Side Trips from Toronto Feature

Algonquin Provincial Park. Campgrounds, backcountry camping, and cabins are all available inside the park. Along the parkway corridor, a 56-km (35-mi) stretch of Highway 60, are eight organized campgrounds. Prices range from C$30.25 to C$40 depending on the location and whether you require electricity. Within the vast park interior you won't find any organized campsites (and the purists love it that way). Interior camping permits are C$11 per person, available from Ontario Parks. Contact Algonquin Park's main number (705/633-5572) to learn about the guidelines for of interior camping before calling Ontario Parks to reserve. In between the extremes of the corridor campgrounds and interior camping are the lesser-known peripheral campgrounds—Kiosk, Brent, and Achray—in the northern and eastern reaches of the park, which you access by long dirt roads. These sites do not have showers, and Brent has only pit toilets. The Highway 60 corridor campsites have showers, picnic tables, and, in some cases, RV hookups.

A bit less extreme than pitching a tent in Algonquin's interior but just as remote is a stay in one of the park-run ranger cabins (C$54-C$125 per person, C$11 each additional adult), which have woodstove or propane heat and, in some cases, mattresses and electricity. Four of the 13 cabins are accessible by car; the rest are reached by canoe, which can take from one hour to two days.

Reservations are required for all campsites, cabins, and for interior camping; call the Ontario Parks reservations line (888/668-7275 www.ontarioparks.com). Algonquin Provincial Park, ON. 705/633-5572.