
Amaranth Bale Trail
A perfect family fall road trip, Amaranth Bale Trail features sculptures made from straw by Amaranth Township residents. Following the Trail provides a good excuse to take a road trip around Amaranth, where you will see the creative side of our local farmers, residents and bale enthusiasts.
Water/Fall Festival
Toronto’s first-ever Water/Fall Festival splashes onto the waterfront this fall with two weekends of free arts, culture, and community. Enjoy dazzling public art on land and water, harvest-inspired food and drinks, live performances, boat tours, and a sustainable makers market. Highlights include a 100-canoe performance, floating wildlife art, and concerts in Toronto’s iconic Music Garden. September 27 to Sunday, October 5, 2025
Niagara Grape & Wine Festival
Go on a wine tasting tour of Twenty Valley and Niagara on the Lake during the Niagara Grape & Wine Festival. Get the Discovery Pass that entitles you to 6 wine and culinary experiences designed by winemakers and chefs to celebrate the flavours of Niagara, redeemable at 20 participating wineries.
Hike Haliburton
Join the annual hiking festival or visit Haliburton to explore the many trails on your own. Haliburton Tourism organizes a hiking festival (2025 – September 18 to 21). Hike Haliburton Festival is Canada’s largest hiking festival, and it includes guided hikes and various Fall-themed experiences. While you have to register for the guided hikes, you can always head to Haliburton anytime from mid-September to late October/early November to enjoy nature during the Fall season.
Annual Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival – Jordan Station
Enjoy the beauty of the fall along the Niagara Escarpment as you take in the sights, sounds and smells of the Thanksgiving Festival and explore the colourful forested trails. The Annual Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival will bring back many of your favourite features, including craft and artisan vendors, delicious foods, craft beverages and wines, local farmers’ market vendors, live acoustic music and children’s entertainment, historical demonstrations, heritage tours and nature hikes.
Norfolk County Fair & Horse Show – Simcoe
Visit Norfolk County Fairgrounds in Simcoe for the largest horse show in Canada. Meet farm animals, view competitions, enjoy the arts and entertainment. Savour tasty food and the thrills of the midway.
Ontario Culture Days – Across Ontario
Held every year, Ontario Culture Days brings fantastic events that celebrate Ontario’s culture. Ontario Culture Days Festival will be a one-month long, and will feature a hybrid of in-person events as well as digital and self-guided programming this year and will run from September 19 – October 12, 2025.
Immersive Dinner Experiences – Windsor
Enjoy a 90 minute VIP private themed immersive dining experience at Windsor’s Haunted House. You and your friends will savour over a multi-course meal and then venture thru all 3 of Scarehouse’s attractions – Scared Evil -Haunted Darkness – Zombie Maze.
Kingsville Migration Festival – Kingsville
Celebrate the wonder that is Fall migration during Kingsville Migration Festival. The annual Migration Festival welcomes the community to a celebration of migration, heritage, nature conservation and Jack Miner.
Scenic Train Rides – Port Stanley
Ride the rails and travel through the beautiful woodlands of scenic Kettle Creek Valley. The scenic train ride is a 60 minute long ride from Port Stanley to the beautiful Whytes Park and back. In October, you can enjoy fun Pumpkin patch train rides and in November and December, they have Santa treats train rides.
Kustermans Fall Festival – Mount Brydges
Enjoy acres of family fun and farm-fresh food at the Kusterman’s Adventure Farm. Pumpkin picking, farm animals, train rides, sandhill, zip lines, jumping pillows are just soem of the things to do here.
Fall Colour Excursions – Tottenham
Plan a fall colour day trip through the colourful landscapes of Beeton Creek Valley aboard the South Simcoe Railway, Ontario’s pioneering steam heritage railway. Each hour-long excursion starts at the South Simcoe Railway station on Mill Street. During the trip, the conductor provides insightful commentary about the historical impact of railways on Canada. The journey not only captivates with its historical charm but also offers stunning views of the countryside, which transform spectacularly during the fall.
Go on a Haunted Forest Ride – Lambton County
Go on a bus ride through a haunted forest at Reaper’s Realm near Sarnia. You can also enjoy live entertainment in addition to getting spooked out of your minds!!
Port Elgin Pumpkinfest
Experience Port Elgin Pumpkinfest, which is always the weekend before Canadian Thanksgiving. Featuring GIANT Vegetable Weigh Offs (1500+ lb pumpkins), over craft, marketplace & food vendors for all your shopping needs and tons of family fun attractions, Port Elgin is THE place to be!
Kitchener-Waterloo’s Oktoberfest
The Oktoberfest in the Kitchener and Waterloo runs for a whole month, earning its billing as “Canada’s Greatest Bavarian Festival.” As the second-largest Oktoberfest in the world, this event is a primary tourism draw for the region.
