Burlington from the driver's seat
Burlington — at the western end of Lake Ontario between Oakville and Hamilton, from Burloak Drive to the Hamilton border and north over the escarpment to Highway 5 — is 40 to 55 minutes from Pearson via the QEW and the 427 or the 407 (60 to 90 at the peaks), 25 to 35 from Hamilton's airport via Highway 6, and 45 to 70 from downtown Toronto. Its black car trade is the two airports, the QEW corridor's head offices, Joseph Brant Hospital, the waterfront's and the Royal Botanical Gardens' weddings and the Toronto evening.
Burlington is the city with a choice of airports. Pearson is forty minutes east on a good morning; Hamilton's airport is twenty-five minutes south-west on any morning; Buffalo is ninety minutes down the QEW; and the QEW itself splits at the city's western edge into the Niagara-bound and the Hamilton-bound carriageways over the Skyway. Around the highways is a waterfront city — Spencer Smith Park and the Brant Street Pier, the downtown's restaurants on Brant and Lakeshore, the Aldershot and Roseland lakeshore estates, the Orchard and Millcroft subdivisions north of the QEW, the Royal Botanical Gardens on the Hamilton border, the escarpment's Mount Nemo and the rural north — whose households and companies book black cars for the reasons Oakville's do. This page covers the neighbourhoods and their pickups, the highways and the two airports, the corporate corridor, the hospital, the weddings at the RBG and the waterfront, the Toronto and Niagara runs, and a day worked through.
The neighbourhoods and their pickups
Downtown Burlington (Brant Street from the QEW to the lake, Lakeshore Road, Spencer Smith Park, the Burlington Performing Arts Centre): the restaurants with pickups on the side streets (John, Elizabeth, Pearl), the arts centre's Locust Street lay-by, the pier's Lakeshore Road lots, the waterfront hotels' porte-cochères. Roseland and the lakeshore east (Lakeshore Road toward Oakville): the estates, pickups at the door; the Burlington Golf and Country Club's gates. Aldershot (Plains Road and the lakeshore west to the RBG and the Hamilton border): the older streets, the Aldershot GO, the LaSalle Park marina. The Orchard, Millcroft and Alton (north of the QEW, east and west of Appleby Line): the subdivisions, the Burlington GO and Appleby GO stations' loops, the Millcroft Golf Club. Mountainside and the escarpment (north of Highway 5 — Mount Nemo, Kilbride, Lowville, the rural north): long driveways, the conservation areas' gates. The QEW corridor (the North Service Road and the head offices along Harvester and Mainway): the campuses' lay-bys. The Burlington guide covers the QEW routes; the street notes are on dispatch's map.
Two airports, and the highways from each neighbourhood
Pearson from Burlington is the QEW east through Oakville and Mississauga to the 427 (40 to 50 minutes off-peak from downtown, 60 to 90 at the peaks) or, at the peaks, the 407 — north on Appleby Line or Guelph Line to the toll road, east to the 427 — which runs 45 to 55 at almost any hour and is offered as a line item on every airport booking. Hamilton's airport is Highway 6 south from the 403 (25 to 35 minutes from anywhere in the city) and is Burlington's closest airport by far; for sun flights and Flair's routes it is the default, and the Hamilton airport page covers the terminal. Buffalo is the QEW west over the Skyway and down through Niagara (80 to 100 minutes plus the border); the Buffalo page covers the crossing. The Pearson to Burlington guide works the Pearson decision by neighbourhood; the Pearson page has the procedure at Door A.
Corporate Burlington
The QEW corridor's head offices — the pharmaceutical, packaged-goods, engineering and insurance companies along Harvester Road, Mainway and the North Service Road, the professional firms of downtown Brant Street, the manufacturers of the Appleby and Guelph Line industrial parks — book the Pearson and Hamilton airport runs, client pickups with meet and greet, hourly days for visiting executives and the Sprinter to a Toronto client dinner; corporate accounts hold the campus's lay-by and the airport policy (Hamilton for the sun routes, Pearson with the 407 for the rest).
