seeking suggestions on scenic locations driving distance from Toronto
 

Hi, I am currently planning a visit to scenic rural places in Ontario...for Oct 7-16 or 17. I want to see areas within a few hours drive of Toronto.

We may move to Canada from the U.S. in the next couple years. If we do, we may want to have a 2nd place in the country that can easily be rented out or, if we live there year-round instead of in Toronto, a place that could be a B&B...meaning, it has to be a place tourists actually visit. So I'm coming to scope out the landscape to find the pretty locales.

Any must-see suggestions for very scenic locations will be appreciated. So far I'm thinking of seeing Algonquin Park, Killarney, Sault Sainte Marie, and visit friends in Collingwood. Is that too ambitious -- too much driving -- for 10 days?

Or, should I be looking more to the east for the most scenic places... Quebec... Newfoundland & Nova Scotia...? I remember as a child seeing "My Side of the Mountain": THAT was pretty country.

Oh and we're gay, so any place especially redneck and homophobic, if that's even an issue in rural Canada as it is here, would not be right for us.

Thanks, Robert

Hi, Robert! Niagara-on-the-Lake wld be the perfect place for your B&B. It is about 1.5 hours from Toronto. Places like Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Quebec are much more than "a few hours drive from Toronto"'( but you probably already know that & when you mentioned those provinces you were not planning on going there from Toronto, right?).

Algonquin Park is about 3 hours north of Toronto. Killarney/SSM area is roughly southwest of Algonquin Park. Killarney is about a 5 hour drive from Toronto. So, you cld certainly cover that area & more in 10 days. You cld visit your friends in Collingwood, then head north to AP. Stay overnight. There is a very nice resort called Killarney Lodge www.killarneylodge.com ( not to be confused w/ Killarney on Georgian Bay!!). Or, Arowhon Pines www.arowhonpines.ca Or, Bartlett Lodge www.bartlettlodge.com Then, on your way back to Toronto you could cut over toward Killarney/SSM( I think it wld be Highway 69 but I am not sure)

Remember that Canadian Thanksgiving is October 9th this year. Some resorts/lodges operate seasonally. These close shortly after Thanksgiving.

check out the Bruce Peninsula
Wiarton, Lion's Head Tobermory

Within a few hours of Toronto "pretty" probably takes a backseat to artistic or interesting or arty or athletic.

Niagara on the Lake, already mentioned, has excellent theatre, restaurants and wineries, but it ain't all that pretty.

Same for the Stratford area, minus the wine. Pleasant enough farm land, but not a place you got for the scenery.

Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Port CArling are all vacation country int he summer, and now, more and more inthe winter. Pretty is accurate here; rocks and lakes and pine trees.

Collingwood has skiing int he winter, and lots of new four-season vacation condos.

Farmhouses in good shape within three houses or Toronto are getting hard to find because other people have the same idea as you. But there may be more opportunities in some small towns. Cookstown, Creemore, and Orillia come to mind.

Port Hope and Cobourg are already "taken" so to speak.

East of the city, Prince Edward County, which is an island in Lake Ontario near Belleville, west of Kingston, is worth a visit.

Sault Ste. Marie is too far away.

BAK

Prince Edward County is up and coming with lots of "city" folk buying property there for weekends or retirement. http://www.pec.on.ca/Welcome.html

St. Jacob's and the area around Kitchener/Waterloo/Guelph might be worth a look. http://www.kwtourism.ca/

Als in Bruce County on Lake Huron , there's Southampton and Port Elgin with great beaches and worth a look. http://www.saugeenshores.ca/

I would think Niagara-on-the-Lake has enough B&Bs although buying an established one might be an idea.

Heard on the radio yesterday that the colour in Algonquin Park is at it's peak now so further south should be good by the time you get here.