Canada's automotive capital is gritty, but several relatively recent building projects, including casinos (concerts at the Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino regularly feature the likes of John Mellencamp, Tony Bennett and Al Green) are helping gloss the city's image. O.K., so there are more than a few Tim Horton's here, but Windsor is also teeming with excellent Vietnamese and Pakistani restaurants. And it has the best views of Motown, right across the Detroit River; take a stroll along the walkway by the river downtown.

There are two main ways to get to Windsor from Detroit: the Ambassador Bridge, which is just to the south of downtown, or the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which emerges right next-door to the GM Renaissance Center, a gleaming shopping, hotel and office complex — and headquarters of GM — on the waterfront downtown. If you take the tunnel, expect up to 30-min. delays during rush hours. Oh, and be sure to have the required government-issued identification cards to get back across the border.

• 1. Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino
  3799 Riverside Dr. East, Windsor, ON N94 7H7; 800-991-7777 42.3267172-82.9921725 caesarswindsor.com
• 2. Renaissance Center
  100 Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI 48243; 313-567-3126 42.3289926-83.0410283 gmrencen.com