Joseph Brant Hospital and healthcare
Joseph Brant Hospital on Lakeshore Road at the waterfront's western end, rebuilt in 2018, is the city's hospital, with an entrance loop and the standing-order pattern for older residents' appointments; Hamilton's hospitals (Hamilton General, St. Joseph's, the Juravinski, McMaster Children's) are 15 to 25 minutes west and are the region's tertiary care, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial fifteen east, and the Toronto hospitals 50 to 75 east. The seniors' guide and the medical appointments article describe the weekly arrangements, which Burlington's large community of older residents in the downtown towers and the lakeshore uses.
Weddings: the RBG, the waterfront and the escarpment
The Royal Botanical Gardens' Rock Garden and Hendrie Park on the Hamilton border, the waterfront's hotels and Spencer Smith Park's pavilion, the Burlington Golf and Country Club, the Paletta Lakefront Park mansion, the Burlington Convention Centre and the escarpment's barns and conservation areas host the city's weddings, and the transport is the wedding page's with the city's specifics: a couple's stretch from a Roseland estate to a downtown church, photographs at the RBG's gardens or the pier, the reception at a waterfront hotel with a porte-cochère on the chauffeur's map, and a guest bus from the QEW corridor's hotels; the venue notes cover the RBG's gates and the waterfront's venues.
The waterfront's calendar
Spencer Smith Park's calendar — the Sound of Music Festival in June (which closes the waterfront's streets for a weekend), Canada Day's fireworks, the Ribfest on Labour Day weekend, the Lakeside Festival of Lights in December — and the downtown's Brant Street festivals change the pickups for weekends at a time, and dispatch has the dates. A summer evening downtown — dinner on Brant or Lakeshore, a walk on the pier, the arts centre's season — is a short hourly booking with the car on John or Elizabeth Street.
Downtown Toronto and Niagara for the evening
Burlington to the Financial District is the QEW and the Gardiner (45 to 60 minutes off-peak, 70 to 100 at the peaks); a Leafs game, a Yorkville dinner or a Mirvish show is an hourly booking with the chauffeur waiting downtown and the arena or theatre guide's pickup, and the GO train from Burlington or Aldershot is the honest single-passenger alternative. Niagara Falls is the QEW west over the Skyway (50 to 65 minutes off-peak) and the wine country forty minutes, which makes Burlington the GTA's best base for a Niagara day and its vineyard weddings.
Hamilton, Oakville and the neighbours
Hamilton's downtown, McMaster and the escarpment are 15 to 25 minutes west (the Hamilton guide), Oakville's downtown fifteen east (the Oakville guide), Milton twenty north up Guelph Line or the 407 (the Milton guide), and Waterdown and the escarpment's villages fifteen north on Highway 6. A Burlington family's trip to a Tiger-Cats game at Tim Hortons Field, an Oakville harbour dinner or the Hamilton waterfalls is a short fixed fare.
A Burlington day, in cars
4:30 a.m. — an SUV from a Millcroft home to Hamilton's airport via Highway 6, twenty-eight minutes, a family bound for Cancún with six bags. 7:00 — a sedan from a Roseland estate to Terminal 1 via the QEW and 427, forty-four minutes ahead of the peak. 9:30 — a QEW corridor executive to a King West meeting, waiting on an hourly clock. 1:30 p.m. — an Aldershot couple's standing car to Joseph Brant and the pharmacy on Plains Road. 3:00 — a stretch limousine and a Sprinter begin an RBG wedding: the couple from a lakeshore home to a downtown church, the Rock Garden for photographs, a waterfront hotel for the reception, the last drop at midnight. 6:00 — a premium sedan from the Orchard to a Yorkville restaurant via the QEW and Gardiner, waiting, home at 10:45. Every trip a fixed fare.