The Woolstock – Paris
Held at Paris Fairgrounds, the annual Fleece Festival celebrates the fibre arts, including knitting, weaving, rug hooking, spinning and felting. Shop the festival marketplace with vendors selling everything from raw fleece and yarns to finished products. Get hands-on and learn from top instructors at one of the workshops.
Fear Farm – Bright
Located on the border of Oxford County and the Kitchener-Waterloo Region, Fear Farm is the region’s greatest haunt with different haunted attractions to explore, on-site food trucks and a bakery.
Go canoeing on the Grand River
Credit: Canoeing The Grand
With Canoeing the Grand, you can experience canoeing, kayaking, or tubing on the winding Grand River and enjoy the scenic beauty of your surroundings.
Monster Month in Elora
Monster Month is taking over Elora and Fergus in the month of October. Keep your eye on the event’s website; events will be added once finalized.
Salmon Run – Southern Ontario
Cool Fall temperatures see scores of Chinook Salmon fighting their way up rivers and streams on their annual spawning run. Visit various streams and rivers of Ontario to see the annual salmon migration and see this amazing Fall phenomenon.
Caledonia Fair
Happening at the Caledonia Fairgrounds, the Caledonia Fair combines the traditions of the country fair – livestock shows, home craft, food and the midway – with continuous entertainment to make Caledonia Fair a perfect Autumn outing for the entire family.
Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show
The Mum Show, as most people refer to the show, started in 1920 and has seen many changes over the years. A new theme each year has taken us through dramatic scenes of flowers, colours and displays.
Explore Kelso Conservation Area – Milton
Credit: Kelso Conservation AreaThe Kelso Conservation Area is not only home to incredible fall colors and nature spots, it is also home to the Kelso Challenge Course – an aerial course that includes many elements to challenge you physically high up in the air. You can also take a chairlift ride up the escarpment and admire the changing colours above the treetops at Kelso Conservation Area.
Visit Cheltenham Badlands
Formed at the base of an ancient sea over 400 million years ago, the Cheltenham Badlands site is a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest and one of the most recognizable and visited natural heritage landmarks in southern Ontario. Enjoy a Fall visit when the colours of fall accentuate the various hues of gold, brown and yellow of the badland formations.
The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
Come celebrate the best in agriculture, local food, and equestrian competitions from across the country. Whether you’re a visitor or an exhibitor, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is jam-packed with home-grown fun and the best in local food and animal entertainment.
Where: Exhibition Place, Princes’ Boulevard, Toronto
Lighted Pumpkins -Various Ontario
Credit: Science North
Get ready to see extraordinary works of art on pumpkins this fall across Ontario. Set outdoors, you can see hand-carved glowing pumpkins that will blow your mind. You’ll be amazed at the large thematic displays and range of incredibly cute and scary faces carved into the pumpkins.
Woodbridge Fair – Vaughan
Celebrate Thanksgiving weekend at the Fair! The Woodbridge Fair offers so many things to see, learn and do! A jam-packed weekend with activities for the whole family including Midway rides & games, and Music main stage.
Art Toronto
Founded in 2000, Art Toronto is Canada’s international fair for modern and contemporary art. Attracting esteemed galleries, artists and art-lovers from across the globe, the fair is the most important annual art event in Canada.
Fall at Pickering Museum
Take a guided haunted ghost walk of the historic village at night and hear stories from the past, go on a fairy tour with kids to discover Pickering’s picturesque forest, village, and gardens that are home to not only some incredible natural creatures but also some magical creatures, learn how to make wand, enjoy a refreshing cup of tea with a homemade scone and vanilla cupcake and more during your visit to this pioneer village.
Stalking Dead – Peterborough
Meet the undead and find out if you can survive the horrors of the night when Escape Maze’s Halloween event returns this October. This nighttime experience occurs as night falls and includes live zombies wandering around the tall grass in the field, looking for all those scaredy cats!
Central Ontario Driving Tour
Enjoy the roads before the snow comes as you explore the middle of the province and its rising ridges, scenic landscapes and gentle, rolling hills. 15 Fall Colour Driving Routes in Central Ontario
Kawartha Farmfest
Go on a self-driving tour features 14 stops, including nine operational farms, local farmers’ markets and Kawartha Dairy. During the one-day event, participating host farms open their doors to provide tours and answer questions about their operation. Kawartha Farmfest is both a celebration of agriculture and brings the community together to explore, learn and grow.
Applefest – Keene
Tempt your taste buds with the sweetest event of the year! Visit Lang Pioneer Village for a colourful fall celebration of apples and the harvest season.
