The Kitchener-Waterloo area is only a short drive from Toronto, and there’s so much to see. On top of that, they’re now providing a great incentive: a program called ExploreMore!, which provides anyone who books a minimum two-night stay at participating hotels with a $100 VISA gift card to use at restaurants, attractions and retail locations in Waterloo Region.
“Our local tourism industry is still in the early phases of recovery following the pandemic,” says Minto Schneider, CEO at Explore Waterloo Region. “ExploreMore! is designed to inject much-needed revenue back to our accommodation members through overnight stays, while also encouraging guests to visit and spend at the region’s shops, restaurants and attractions.”
To be eligible for the ExploreMore! offer, guests must book a minimum 2-night stay at any participating hotel between November 12 – December 31, 2021. Details about ExploreMore! including a list of participating accommodation providers, as well as places to visit while you’re in Waterloo Region, can be found at exploremorewr.ca.
Here’s a look at a few things to check out on your next visit.
Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum
The main gallery exhibit is called What Makes Us Who We Are? and traces the 12,000 year human history of Waterloo Region, from Indigenous peoples, to community settlement at the start of the 1800s, to the manufacturing heydays of the 1900s, to the high tech sector boom of recent years. There’s an exhibit on now called Amazing Pollinators, which focuses on bees, bats and butterflies. There’s a visually stunning, playable maze, too.
The array of foods and produce and other goods available when I visited a couple summers ago was staggering; basket of ripe, red strawberries stretching on forever, rows of brilliant yellow, orange and red peppers, bright orange, organic carrots. Inside there were rows of ribs and steaks and marinated chicken and sausages galore. I’d never heard of it, so I brought home a bit of Serbian sausage, which turns out to be terrific.
A fabulous lamb pasta dish at The Red House restaurant in Waterloo, Ontario. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The Red House Restaurant, Waterloo
I can’t guarantee it’ll be on the menu, but the calamar we had when we visited was tender and sweet and perfect and was topped with a bit of green olive and tomato ragout with a generous helping of slightly spicy chorizo. If there’s a better calamari dish on the planet, I can’t imagine it. The lamb spaghetti had crumbled lamb ragout, white chanterelle mushrooms, marinated tomatoes, wilted spinach, cremini mushrooms, Grana Padano cheese, truffle oil (the secret) and locally made, thin spaghetti. It was an explosion of Umami that sent my taste buds soaring. The chef, Dan McCowan, is a super-friendly and chilled out guy with a great touch in the kitchen.
Walper Hotel, Kitchener
This used to be THE hotel in Kitchener. They’ve given it a fabulous facelift, and she’s as pretty as ever. The white walls and bright paintings in the lobby give the hotel a splashy, urban look, and the rooms are quite stylish. The second floor has a nice bar called Lokal, and TWH Social is a fabulous restaurant in the basement. We loved the Newfoundland cod and the striploin, which has a sauce that takes something like 48 hours to make. Also very good are the wild mushrooms and fries. The Crystal Ballroom, seen of many a society event in Kitchener over the years, has lovely chandeliers and the building’s original wood floors. Here’s a story I wrote about the hotel for Canadian Travel News.
