Vaughan to Collingwood and Blue Mountain: the ski weekend and the four-season village

Blue Mountain, and the town below it

Blue Mountain Resort is Ontario's largest ski resort — forty-odd runs on the Niagara Escarpment above Georgian Bay, a pedestrian village at the base with hotels, restaurants and shops, a mountain-top adventure park in summer, and a winter that begins in December and runs to April — and Collingwood, ten minutes east, is the town on the bay with the shipyards' history, a downtown of nineteenth-century brick on Hurontario Street, and the apple orchards of the escarpment behind it. Between them, in the woods above the village, the Scandinave Spa runs its outdoor hot-and-cold baths, and up the escarpment the Scenic Caves has its suspension bridge and its caves. For Vaughan it is the ski weekend that every family with children over six books at least once a winter, and the chauffeured version exists because Highway 26 in a February squall and the resort's Saturday-morning parking are the two things about the weekend that nobody enjoys. The Vaughan to Blue Mountain route page sets out the transfer terms; this post is about the weekend.

The ski weekend

A family of five from Thornhill in a Luxury SUV: pickup at 3 p.m. on Friday with the skis in the cargo area and the boosters fitted; the 400 and Highway 26 with the chauffeur watching the Barrie squall report; the Village's hotel by five thirty, the bags to the bell staff, dinner in the Village on foot. Saturday: the hill from nine — the chauffeur drops at the base lodge's loop, which on a Saturday is the difference between skiing at nine and parking until ten — lunch in the Village, the hill until three, the pool. Sunday: the hill until noon or the spa for the parents while the children have a lesson, checkout, and Highway 26 home with everyone asleep by Barrie. Two days of daily hire for the vehicle staying, or a return pair if the family will keep to the Village, priced in the booking engine before Friday.

The Village in four seasons

The Village at Blue is a pedestrian resort village with a plaza, an outdoor rink in winter, restaurants and bars, the Westin and the Blue Mountain Inn among the hotels, and a calendar of events — the summer's concerts on the plaza, the fall's Apple Harvest festival, the winter's holiday lights. In summer the hill runs its gondola to the summit's adventure park — the ropes courses, the Ridge Runner mountain coaster, the mountain biking — and the beach at Blue Mountain's Georgian Bay private beach club is the resort's water. A Vaughan couple books a summer Village weekend in a Premium Sedan with the spa; a family books an SUV with the coaster and the beach.

The Scandinave Spa

The Scandinave Spa in the woods off Grey Road 21 above the village is the adults' reason: outdoor hot baths, cold plunges, saunas and steam rooms in a forest setting, with the silence rule and the bathrobes, no children under nineteen, and a massage booked ahead. A couple from Kleinburg books it as a day — the Premium Sedan at ten, the spa from noon to five, dinner in the Village or Collingwood, home by nine — or as the Sunday of a weekend. The spa's lot is small and the chauffeur drops at the door.

The Scenic Caves and the escarpment

The Scenic Caves Nature Adventures on the escarpment above the Village has the Sky Walk suspension bridge — a hundred and twenty-six metres over the forest with the bay laid out beyond — the caves and crevices trail among the escarpment's rock, a treetop zip line and, in winter, snowshoe and cross-country trails; two to three hours for a family with children over five and the day-trip booking from Vaughan that does not need a weekend. The lot is at the top of the escarpment road and the chauffeur drops at the gate.

Collingwood's downtown and the orchards

Collingwood's Hurontario Street is the town: restaurants, a brewery, the Gayety Theatre, the Saturday farmers' market, the harbour and its grain elevators at the foot of the street, the Collingwood Museum in the old station. The escarpment behind the town is apple country — the orchards and cider houses of Thornbury and Clarksburg along Highway 26 west, the Apple Pie Trail's stops — and a chauffeured fall day from Vaughan does the caves, Collingwood's lunch, the cider houses and the drive home along the bay in colour. The town's tourism site has the market and the festival dates.

Corporate retreats

Vaughan companies book Blue Mountain's conference centre for retreats and the corporate account version is a Sprinter up on Thursday with the team at the tables, the vehicle staying for the Collingwood dinner and the Scenic Caves team afternoon, and the return Saturday — one invoice line replacing eight rental cars and a shuttle.

