There are a number of tour companies that will take you on a cruise of the St Lawrence River with a stop at Boldt Castle . The campground we’re staying in had negotiated a discount with Clayton Island Tours , so this is the one we purchased. We opted for a “Two Nations Tour” with lunch. The sandwich lunches were a good value for the price and our tour was well planned and narrated. The only criticism we have is the allotment of time at Boldt Castle was not quite enough to fully see the property.

Another town near to where we are staying is Clayton, NY (map ). Clayton is where the railroads stopped in the late 1800s and early 1900s, bringing up to 30,000 tourists a week to the Thousands Islands . There is a very large hotel right along the riverfront called 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel, which is on the land where the ship harbor was located during that time. Motorized ships would take visitors out to the islands - several islands had hotels and large homes. In our afternoon here in Clayton, we walked around looking at murals, historic buildings, and reading about tourism in the 1000 Islands.

On our first afternoon we headed out to Alexandria Bay (map ) to explore and see why all our friends rave about this area.