North Bay, Ontario

From Buffalo it is about 5 hours drive. The town has abt 50k people, it is big enough to have all the important stuff ie Walmart, McDonalds etc. The route from Buffalo would take you thru Toronto, which has lots to do but the traffic during rush hour from Niagara Falls to Toronto to Barrie on the QEW/401/400 is horrible and weekend traffic on the 400 going up to cottage country from Toronto is quite busy too. If you can do it cross the border on the eastern side of NY across the St Lawrence River and drive up the Ottawa valley to Ottawa (our capital). It is a lot like DC with the museums and history (but obviously smaller and with a Canadian slant to it). From there go to Algonquin Provincial Park from the eastern Entrance (an absolute must do). I think the drive this route is much more scenic, less stressful and less traffic. Once you are in the North Bay area there are several really good Provincial Parks like Restoule. I really recommend doing the Provincial Parks in this area and avoiding RV parks. However once you get up around Algonquin, you are in the real north, there are no Starbucks and lots of Bears.