Toronto to the Kawarthas and Peterborough by chauffeur: the other cottage country

The Kawarthas, an hour closer than Muskoka

The Kawartha Lakes are the cottage country east of Lake Simcoe and north of Peterborough - Chemong, Buckhorn, Pigeon, Sturgeon, Stoney, Clear, Katchewanooka - joined by the Trent-Severn Waterway and reached from Toronto by the 401 and Highway 115 in an hour and forty-five, which is forty-five minutes less than Muskoka and the reason a generation of Toronto families bought there instead. A chauffeured Kawarthas drive is the same product as the Muskoka one: the cottage run on a summer Friday as a one-way flat fare with the SUV carrying the family, the dog and the groceries; the lake day or the autumn drive as an hourly booking of eight to ten hours; the Trent University move-in or convocation as a flat fare or a day; and the personal chauffeur arrangement for the household that does it every weekend. The full-day page explains the hourly product; this page is the lakes.

The drive

The 401 east to the 115 at Newcastle, the 115 north-east to Peterborough, then Highway 28 north to Lakefield, Young's Point and Stoney Lake, or County Road 36 north-west from Peterborough to Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon, or the 35 north from the 401 at Bowmanville to Lindsay and Fenelon Falls for the west side. An hour and forty-five to Peterborough off-peak, two and a quarter to Bobcaygeon or Stoney Lake; add forty-five minutes on a Friday after 2 pm for the 401 at Oshawa. No tolls; the 407 east extension to the 115 is optional and, from Vaughan or Markham, worth it. The last stretch is county roads and then a cottage road, numbered by the township; the chauffeur asks for the fire number and the landmarks at booking. Ontario 511 for the 115's winter squalls off Lake Ontario.

Where in the Kawarthas

Bobcaygeon on the lock between Pigeon and Sturgeon, the Tragically Hip's town, Bigley's shoe store and the Saturday market. Buckhorn on the lock between Buckhorn and Lower Buckhorn, the marinas and the road to Curve Lake. Lakefield on the Otonabee, Lakefield College School and the road to Stoney. Stoney Lake and Clear Lake, the Kawarthas' grandest cottages, Juniper Island, the Viamede resort. Young's Point, Burleigh Falls and the road to Apsley and the Kawartha Highlands. Fenelon Falls and Lindsay on the west side, Coboconk and Balsam Lake to the north. Peterborough itself, the city of the Lift Lock, Trent University and the Canadian Canoe Museum. The chauffeur knows which lock a cottage is above and which marina a boat-access one uses.

Peterborough

The Peterborough Lift Lock, the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world, and the Trent-Severn's lock 21, with the Lift Lock cruises in summer; the Canadian Canoe Museum, reopened on the Otonabee in 2024 and the country's best small museum; Trent University's Symons campus on the river with its Ron Thom architecture; the Peterborough Musicfest's free summer concerts in Del Crary Park; the Riverview Park zoo; Hunter Street's restaurants and the farmers' market on Saturday. A Peterborough day for visitors is eight hours with the Lift Lock cruise in the middle; the Parks Canada page has the lock hours and the Peterborough tourism site the rest.

Trent University

Trent's move-in in early September, its convocation in June at the Athletics Centre, parents' weekend and a first-year's Thanksgiving trip home: the SUV with the student's things as a one-way flat fare to the Symons campus's residence loading zones, the Sprinter for the family at convocation, and the routine the Kingston page describes for Queen's, which is the same at every campus. Fleming College's Sutherland campus in Peterborough and Frost campus in Lindsay are the same booking.

The cottage run, and the standing arrangement

Friday at noon or 2 from Leaside, Riverdale or the Beaches, the SUV, the family, the dog on a blanket in the back, the cooler and the groceries in the boot, the 401 and the 115 before the crowd; Sunday at 3 or 4 home. Two flat fares, or the personal chauffeur arrangement as a standing summer Friday-and-Sunday with the same chauffeur who learns the cottage road by the second weekend. The Kawarthas' Friday is gentler than Muskoka's because the 115 carries less than the 400, and a noon departure is comfortably ahead of it.

