Toronto to Windsor by chauffeur: the end of the 401, the river, the bridge to Detroit

Windsor, at the end of the road

Windsor is where the 401 ends, three hundred and seventy kilometres west of Toronto on the Detroit River with the Detroit skyline across the water, and it is a city Toronto reaches for five things: Caesars Windsor's casino and its five-thousand-seat Colosseum, which books the concerts and the comedians; the University of Windsor and St. Clair College; the auto industry - the Stellantis assembly plant, the Ford engine plants, the NextStar battery plant and the suppliers; Walkerville, the Hiram Walker distillery's company town and its restaurants; and the crossing to Detroit by the tunnel, the Ambassador Bridge or the Gordie Howe bridge. There is a small airport with Toronto flights and a train that takes four hours; the chauffeured drive is four hours door to door with the passenger working. A Toronto-to-Windsor booking is a one-way flat fare or an overnight with the chauffeur staying, and the city-to-city page explains when each is the better number.

The drive

The 401 west, all of it: Kitchener at an hour and twenty, London at two hours five, Chatham at three, Tilbury, and the 401's end at Windsor's Huron Church Road, with the E.C. Row Expressway across the city to the riverfront and Walkerville. Four hours off-peak, four and a half on a Friday afternoon leaving Toronto, and the stretch west of London the flattest, emptiest and, in a January squall off Lake Erie, the most closed road in Ontario - the dispatcher watches Ontario 511, the SUV has winter tyres, and a drive leaves early or waits. No tolls unless the 407 is chosen across the top of Toronto. London is the lunch stop; a flat fare includes a comfort break and an hourly booking stops as you like.

Caesars Windsor

Caesars Windsor on Riverside Drive is Ontario's casino resort on the river: the floor, the hotel's two towers with the Detroit skyline from the rooms, the restaurants, and the Colosseum, whose concert schedule is the reason for most Toronto bookings - a night at the hotel with a show is a one-way flat fare each way, or an overnight with the chauffeur staying, and a Sprinter of twelve for a birthday or an office outing is the group booking. The Casino Rama page is the nearer casino night; Windsor's is the weekend version, and the Caesars site has the Colosseum's season.

The university and the college

The University of Windsor's campus by the Ambassador Bridge - the law school, the engineering building, the residences on Sunset and Huron Church - and St. Clair College's south campus bring Toronto families west for move-in in September, convocation in June at the WFCU Centre, and the law school's admitted-students days; the SUV with the student's things as a one-way flat fare to the residence loading zone, the routine the Kingston page describes, and the Sprinter for the family at convocation. UWindsor's calendar sets the dates.

The auto industry

Windsor is the Canadian auto industry's capital: the Stellantis (Chrysler) assembly plant on Tecumseh Road, the Ford engine plants in the east end, the NextStar Energy battery plant on the E.C. Row, the tool-and-die and mould shops that supply Detroit across the river, and the Automobility Institute. Toronto's parts companies, the banks and the law firms that serve them send executives west for a day at the plants: a one-way at 6 am, an hourly block for the site visits with the chauffeur waiting at each gate, a one-way home at 4 - or, for a plant tour that continues across the river to Dearborn, the Detroit page's overnight with the crossing. On the corporate account; the roadshow page plans a multi-stop day.

Walkerville and the riverfront

Walkerville is Hiram Walker's Victorian company town east of downtown - the distillery on the river still making Canadian Club, the Walkerville Brewery, the restaurants and bars on Wyandotte and Ottawa Streets, the Willistead Manor - and the best evening in the city; the riverfront's Dieppe Gardens and the sculpture park run five kilometres along the Detroit River with the skyline opposite and the freighters between, and the Windsor Sculpture Park and the Odette are the walk. A Windsor day for a visitor is eight hours with Walkerville's distillery tour, the riverfront and dinner on Ottawa Street; the Tourism Windsor Essex site has the rest.

Point Pelee, Kingsville and the Lake Erie wineries

Point Pelee National Park, the southernmost tip of mainland Canada and the country's best birding in May's migration, is forty-five minutes south-east of Windsor at Leamington; Kingsville and the Lake Erie North Shore wineries - Pelee Island Winery, Colio, Oxley, Sprucewood, Cooper's Hawk - are on the way; and Pelee Island itself is a ferry from Kingsville. A Toronto-to-Windsor overnight that spends its second day at Pelee and the wineries is the multi-day version, and the wine-tour page has the tasting rules that apply to Ontario's third wine region as to its first.

Across the river

The tunnel from downtown Windsor to downtown Detroit, the Ambassador Bridge from Huron Church Road, and the Gordie Howe International Bridge from Sandwich: a Windsor booking that crosses - a Red Wings game, a Detroit meeting, DTW airport - is a cross-border booking with passports for everyone and the crossing in the fare, and the Detroit page has the American side. A Windsor overnight with a Detroit evening is the most common shape.

The overnight

An hourly booking with the chauffeur staying - the per-diem and the hotel on the confirmation - gives the same chauffeur and car at the Caesars towers or the Walkerville inn in the morning; for a plant-tour day that continues to Detroit it is the better service, and for a casino night the two flat fares are usually cheaper. The desk says which; a Toronto-Windsor-Toronto same-day run is not one chauffeur's day under Ontario's hours-of-service rules and is not booked as one.

The car

The Mercedes S-Class for the executive's four working hours each way; the Executive Sedan for the same at the lower rate; the Luxury SUV for a move-in, a family and the 401 west of London in winter; the Executive Sprinter for a Colosseum concert party, a convocation family or a plant-tour team. Every vehicle is commercially insured for US operation for the crossing and carries winter tyres from November. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

A one-way flat fare by route and class with the car's return built in, or an overnight with the per-diem, plus HST and the gratuity you set; no Ontario tolls; the crossing's toll if the trip crosses; Caesars' valet is complimentary. The rates page explains the hourly number. Against the four-hour train and a taxi at each end, or the flight's three hours door to door for one traveller, the chauffeured drive is the version for two or more with a working day or a weekend's luggage.

Windsor, in a table

Booking Windsor

Route for a one-way with the address in the notes; a call to the desk for an overnight, a plant-tour week or a trip that crosses to Detroit, with every passenger's nationality for the crossing. Colosseum concert weekends and September move-in book weeks ahead; winter drives with a weather eye on the 401 west of London.

Where the car waits, in a table

The auto-industry week

A Toronto supplier's or bank's team doing a week of plant visits on both sides of the river is the multi-day booking: the Sprinter or two sedans, the chauffeurs staying at the Caesars towers or the Walkerville inn on per-diem, Windsor's plants on Monday and Tuesday, the tunnel to Dearborn and Auburn Hills on Wednesday and Thursday, home on Friday - one confirmation, one invoice, the corporate account and every passenger's passport on the vehicle. The desk sets it up once for the recurring quarterly visit.

Pelee Island, and the ferry

The Pelee Island ferry from Leamington and Kingsville - the Pelee Islander II, ninety minutes each way, vehicles by reservation - takes the SUV across for a day or a night on Canada's southernmost inhabited point: the Pelee Island Winery's pavilion, the lighthouse, the Fish Point nature reserve, the birding in May. A Windsor overnight that spends its second day on the island is booked with the ferry reservation the desk makes, and Ontario Ferries publishes the seasonal schedule.

Booking, in one line

Route for a one-way with the address in the notes; a call to the desk for an overnight, a plant-tour week or a trip that crosses to Detroit, with every passenger's nationality; weeks ahead for Colosseum concert weekends and September move-in.

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