Pumpkin Mania – Elmvale
Enjoy a wagon ride out to Rounds Ranch’s large pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkin. Play silly, goofy pumpkin games, pumpkin bowling, pumpkin pie eating contest, and pumpkin hockey. Win pumpkin tokens and redeem them for fun prizes.
Blue Mountains Apple Harvest Weekend
Fabulous fall colours, crisp autumn air and even crisper apples. These are just some of the ingredients of the Thanksgiving harvest experience at Blue Mountain, in Ontario’s largest apple growing region. Apple Harvest Weekend features live music, family activities, fall colours hiking, apple pie eating contests, cider tasting, sidewalk sales, Agora Path of Light and more!
Autumn Leaves Studio Tour – Georgian Bay
Go on a self-guided tour of artists’ studios across the Georgian Bay area on the weekend before Thanksgiving. This year, there are more than ten studios are participating, and many have invited guest artists, ensuring there is something for everyone! Within this wide array of art, you will enjoy sculpture, metalwork, painting, pottery, jewelry, fibre art, wood turning and much more.
Canopy Tours – Haliburton
Imagine walking high above the forest awash with hues of red and gold? Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve has the world’s longest Canopy walkway, at a height of 10-20 meters above the forest floor. Why not go on this guided adventure that includes a scenic drive through the forest, a canoe tour across a wilderness lake, a guided walk along the Pelaw River Rapids and a walk high above the ground through the treetops.
Algonquin Provincial Park
Rated the best place to catch the colours of fall, Algonquin Provincial Park explodes with oranges, yellows, and reds as the weather grows chillier. Smell the autumn on the air as you spend a day taking it all in. With rivers and lakes to picnic by and fourteen hiking trails, the exploration at Algonquin Provincial Park never ends.
Cranberry Festival & Harvest – Bala
The Cranberry Harvest kicks off on September 20! Visit Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh for this once-a-year event that runs until October 26. With daily Bog to Bottle Tours, wine tastings, Cranberry plunges and Wagon Tours on weekends, this is a perfect way to enjoy this unique fruit in the beauty of the fall.
If you visit on the weekend after Thanksgiving, you can also join for Bala Cranberry Festival.
Muskoka Oktoberfest
Head to Muskoka for a free music, culinary and beer festival in participating breweries and restaurants across Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Huntsville, Lake of Bays and Muskoka Lakes.
Halloween Spooktacular — Bracebridge
Santa and his Elves have transformed Santa’s Village into a spooky Halloween village. Enjoy many of your favourite rides and attractions and several special Halloween activities too like trick or treating around the park, pumpkin patch and more!
Mysterious Lake and Scenic View of Bay of Quinte – Prince Edward County
Located just a ten-minute drive from Picton, above the Glenora ferry landing, the Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park is a serene escape. Enjoy fall colours from the lookout, see a mysterious lake and, a free ride on the ferry.
Kingston WritersFest
Come out to Kingston for the annual WritersFest event. Celebrating culture, history, imagination, diversity, and originality, this event promotes the art and educates on the craft of writing. Events include panels, readings, classes, and lectures. Some of the events are sold out, so grab your tickets as soon as possible.
Fall Colours Chairlift Rides – Calabogie
Ride the chairlift up 780 feet to the top of Dickson Mountain for a breathtaking view of the beautiful Ottawa Valley. Once on top of the mountain, hike the many trails to enjoy stunning views of Calabogie Lake, the Lost Valley and the Madawaska wilderness.
Day of the Dead – Ottawa
Immerse yourself in Mexican culture in the midst of the historic ByWard Market neighbourhood as the community gathers to celebrate the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, festivals, and activities the dead enjoyed in their lifetime. With special programming including Mariachi performances, authentic Mexican cuisine, artisan market, folkloric dancers and much more, the Dead of the Dead Festival is an unforgettable experience.
Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival
The Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival is Northern Ontario’s premier festival for readers, writers, and lovers of words. Celebrate your love for the written word.
Fall Rendezvous in Sault Ste Marie
The Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site is hosting a Fall Rendezvous this year in Sault Ste. Marie. Enjoy the music, try the fall harvest foods, and interact with the heritage interpreters. This event pairs a historical context with all the joys of a harvest festival.
Corn Mazes
Getting lost is half the fun! Plan a trip to your nearest corn maze and enjoy the simple pleasures of life! You can even meet the undead in the maze during Halloween.
Fall Colour Cruises
Enjoy the Fall colours from the water. Most tours last until Thanksgiving weekend. Book ahead and enjoy a cruise along Ontario’s various rivers and lakes.
Halloween Haunts
Experience Ontario’s mazes, haunted attractions and farms after dark for a night of terror this Halloween! Embrace a chilling journey where the unexpected lurks around every shadowy corner of Ontario’s eerie farms and terrifying haunts during the month of October.