Burlington to everywhere
| From downtown Burlington to | Route | Off-peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson | QEW east → 427 | 40–50 min | 60–90 (407: 45–55) |
| Hamilton airport | 403 → Highway 6 south | 25–35 | 35–45 |
| Buffalo airport | QEW west + border | 80–100 | 100–130 |
| Financial District | QEW → Gardiner | 45–60 | 70–100 |
| Yorkville | QEW → Gardiner → University | 50–65 | 75–105 |
| Hamilton (downtown) | 403 west | 15–25 | 25–40 |
| Oakville (downtown) | QEW or Lakeshore east | 15–20 | 25–35 |
| Niagara Falls | QEW west | 50–65 | 70–95 |
| Royal Botanical Gardens | Plains Road west | 8–12 | 12–20 |
Booking a car in Burlington
The engine prices any Burlington address to either airport and shows the 407 option for Pearson; the notes field takes the estate, the venue or the campus. Corporate accounts set the airport policy once; standing orders cover the weekly trips.
The Mapleview Centre, Burlington Centre and the QEW's retail
The Mapleview Centre at Maple Avenue and the QEW, Burlington Centre on Guelph Line and the plazas of Brant Street north of the QEW are the city's retail, with the Mapleview's restaurants and the Brant Street strip's rooms drawing the city's evenings; pickups are at the malls' entrances and on the side streets of Brant. Downtown Burlington's restaurants — on Brant, Lakeshore, John and Elizabeth — fill on Friday and Saturday nights with diners from Hamilton and Oakville as well as the city, and a dinner run from Toronto to the waterfront's rooms is an hourly booking with the QEW home moving freely at 11 p.m.
Aldershot GO, Burlington GO and the single traveller
The Lakeshore West GO line from Aldershot, Burlington and Appleby stations runs to Union in 55 to 65 minutes (the express trains faster) and is the honest single-passenger alternative for the downtown commute; VIA Rail's trains to Toronto, Niagara and the southwest also call at Aldershot. For the airport there is no rail from Burlington, and the UP Express comparison works the numbers — GO to Union and UP Express back out is nearly two hours with two transfers, and the car via the QEW or 407 is forty-five minutes to Pearson and thirty to Hamilton's airport. Burlington's regulars use the GO for the commute and the car for everything else.
Mount Nemo, the escarpment and Burlington's north
North of Highway 5 the city is rural — the Mount Nemo and Kerncliff conservation areas on the escarpment's brow, the Bruce Trail, the villages of Kilbride and Lowville with the Lowville Park and the Lowville Bistro, the estates and hobby farms of the concessions, the Burlington Springs and Hidden Lake golf clubs, the Crawford Lake conservation area shared with Milton — and a black car booking there is a driveway pickup with a chauffeur who knows the concession roads and the conservation areas' gates. The fall colours drives article covers the escarpment in October, when Mount Nemo's lookout and the Lowville valley are among the region's best; the Milton guide covers the escarpment north of here.
Burlington's group nights and the Hamilton crossover
Burlington's groups book the stretch SUV and the Sprinter for the downtown's birthday nights, for the run to a Tiger-Cats game or a FirstOntario Centre concert in Hamilton fifteen minutes west, for Toronto's arena and theatre nights an hour east and for the Niagara wine tours that start here an hour closer than Toronto; the event limo page covers the pickups, the wine tour guide the vineyard day, and the limo bus vs Sprinter article the vehicle choice for a group of twelve against a group of twenty-four. Burlington's companies book the limo bus for holiday parties at the Burlington Convention Centre and the waterfront hotels, with the holiday party article's two-stage plan.
Booking notes for Burlington
Three small things. Check both airports in the engine before you book — for a sun flight Hamilton is usually the shorter drive, for everything else Pearson with the 407 approved at the peaks. For the waterfront's festival weekends, take the pickup point the confirmation gives; the closures are not negotiable. And for the RBG's weddings, name the garden (Rock Garden, Hendrie Park, the Arboretum) — the gates are kilometres apart.
