Goderich

Goderich was laid out in 1828 by the Canada Company with an unusual plan: eight streets radiating from an octagonal square, with the Huron County courthouse at its centre. The town grew into a working Great Lakes port and the site of one of the world's largest salt mines, extending under Lake Huron, yet it calls itself Canada's Prettiest Town and works hard at the title, with flower plantings, a heritage main street and a boardwalk along the bluffs. About 7,900 people live here, on Highway 21 where the Maitland River meets the lake, an hour and a quarter northwest of London. Tornado damage in 2011 rebuilt parts of the square, which today mixes old limestone blocks with new storefronts.

The Square is the first stop, circled by shops and cafés and watched over by the courthouse. Below the bluffs, three public beaches run along the shore: Main Beach by the harbour, St. Christopher's, and Rotary Cove, linked by a boardwalk and staircases up the bluff. The Goderich lighthouse, standing on the bluff since 1847, is the town's postcard view, and the sunsets over Lake Huron draw a crowd most clear evenings. The Huron County Museum covers the county's farming and lake history, and the Huron Historic Gaol, an octagonal 1840s jail, is one of the most unusual historic buildings in Ontario. The Maitland River trail and the old railway bridge, now a walking span, fill out a day.

The Square and West Street give you cafés, a bakery, pubs and a few good restaurants, with fish from the lake on local menus. The Celtic Roots Festival takes over the harbour park each August with music from across the Celtic world, and summer weekends bring farmers' and flea markets to the square. Nightlife is a pub, live music in the park and those sunsets; this is an early-to-bed town. In winter the pace drops further, though the lake-effect snow and frozen shoreline have their own appeal for a quiet weekend.

Lodging is mostly small hotels and inns near the square, bed and breakfasts in the older streets, and cottages and campgrounds along the shore north and south of town. The centre is walkable, but the beaches spread over a couple of kilometres of shoreline, so a car or bike helps; the town is also served by a regional transit service linking Huron County communities. Parking is easy. Goderich works as a base for the whole Huron shore, from Bayfield and Grand Bend south to Kincardine and Point Clark north.

May to September is beach and festival season, with the warmest lake water in August. Fall brings colour to the Maitland valley and quieter streets, and winter is for storm-watching on the bluffs rather than swimming. A day covers the square, the museum and a beach; two lets you add the gaol and the river trail. On a route, Goderich anchors the Lake Huron shore drive on Highway 21, the natural overnight between Grand Bend and Sarnia to the south and Kincardine and the Bruce Peninsula to the north.

Day trips run both ways along the shore. Bayfield, twenty minutes south, is a smaller, gallery-and-inn version of the lake town idea on its own heritage main street, and Point Clark, half an hour north, has an 1859 Imperial lighthouse you can climb above another long beach. Inland, Blyth's festival theatre and the farm country of Huron County fill a rainy day. The port itself is worth a look from the harbour lookout: lake freighters load salt at the docks through the shipping season, a reminder that Goderich works for a living beneath the pretty surface.