Ontario Hotels

"John Kane" schrieb

Eh? I spoke the same languages on both sides of the river.

So did I
But the lady at the desk did greet me with a friendly "Bon Jour"
when I bought my ticket.

Perhaps I should put a *lot* more smileys in my postings?
It's Quebec, and Quebec is french. Period. ;-) ;-) ;-)

Jochen from Germany

John Kane wrote:


I don't have any suggestions about places to stay but I'd check
carefully before planning visiting both Southern Georgian Bay and
Algonquin Park. You are looking at quite a lot of driving and, from
what I remember the cross-links (roads) from Georgian Bay to Algonquin
Park are limited, which may mean it's difficult to find a really
direct route.

Dave may know more about this. I have not been driving up that way in
many years.

There does seem to be a big gap in the road system between the south end of
Georgian Bay and the route up to Algonquin. The easiest way is to swing back
down to Orillia and up Hwy. 11. It is a pleasant drive, but it does involve
back tracking. You can also go up 400 and through or around the Muskoka
Lakes, also quite scenic. I guess it comes down to how much scenic driving
you want to do en route to your destination. Some people love that stuff
while others consider it just more forests and lakes to see.

I'm using google maps for all my route planning at the moment and it
can give you directions with journey durations. Spending a few hours
in the day driving does not bother me as long as it's not every day.
We tend to travel quite a bit anyway with my wife-to-be's family
living 4 hours away from us. The difference in Canada is that the
routes are (or can be)quite scenic whereas here the journey is a
constant 70mph on a dull concrete motorway with no views at all. The
only thing that would concern me is the prospect of these winding
roads being closed for whatever reason but I would expect there not to
be a problem with things like snow in September, please let me know if
this is not the case.

I've spent the last hour or so viewing the routes and distances from
Niagara to Algonquin. I think it would be worthwhile me making a
nights stop somewhere near Barrie and Lake Simcoe, the nicer
accomodation in these parts tends to be bed and breakfast which she
isn't too keen on so we might have to settle for something a little
more basic. We may be able to stretch our days travelling a little
more north to somewhere like Midland if we find some accomodation of
particular interest. We would then spend the next two nights staying
in one place and somewhere close to Algonquin, quite possibly in
huntsville as someone has recommended above and she quite likes the
idea of staying next to Fairy Lake, you know what women are like!

After that we move on to the next leg which will be in the ottawa
region and once I've finalised my accomodation on the Algonquin leg I
will start to think about Ottawa with a day trip to Montreal.

The journey is taking a definate shape with 3 nights in Niagara, 3
nights around Georgian Bay / Algonquin Park, 3 nights around Ottawa
with a day trip to Montreal, 2 nights along the north coast of Lake
Ontario and the final 2 nights in Toronto.

Lee wrote:

I'm using google maps for all my route planning at the moment and it
can give you directions with journey durations. Spending a few hours
in the day driving does not bother me as long as it's not every day.
We tend to travel quite a bit anyway with my wife-to-be's family
living 4 hours away from us. The difference in Canada is that the
routes are (or can be)quite scenic whereas here the journey is a
constant 70mph on a dull concrete motorway with no views at all. The
only thing that would concern me is the prospect of these winding
roads being closed for whatever reason but I would expect there not to
be a problem with things like snow in September, please let me know if
this is not the case.

I've spent the last hour or so viewing the routes and distances from
Niagara to Algonquin. I think it would be worthwhile me making a
nights stop somewhere near Barrie and Lake Simcoe, the nicer
accomodation in these parts tends to be bed and breakfast which she
isn't too keen on so we might have to settle for something a little
more basic. We may be able to stretch our days travelling a little
more north to somewhere like Midland if we find some accomodation of
particular interest. We would then spend the next two nights staying
in one place and somewhere close to Algonquin, quite possibly in
huntsville as someone has recommended above and she quite likes the
idea of staying next to Fairy Lake, you know what women are like!

I live in Niagara and go up to Algonquin every August. It usually takes me
about 4 hours. If you leave Niagara after 8:30 you will miss the Toronto
rush hour traffice, which starts in Hamilton.


If you feel like splurging a bit. Check out this place. It is beautiful
and the food is terrific. It is on a lake at the end of a road about 5
miles from the highway.

http://www.arowhonpines.ca/


After that we move on to the next leg which will be in the ottawa
region and once I've finalised my accomodation on the Algonquin leg I
will start to think about Ottawa with a day trip to Montreal.

The journey is taking a definate shape with 3 nights in Niagara, 3
nights around Georgian Bay / Algonquin Park, 3 nights around Ottawa
with a day trip to Montreal, 2 nights along the north coast of Lake
Ontario and the final 2 nights in Toronto.

Day trip to Montreal? It is a good two hour drive from Ottawa. That is a
long way to drive back to a hotel when you could get one in Montreal and
save yourself the time and money to get back to Ottawa. The distance from
Montreal to the junction of Hwys 401 and 417 is almost the same.

On Jan 26, 4:31 pm, Dave Smith wrote:
Lee wrote:
I'm using google maps for all my route planning at the moment and it
can give you directions with journey durations. Spending a few hours
in the day driving does not bother me as long as it's not every day.
We tend to travel quite a bit anyway with my wife-to-be's family
living 4 hours away from us. The difference in Canada is that the
routes are (or can be)quite scenic whereas here the journey is a
constant 70mph on a dull concrete motorway with no views at all. The
only thing that would concern me is the prospect of these winding
roads being closed for whatever reason but I would expect there not to
be a problem with things like snow in September, please let me know if
this is not the case.

It might snow in November, not in September. Around Algonquin Park the
weather should be fairly warm in the daytime ( 22-26C perhaps)
dropping down to maybe 12-15 C overnight.

