What’s On Where: Things To Do In Sudbury This Summer

Whether you’re visiting Sudbury in Ontario for an afternoon, a long weekend, or more, there are a few essential attractions you can’t miss out on. Here are just a few top indoor and outdoor ways to spend your days in this beautiful city — for locals and visitors alike.

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is found over a mile underground in an Ontario mine. It is the largest man-made underground cavity in the world — a barrel 108 feet deep and 72 feet across creates a chamber roughly the size of a 10-story building. The entire chamber is filled with water with one sole purpose: to detect solar neutrinos.

Radiation levels from uranium and thorium in rock around the chamber are kept low with plastic walls. An acrylic vessel is surrounded by a 17-meter geodesic dome equipped with nearly 10,000 detectors used to sense the presence of neutrinos, the frequency of which is one per hour. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has loaned the heavy water that fills the chamber, which is worth a massive $330 million. The deepest part of the nickel mine is known as the SNO and helps to shield the detector from cosmic rays. It is a groundbreaking sight and something you cannot miss if you visit during the summer months.

Rainy Days In

If the weather takes a turn for the worst and you don’t feel like exploring all the great outdoors has to offer, fear not, as the internet is your portal to other worlds and experiences, instantly transporting you to a place filled with like-minded people looking to do the same thing as you. Why not spend your rainy day inside playing online games? There are so many apps and websites that cater for group games that you can play with the family or friends you’ve traveled with. Online casinos in Ontario are also a great way to relax and unwind. With the technology and pace of each game, you’ll feel like you’re in physical brick-and-mortar establishments. Other online escapes include more traditional gaming formats, where you could embark on quests, drive rally cars, or swing through metropolis streets fighting crime. The online world is the perfect escape from the rainy days outside, and Sudbury is the ideal place to indulge if you find the weather isn’t as sunny as expected.

Science North

It’s time to let your imagination run wild at Science North! A place to discover the fun side of the everyday science you encounter all the time. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ontario, its newly designed and renovated third-floor Northern Ecosystems exhibit allows you to get up, close, and personal with the local beavers, porcupines, skunks, and more. Discover the brand-new nocturnal room and see what bats and flying squirrels get up to when it gets dark outside. Make sure you don’t miss one of the live science shows, IMAX(R) 3D, special exhibits, and the four floors of interactive science experiences. Science has never been this fun — visiting Science North is essential to any Sudbury trip.

Burwash Correctional Center

Burwash Correctional Center was first opened in 1914. As the prison and its farm grew, a community of 1,000 or so residents grew up around it, built by inmates. The community thrived by creating a shoe repair shop, tailors, and a post office. As the years passed, the prison was deemed too costly, resulting in the official close in 1975, leaving the red bricks of the building to the elements, along with a handful of adventurous visitors.

Today, the dilapidated halls of the correctional center tell a different story, marked by peeling graffiti, overgrown weeds, and broken glass. Moss, rust, and silence have long reclaimed the grounds that Burwash stands upon, leaving the once thriving prison and its surrounding community a memory that not everyone remembers; this makes for an intriguing walkabout.

The Largest Coin in the World

Located in Sudbury, Ontario, the dynamic earth museum is home to one of the world’s largest coins. This colossal stainless steel five-cent coin measures nine meters (30 feet) in diameter and weighs 13,000 kilograms (14.33 tons). A sculpture created by Ted Szilva, a Sudbury firefighter turned entrepreneur, and Bruno Cavallo, a sculptor, represents the effort made by Sudbury nickel miners. Although the coin is much more difficult to spend than the original 1951 coin, it is an exact copy of the original currency.

It was constructed in 1964 using steel plates designed to weather Ontario’s weather, which was attached to an inner frame and welded together to give it the appearance of one solid object. A base underneath and around the Nickel allows visitors to walk underneath and around it. A mascot for coin collectors and numismatists, the huge coin represents their esoteric interests as a symbol of collectables. During the 45th anniversary celebration of the Big Nickel in 2009, even more coins were displayed at the nearby science center, making it an even more enticing mecca.

Sudbury in the Sun

With its world-renowned attractions, outdoor adventures, and urban comforts, Sudbury continues to impress and surprise all visitors. Filled with things to do, summer is the perfect partner for a getaway, and even if the weather isn’t as good as you may have expected, there are still many things to do.