What to do in St. Mary's.
A lovely day trip to this quaint little town which is located in southwestern Ontario and is only 90 minutes travel time approximately from Toronto and has a tiny population of approximately 7265 people. You can watch the video on our Youtube Channel.
St Mary’s also has a nickname - Stonetown because of its abundance of lime stone. St Mary’s is home to many 19th century buildings built with locally quarried limestone. We enjoyed viewing the limestone architecture in downtown St Mary’s such as the Opera House, Town Hall and Public Library which you can see in our youtube channel.
This charming town has that small town warmth and friendliness that is sometimes lost in big cities. Locals saw us videoing and came up to us and told us about must see and things to do in their town. Pretty cool.
Downtown places we loved:
- Visit the many artisan shops in The Little Falls Artisan Market and purchase one of a kind unique gifts.
- Visit the vintage/retro thrift shop “Pass It On” just off main street is a real treasure trove.
- Chocolate Factory sample homemade truffles – to die for
- Stonetown Artisan Cheese - If you enjoy cheese a must is to sample the local cheeses and curds that Stonetown has to offer with owners Hans and Jolanda Weber, with Swiss cheese maker Ramon Eberle
- Troyer’s Spices located on Queen Street – herbs and spices from all over the world. A cool thing is you can bring your own containers or purchase their pre-packaged stock
- Stonetown Coffee good coffee and delectable pastries, also serves breakfast and lunch
There were so many other cool shops like the old fashioned Sweet Treats on Water Street which we passed by.
Walking Trails
After shopping and eating we explored the area around the Thames River.
There are 3 walkways and trails which you can walk or cycle.
The Riverview Walkway is a popular one as it is so pretty, paved, relaxing and peaceful and leads to the swimming quarry 2.9 km (only open in summer).
Other popular trails are the Wildewood Lake Trail (21.7km) and the Grand Trunk Trail (4.8km)
This was a day trip for us but a town so rich with history, beautiful architecture and charm, nestled in the beauty of the Thames River it seems like a weekend or longer would be an amazing retreat and food for the soul. St Mary’s is a very special town.