A Kawarthas day, timed (book 10)

8:30 Riverdale, the SUV, a family of five. 10:15 Peterborough, the Lift Lock, the 10:30 cruise; the car at the Lift Lock's lot. 12:00 the Canadian Canoe Museum on the river, ninety minutes. 1:45 lunch on Hunter Street. 3:00 the 28 north to Lakefield and Young's Point, a walk at the lock, the road along Stoney Lake to Burleigh Falls for the view. 5:00 the 115 home. 6:45 Riverdale. Ten hours and fifteen minutes; eleven billed; the lakes seen from the car and the locks, which for a family without a cottage is the way to see them.

Autumn, and the Kawartha Highlands

The Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park north of Stoney Lake, the 28 through Apsley and the 507 to Gooderham, and the county roads around Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon are the colours drive an hour closer than Muskoka's, from late September to the second week of October; ten hours with lunch in Bobcaygeon and a stop at the Buckhorn lock, and the Ontario Parks colour report picks the weekend. The Kawartha Lakes' antique shops and the farm stands on the 36 are the stops.

Winter

Ice fishing on Chemong and Pigeon, snowmobiling out of Bobcaygeon and Buckhorn, the winter cottage with the wood stove: the SUV on the 115, winter tyres from November, the fire number and the plowed-or-not question asked at booking, and the dispatcher on 511. A winter cottage run is the same flat fare as a summer one.

The car

The Luxury SUV in every season: the family, the dog, the groceries, the cottage road, the winter. The Executive Sprinter for a family reunion at a Stoney Lake cottage, a golf group to the Kawartha courses, or a convocation party. The Executive Sedan or S-Class for a couple's weekend at Viamede or Elmhirst's. The fleet page has capacities; the dog's blanket is the chauffeur's.

What it costs

A flat fare by route and class each way, or the class hourly rate times the hours, plus HST and the gratuity you set; no tolls unless the 407 is chosen; the Lift Lock's lot is free. The rates page explains the hourly number and the city-to-city page when a flat fare beats hourly. The Kawarthas being closer than Muskoka, the flat fare is lower and the day's block shorter.

The Kawarthas, in a table

Booking the Kawarthas

Route each way for the cottage or a Trent move-in, with the fire number, the landmarks, the dog and the cooler in the notes; By the hour, ten hours, for a Peterborough or lakes day; a call to the desk for the standing summer Friday. Book the Victoria Day, Canada Day and Labour Day weekends two weeks ahead; the SUVs are all going north or east.

Where the car waits, in a table

The boat-access cottage

A share of Stoney Lake's, Clear Lake's and Buckhorn's cottages are boat-access, and the chauffeur drops at the marina named at booking - the cottage's boat, or the marina's water taxi, takes the family across - and collects at the same dock on Sunday at the agreed hour; the groceries and the dog go in the boat with everyone else. It is a booking the desk takes every summer weekend and the only thing it needs is the marina's name and the boat's owner's phone number.

The Trent-Severn by car

The waterway's 44 locks run from Trenton on Lake Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay, and the Kawarthas hold the prettiest stretch - Lakefield, Young's Point, Burleigh Falls, Lovesick, Buckhorn, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Rosedale and the Kirkfield Lift Lock. A day that follows the locks north-west from Peterborough to Kirkfield and home down the 35 is the alternative to the Lift Lock cruise for a visitor who prefers the car, ten to eleven hours, and the Trent-Severn Trail Towns site lists the towns and the lock-side lunches.

Booking, in one line

Route each way for the cottage or a Trent move-in, with the fire number, the marina if boat-access, the dog and the cooler in the notes; By the hour, ten hours, for a Peterborough or locks day; a call to the desk for the standing summer Friday-and-Sunday.

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