The route

Highway 400 north to Barrie, Highway 26 west through Stayner and Collingwood to the resort's Mountain Road — an hour and three-quarters from Maple with the 400 clear; or Highway 27 north and Highway 91 and 26 from the west side of Vaughan through the Hockley Valley, the prettier road and the one Woodbridge families prefer in October. In winter Highway 26 between Stayner and Collingwood is a snowbelt road that closes in a squall; the chauffeur drives it on winter tires and leaves early or late as the report says.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family's ski weekend with the skis inside and the rear seats heated; a Sprinter for a corporate retreat, for two families, or for a group's ski day with fourteen sets of skis in the bay; a Premium Sedan for a couple's spa or Village weekend. Boosters are $25 each; a ski rack is arranged at booking if the cargo area will not take the skis.

What the chauffeur replaces

The winter road; the base-lodge parking on a Saturday morning; the drive home after a day on the hill or an afternoon in the spa; and the second car for a group's skis. The fare is one number in the booking engine — a return pair, daily hire or an hourly day — and for a Sprinter of ten it undercuts the alternative; for a family of four it is a comfort purchase for a weekend that has always been about the drive, and the site says so.

Seasons

December to March for the hill, with the holiday weeks and Family Day the busiest; April for the spring skiing and the empty Village; summer for the adventure park, the beach and the plaza's concerts; September and October for the Apple Harvest festival, the orchards and the caves in colour. Every season is a Vaughan booking.

Pairing it

Blue Mountain pairs with Wasaga Beach, twenty minutes east, for a summer weekend of village and sand; with Barrie for a Kempenfelt dinner on the way home; and with the Hockley Valley drive for an October day that comes home the pretty way.

A ski weekend, in order, for two families

Two families from Woodbridge — four adults, four children between six and twelve — in an Executive Sprinter with eight sets of skis in the bay: pickup at 2:30 on Friday, the first address, the second five minutes on; Highway 27 north and Highway 91 and 26 through Creemore's valley to Collingwood, the Village's Westin by five with the chauffeur watching the squall report from Thursday; the bags to the bell staff; dinner in the Village on foot. Saturday: the base lodge's loop at 8:45 — the Sprinter dropping eight skiers and their skis at the door while the family cars behind it head for the far lots — the hill until three, the plaza's rink after; the Sprinter to Collingwood's Hurontario Street at six for dinner at a table for eight and back at nine. Sunday: the hill until noon for the children and two adults, the Scandinave Spa from ten to one for the other two — the Sprinter making the ten-minute shuttle — checkout, and Highway 26 home with everyone asleep by Stayner. Two days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, split two ways, and eight people's weekend in one vehicle that met the hill's door on a Saturday morning.

The hill, for planning

Blue's forty-odd runs are spread across the escarpment face above the Village with the Silver Bullet and the Village Express as the base lifts, the beginner area at the Village's south end, the Orchard and the North sides for the intermediate runs, and the terrain park; the resort's site sells lift tickets by date at prices that rise for the holiday weeks, and the ski school's children's lessons are booked ahead. The base lodge's drop loop is the point: a chauffeured group arrives at it, and the lots that a family car uses are a shuttle-bus ride away on a Saturday.

The Apple Pie Trail and the October day

The escarpment's orchards along Highway 26 west of Collingwood — Thornbury, Clarksburg, the Beaver Valley — are the Apple Pie Trail's stops: cider houses, bakeries, farm stands and the orchards' pick-your-own in September and October. A chauffeured fall day from Vaughan does the Scenic Caves' bridge in the morning with the bay in colour, Collingwood's lunch, three trail stops in the afternoon with the cargo area filling, and the Hockley Valley road home; the Hockley post covers the last hour.

Collingwood as the base

Families who find the Village's hotel rates in the holiday weeks too much book Collingwood's hotels and inns ten minutes east and let the vehicle stay: the hill each morning by the Sprinter's shuttle, the town's restaurants each evening, and the Blue Mountain Village's rink and lights after dinner by the same shuttle. It is the version that prices best for two families and the Collingwood tourism site has the town's inns.

Pickup notes

The 400 and Highway 26 for Maple, the VMC, Thornhill and Concord; Highway 27, 91 and 26 through Creemore for Woodbridge and Kleinburg — the chauffeur chooses by the day and the weather. Give us the hotel, the lift-ticket days, the lessons, the seats, the skis, the spa reservation and whether the vehicle stays; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the squall report on it.

Booking it

Book a return pair or daily hire from your Vaughan address to the Village hotel for a weekend, or an hourly day for the caves, the spa or the ski day; tell us the seats, the skis, the spa reservation and whether the vehicle stays, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the winter road report on it.

Book the Blue Mountain weekend