Outside of Toronto with family
 

We are thinking of taking our 9 and 6 year old to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto this August. Afterwards we'd like to drive somewhere outside of Toronto that we could swim, fish and hike. What areas should I be looking into? Any suggestions appreciated. I think I'd like to keep the drive out of Toronto under 4 hours. Thanks.

You might want to look at the area known as the Kawarthas, slightly north of Peterborough. The town is about an hour and 15 minutes from Toronto and has several small towns that would be excellent for what you require. Bobcaygeon(Sp?) and Buckhorn come to mind, but there are others. A Google search of the area will provide you with the rest.

Budget matters.

You could pick a resort, go there for a few days, and have all the facilities easy to access.

Or, you could stay in some hotel or motel in some small city or town, and visit any of a number of provincial parks and public beaches.

The Kawarthas are a fine choice from a resort point of view, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find beaches and fishing open to the public.

About two hour east of Toronto, near Belleville, is an island called Prince Edward County (not the province of PEI that's 1000 miles away) and Prince Edward County has Sandbanks Provincial Park, which is very much like the beaches on Prince Edward Island, except there are no jellyfish and the water has no salt. and lots of accomodations in Belleville, Picton, and even Kingston.

Or, ... there's a whole arc of vacation territory above Toronto, starting from Sarnia in the west and arcing past Collingwood to Bracebridge to Huntsville to Algonquin Park to the Kawarthas to Lake Ontario near Kingston and Belleville.

Do a google search on Resorts Ontario.

BAK

Friends of ours have taken their kids to Cleveland's House (a resort) for years. That's basically all I can tell you about it but they seemed to like it a lot and so did their kids. Here's the website:

http://clevelandshouse.com/

Also popular with families (ours, in days-gone-by) there is Fern Resort. Terrific advantage with Fern--its only 1 1/2 out of Toronto.www.fernresort.com

We love Alqonquin Park! Your 6 & 9 year olds would have so much fun hiking the trails, fishing, canoeing & swimming. This past weekend we were in Algonquin Park where we had a wonderful dinner @ Killarney Lodge. There were quite a few families with young children staying @ Killarney Lodge.
www.killarneylodge.com When we were driving along Highway 60 around dusk we saw a huge moose drinking water from a little stream @ the side of the highway. We stopped the car & pulled off the highway, the moose stopped drinking, looked up, stared @ us & then went back to drinking water!
Also Google Algonquin Outfitters & follow the links to their Oxtongue Lake store. They are very helpful & if you like, you can arrange a fishing trip, among other activities, with them.
Have fun!

ljd05,

Kawarthas are good. Algonquin Park is good too. It depends on what your family finds appealing. Personally, I'm partial to the Algonquin option. If you rent a canoe and gear from the Portage Store on Canoe Lake, you can paddle for about an hour, do a short portage around the Joe Lake Dam and another hour's paddling and call it a day within sight of Arowhon Pines Resort. My then-girlfriend (now wife) and I did it with her then 6-year-old daughter, 'roughing it' on a campsite for a couple of days, watching the local natural wildlife, enjoying the quiet and then treating ourselves to a last night at Arowhon Pines for dinner. If you'd rather, forget the camping and cut straight to Arowhon. All hinges on your preference.

HTH
K

Knickerbocker, I was also thinking about The Portage Store & Arowhon Pines!

Collingwood and/or Wasaga Beach - www.ontarioparks.com/english/wasa.html
www.wasagabeachpark.com

I would stay in Collingwood or at Blue Mountain and take the children to the beach at Wasaga - it's supposed to be the world's longest freshwater beach.

Or stay in Thornbury (they fish in the river right in the town). www.greycounty.ca/communities/thornbury.cfm - it's not far from Collingwood.

Thank you so much for all of the great tips!

Have you ever considered taking a houseboat trip? We did that a few years ago outside of Toronto on the Trent-Severn Waterway. One of our most memorable vacations ever! It was really reasonably priced, our houseboat had a barbeque, a slide right into the water, you could fish, and there is nothing like waking up in the morning with the loons singing outside your window. Here is a link that could give you more information:
http://www.all-about-houseboats.com/...io-canada.html

I believe we used Egans to rent our houseboat. Here is the website for them to give you a handle on prices:
http://www.houseboat.on.ca/welcome.htm