Family vacation outside of Toronto
 

My husband is going to be working in Toronto off and on throughout the summer. We are looking for a good place to rent a cabin or vacation rental on a lake with sandy areas for a week. We have two girls, ages 4 and 7 and would like something within an hour or two or Toronto. Any suggestions?

I would try the Port Elgin, Southampton areas. Slightly farther than 2 hours but worth it for the beautiful beaches and a lot of things for little kids to do.

Do you have in mind renting a privately owned cottage, and doingyour own cooking, cleaning, etc., or are you thinking more like a resort, where accomodation is in individual little cabins, bu there's a restaurant, dining room, organized activities for the girls, and so on?

And do you have a price range?

BAK

I think BAK is on the right track because you'll find a bunch of options offering a range of activities and styles. The two areas, Muskoka and Haliburton, will have many options in virtually all categories (in case you want to do some browsing). I'm less familiar with Haliburton, but Muskoka where our family cottage is, is quite nice. The scenery is very beautiful, and there are many charming small towns which can be visited. A few of those, will also have some finer dining options too, should you want to escape the woods for an evening. If you respond to BAK's question regarding budget and expectations, I can send a few specific recommendations.

www.haliburton-tourism.com

www.discovermuskoka.ca

BAK, We are looking for either a home on or within walking distance to water/beach that we can rent or a home or townhome in a community that has a pool and general fun things like ping pong or pool table.
Our vacations are usually pretty low key, going for walks, playing at the beach, exploring small towns etc. Wherever it is, we DO want to be close to restaurant options because we don't want to do a lot of cooking.
We probably don't want to go over $300 a night.
Hope this is the information you were looking for.
Thank you.

i think lolly is on the right track...

muskoka is very expensive / very toronto...

ie: blackberry's attached to dock shorts - ha.

if it were me, i'd go to southampton and rent a house right on a beach. it is a cute small town my grandparents live in... there are two or three beaches in the town and it is about a 20 min drive from sauble beach (another place you could rent, but it is more like spring break all summer, so i'd suggest a day trip)

southampton has some suprisingly good restaurants and decent golf courses to play at with kids.

I don't know, guys, I re-read carefully what Niccichan wants and it sounds more like a lodge environment. Very few cottages that you rent in either Muskoka or the Southampton area are going to be that close to restaurants and ping pong etc.

Id say for convenience to Toronto and for under 300 a night you could find something in the area of Orillia.
Also you have great access to restaurants and its not such a long drive.

You might want to check out the Ojibway, in Georgian Bay (Pointe au Baril). They have cabins for rent on the Ojibway island. You'll get a great and up close view of islander life, since you'll be living where all the islanders shop, have camp activities, gas up, etc. There are half-day camp programs for the kids, too, and a sandy beach at the back of the island.

Hi niccichan,

There is a great site you may want to check out! It is www.cottagelink.com I have found it very helpful in that you can go to an area i.e. region etc and see the list of places, prices and amenities. You probably would want to look at the Haliburton area, or even the Kawartha's, but you can have a browse and go from there. I would get on it soon though, as some places get taken very quickly at that time of the year. Look at http://www.accessv.com/~healthy/ I have stayed there for a girls weekend and it was amazing. Very beautifully decorated on Sandy Lake in the Kawartha's. If you click on the Casa Manana, that is where we stayed. Next year it will be Margarita Ville. Hope this or any of the suggestions help. Cheers, ctoner

Opps! That second link doesn't work..sorry. Okay, if you want to see the cottage, you will find it in the cottagelink site. Go Regions, then Ontario, then go to the Kawartha's page. It is the 6th from the bottom on Sandy lake, called Casa Manana. Sometimes, I'm a bit cyber-challenged!