[Christien]

Hey Garrett, I can help.

First, avoid Windsor/Detroit like the plague. It's the busiest border crossing in the world - literally. Port Huron/Sarnia is much easier.

21 is a 2-lane highway (i.e. one lane in each direction). Our family cottage is right off 21 in Grand Bend, so I know the area very well. It's a much nicer drive than the 401, but much slower, and at this time of year much more subject to snow. It's a major route so plowed frequently, but not as often as the 402. It's a really nice route if you're doing top-down cruising, and not in a rush, but will be really long and slow.

In Ontario, the 400 series highways are all 4 lanes minimum (2 in each direction) though through the entire Toronto area most if not all are 6 lanes, some up to 8, even 10 or 12 in some stretches.

Toronto area traffic is awful at pretty much any time - avoid it like the plague, though you'll have to deal with some.

If I were doing the drive, I'd go with your 3rd route, absolutely for sure. But if you're taking a Garmin or Tomtom, use it to find alternate routes if traffic is brutal. Listen to 680 am - they have traffic reports every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, and it can be a life saver. 400 north is particularly bad on any given Friday afternoon, as Toronto's cottage country is north of the city, and the 400 is the only major route north.

I might suggest you stick with your planned route until Guelph or Brampton, then take back roads north to Collingwood, depending on the time and day you pass through the Toronto area. If it's a weekday after 10am or before 2pm, go ahead with the 400, you should be fine. But morning/evening rush hour (6am-9am, 3pm-7pm) or pretty much any time on a Saturday or Sunday I'd avoid it.

Hope this helps!