Besides snow does not close roads around here. We have a huge
investment in snowplowing equipment.

I've spent the last hour or so viewing the routes and distances from
Niagara to Algonquin. I think it would be worthwhile me making a
nights stop somewhere near Barrie and Lake Simcoe, the nicer
accomodation in these parts tends to be bed and breakfast which she
isn't too keen on so we might have to settle for something a little
more basic. We may be able to stretch our days travelling a little
more north to somewhere like Midland if we find some accomodation of
particular interest. We would then spend the next two nights staying
in one place and somewhere close to Algonquin, quite possibly in
huntsville as someone has recommended above and she quite likes the
idea of staying next to Fairy Lake, you know what women are like!

I live in Niagara and go up to Algonquin every August. It usually takes me
about 4 hours. If you leave Niagara after 8:30 you will miss the Toronto
rush hour traffice, which starts in Hamilton.

If you feel like splurging a bit. Check out this place. It is beautiful
and the food is terrific. It is on a lake at the end of a road about 5
miles from the highway.

http://www.arowhonpines.ca/

After that we move on to the next leg which will be in the ottawa
region and once I've finalised my accomodation on the Algonquin leg I
will start to think about Ottawa with a day trip to Montreal.

The journey is taking a definate shape with 3 nights in Niagara, 3
nights around Georgian Bay / Algonquin Park, 3 nights around Ottawa
with a day trip to Montreal, 2 nights along the north coast of Lake
Ontario and the final 2 nights in Toronto.

Day trip to Montreal? It is a good two hour drive from Ottawa. That is a
long way to drive back to a hotel when you could get one in Montreal and
save yourself the time and money to get back to Ottawa. The distance from
Montreal to the junction of Hwys 401 and 417 is almost the same.

Yes, it makes no real sense to do a day trip if you're planning on
going to Montreal. You end up backtracking on a 4 lane autoroute.
The highway from Montreal west is a 4-6 lane autoroute too, but at
least it is new territory and allow the occasional departure to see a
local town on the St Lawrence River or a chance to try the scenic
route along the St Laurence River from west from Cornwall. {1}Now if I
could only remember what it's called other than Old Hwy 2.

1 It's always handy to be able to tell people when you get home that
you visited Cornwall on your holidays.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

Lee Meadowcroft:
After all, it is not the cities that are attracting us to Ontario.

Hmph! Now you've insulted all us Torontonians. :-)

In that case if you want to go to the Georgian Bay area, you should
go there directly from Niagara Falls, probably taking highway 6 from
Hamilton. Spend a night up there somewhere, although I have no idea
of specific places to suggest.
--
Mark Brader | "Warning! Drinking beer, wine or spirits during
Toronto | pregnancy can harm your baby." (City of Toronto
| notice in restaurant washrooms--men's and women's)

Dave Smith writes:
FWIW, I had some visitors from the Netherlands last fall and when they
went to Toronto they stayed at a Best Western on Eglington Ave in
Mississauga, just outside the Toronto boundary and very close to the
airport. ...

For your searching convenience, that's Eglinton.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "It was too crazy to be true,
| and too crazy to be false." --Tom Clancy

Mark Brader wrote:

In that case if you want to go to the Georgian Bay area, you should
go there directly from Niagara Falls, probably taking highway 6 from
Hamilton. Spend a night up there somewhere, although I have no idea
of specific places to suggest.

We frequently travel from Niagara to Collingwood. The fastest route by
far is to go over to Hwy. 410 to the end, jog over to Airport Rd. and
follow it all the way up to where it hooks onto Hwy.26.

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:59:04 -0800 (PST), Lee
wrote:

On Jan 25, 3:41=A0pm, (Bill) wrote:

Three days in Ottawa is about 2 more than I would want to spend there,
but that's just personal preference.

Any particular reasons for that?? Guessing there's something you don't
like about Ottawa.

Ottawa has a couple of nice museums, but otherwise it's a dull
government town. Montreal is much livelier, with way better bars and
restaurants. I would be bored silly by the third day of being in
Ottawa. I'd spend more time in Montreal and less in Ottawa. But
again, that's a purely personal view.

Hello,

Looking for a bit more advice from you now. I've been looking for
accommodation and couldn't really find anything of honeymoon standard
for the second leg of my journey up towards Georgian Bay and through
Algonquin; it was all B&B campsites and cheap motels from what I could
find. I started to look a bit further afield and came accross a few
good looking places in Coboconk, next to Balsam Lake. The ones I'm
particularly interested in are The Saucy Willow Inn and Eganridge Inn.
I'd like to run the idea by you people of driving up from Niagara-on-
the-lake to Coboconk, 3 1/2 hours approx journey time, making a day of
it and stopping off in 2 or 3 places along the way. We would then stay
3 nights in Coboconk to give us 2 full days. The first day we would do
a circular trip taking in Lake Simcoe, the Southern tip of Georgian
Bay and Lake Muskoka / Gravenhurst. The second day we would go to the
southern part of Algonquin park (are there any nice places to visit
that far south or do you really need to get in to the heart of the
park?). After our third night in Coboconk we will spend a day
travelling over to Ottawa for the next leg of our journey.

Itenary so far:

Arrive Sun 19:00
Stay in Niagara-on-the-lake Sun/Mon/Tue, visiting St Catherines, Lake
Ontario, Niagara Falls and generally relaxing.
Tue, drive to Coboconk taking in a few places on the way.
Stay in Coboconk Tue/Wed/Thu, visit Georgian Bay etc on Wed, Visit
Algonquin on Thu.
Fri, drive to Ottawa taking in a few places on the way.
Stay in/around Ottawa Fri/Sat possible Sun aswell.

Any comments on this.