Toronto to Barrie and Lake Simcoe by chauffeur: the waterfront, the beach, the ski hills

Barrie, an hour and a quarter up the 400

Barrie is the city at the head of Kempenfelt Bay on Lake Simcoe, a hundred kilometres north of Toronto and an hour and a quarter up the 400 off-peak, and it is the day trip people forget because they drive through it on the way to Muskoka and Blue Mountain. It has a waterfront worth an afternoon, a beach at Centennial Park, two ski hills - Snow Valley and Horseshoe Valley - within twenty minutes, Georgian College and the Royal Victoria hospital for the appointments that bring Toronto families north, and around the lake the Friday Harbour resort at Innisfil, Sibbald Point's beach, Jackson's Point and Georgina's cottages. A chauffeured Barrie day is an hourly booking of six to eight hours; a Barrie transfer - to the hospital, the college, a Friday Harbour weekend - is a flat fare; and the full-day page explains the hourly product.

The drive

The 400 north from the 401 through Vaughan and King to Barrie's Dunlop Street or Bayfield Street exits: an hour and a quarter off-peak, two hours on a Friday after 2 pm in summer when the cottage traffic starts, and an hour and a half home on a Sunday at 4 if you leave before Muskoka does. No tolls; the 407 to reach the 400 from the east of the city is optional. In winter the 400 north of King is the snow-belt stretch, with squalls off Georgian Bay that close it a few days a year; the dispatcher watches Ontario 511 and the SUV goes. The 404 north to Newmarket and the 48 to Sutton and Jackson's Point is the east-side route for Georgina.

The waterfront and the beach

Barrie's waterfront runs along Kempenfelt Bay from the marina past the Spirit Catcher sculpture to Centennial Park and its beach, with the boardwalk, the Southshore Centre and Heritage Park's summer concerts; Dunlop Street's restaurants and the Barrie Farmers' Market on Saturday are a block up the hill. A summer beach day is six to eight hours with the SUV at the Centennial lot and a picnic in the boot, and the water is warmer than Georgian Bay's. Kempenfest in August fills the waterfront with a hundred thousand people and closes Lakeshore Drive; the chauffeur knows the drop.

Snow Valley and Horseshoe Valley

Snow Valley on the 27 north-west of the city and Horseshoe Valley on the 400 at Horseshoe Valley Road are Toronto's nearest ski hills - smaller than Blue Mountain, an hour closer, and the right day for a family with beginners, a school group, or a Tuesday when the hill is empty. A ski day is eight hours with the gear in the SUV, a 7:30 departure and the lift line at 9; the Blue Mountain page has the gear rules that apply here too. Horseshoe's summer is the treetop trekking and the mountain biking; Snow Valley's is the snow-tubing hill's summer slide.

Friday Harbour, Innisfil and the lake's south shore

Friday Harbour is the resort on Lake Simcoe at Innisfil, twenty minutes south of Barrie off the 400 at Innisfil Beach Road: the marina, the boardwalk, the Nest golf course, the beach club and the restaurants, and a Toronto weekend there is a one-way flat fare each way or a multi-day with the chauffeur staying. Innisfil Beach Park, Cook's Bay and Gilford are the cottages; Bradford and the Holland Marsh's farm stands are on the way. The city-to-city page explains when the flat fares beat the overnight.

Georgina: Sibbald Point, Jackson's Point, Keswick

The lake's south-east shore is reached by the 404 and the 48, not the 400: Sibbald Point Provincial Park's beach and campground, Jackson's Point's harbour and the Briars resort, Keswick's cottages on Cook's Bay, and the ice-fishing huts on the lake from January to March. An hour and a quarter from downtown, a day of six to eight hours or a cottage run as a flat fare, and the Newmarket and Aurora area page covers the 404 corridor the drive passes through.

Georgian College, the hospital and the appointments

Georgian College's Barrie campus brings Toronto families for open houses, move-in and convocation in June; the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre on Georgian Drive is the regional hospital, and a Toronto specialist's referral north or a family's visits to a patient are the medical chauffeur product with the 400 in the block. The CFB Borden base at Angus, twenty minutes west, brings military families for graduations and postings. All are flat fares or hourly days from any Toronto door.

A Barrie day, timed (book 7)

10:00 the Annex, the SUV, a family of four. 11:15 Barrie, the Farmers' Market on Dunlop Street (Saturday), the car on Collier. 12:15 Centennial Beach, the picnic, the water; the car in the lot. 2:30 the waterfront walk to the Spirit Catcher and ice cream at the marina. 3:30 the 400 south with a stop at the Holland Marsh farm stands on Canal Road. 5:15 the Annex. Seven hours and fifteen minutes; eight billed; the Muskoka traffic on the northbound side watched with some satisfaction.

Barrie as a stop, not a destination

Barrie is also where the Muskoka, Casino Rama and Blue Mountain drives pass at the hour mark, and a day to any of them that stops for lunch on the waterfront or a swim at Centennial uses the drive well. Wasaga Beach is forty minutes west on the 26; Orillia and Rama forty minutes north on the 11.

The car

The Luxury SUV for a beach day, a ski day, a family and the 400 in winter. The Executive Sedan for a college visit or a hospital appointment. The Executive Sprinter for a school ski group, a Friday Harbour party or a Georgian convocation. The S-Class for the Friday Harbour weekend. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

The class hourly rate times the hours, or a flat fare by route and class, plus HST and the gratuity you set; no tolls unless the 407 is chosen; Centennial Park and the ski hills charge for parking, shown at booking. The rates page explains the hourly number. Being the nearest of the northern days, Barrie's block is the shortest and its flat fare the lowest, and a six-hour beach day is the honest entry point to the whole day-trip board.

Barrie and the lake, in a table

Booking Barrie

By the hour, six to eight hours, with the beach, the hill or the waterfront in the notes; Route for the hospital, the college or a Friday Harbour weekend. Summer Saturdays and Kempenfest weekend a week ahead; a weekday beach day can be booked the day before.

Where the car waits, in a table

Kempenfest, Barrie's summer weekend

The festival on the August civic-holiday weekend fills the waterfront with an arts and crafts show of several hundred vendors, an antique show, a food fair and concerts, and Kempenfest's organisers close Lakeshore Drive and the waterfront lots for the four days; the chauffeur drops on Dunlop or Bayfield and walks the family in, and the day is booked a week ahead because it is the one Saturday the SUVs are all in Barrie.

Winter on the 400

The 400 north of King is the stretch the OPP closes in a squall a few days each winter, and a ski day is booked with a weather eye and a chauffeur who will suggest a different morning if the forecast is bad; the SUV has winter tyres from November and the dispatcher watches Ontario 511. The Snow Valley and Horseshoe roads are plowed early for the hills, and the lift line at 9 is the target. On a clear January morning the same drive is the prettiest hour on the board, the fields white from King to Barrie and the bay frozen at the end of it, and the family arrives rested with the boots already on.

Booking, in one line

By the hour, six to eight hours, with the beach, the hill or the waterfront in the notes; Route for the hospital, the college or a Friday Harbour weekend; summer Saturdays and Kempenfest a week ahead, a weekday beach day the day before.

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