Vaughan to Huntsville: Muskoka's town, its resort and its winter

Huntsville, at the top of Muskoka

Huntsville is the largest of Muskoka's towns and the one with the most reasons to be a destination rather than a stop: the resort at Deerhurst on Peninsula Lake, the provincial park at Arrowhead whose winter skating trail through the forest became the most-photographed winter thing in Ontario, the Lake of Bays cottage country east of town, the Hidden Valley ski hill, a main street on the Muskoka River with the Group of Seven murals painted on its buildings, and Highway 60 leaving from its edge for Algonquin. From Vaughan it is the cottage-country town that families visit in every season, and the one where a chauffeured weekend makes the most sense because everything is a drive from everything else.

Deerhurst

Deerhurst Resort is the reason for half the Vaughan bookings to Huntsville: a lakeside resort with two golf courses, a beach, pools, a spa, restaurants, the summer stage where Shania Twain once sang, and, in winter, snowmobile and dog-sled outfitting from the grounds. A couple books a Premium Sedan or an SUV to the porte-cochère on Friday and home on Sunday — a return pair — and a family or a corporate group books the vehicle to stay, because the resort is twenty minutes from the town and the park, and a weekend that includes Arrowhead, the main street and Lake of Bays is a weekend with a vehicle. Corporate accounts send retreats here in a Sprinter with the team working at the tables on the drive up.

Arrowhead's skating trail

Arrowhead Provincial Park, ten minutes north of town, grooms a 1.3-kilometre ice-skating trail through the forest each winter, lit by torches on Fire & Ice nights, with skate rentals at the park and a warm-up hut; it opens when the ice allows, usually January, and on winter weekends Ontario Parks caps day use and sells advance permits that go quickly. A Vaughan family books the skating day as an hourly hire: an SUV up in the morning on winter tires, the park's permit on the dashboard, two hours on the trail, hot chocolate in the hut, lunch on the main street, and the drive home in the dark while the children sleep. The Fire & Ice evenings are the overnight version with a night at Deerhurst or a town hotel.

The town and the murals

Huntsville's Main Street crosses the Muskoka River at the swing bridge and its buildings carry the Group of Seven Outdoor Gallery — large reproductions of the painters' Algonquin and Muskoka canvases mounted on walls around the town, a self-guided walk the town's tourism site maps. The Algonquin Theatre on the main street runs concerts and plays; the river walk and Muskoka Heritage Place, with its pioneer village and the Portage Flyer steam train in summer, are the family afternoon. The chauffeur drops at the bridge and waits in the town's lots; the walk is flat and an hour.

Lake of Bays and Dorset

East of Huntsville, Highway 60 and Highway 35 wrap around Lake of Bays, the big irregular lake with the resort town of Dwight on its north shore and the hamlet of Dorset at its eastern narrows, where the Dorset Lookout Tower — a rebuilt fire tower with a climb to a platform above the trees — is the fall-colour view of the region. A chauffeured colour day from Vaughan does Huntsville's main street, the drive around the lake, the tower at Dorset and the return down Highway 35 through Haliburton; a cottage family on Lake of Bays books the transfer up Highway 60 with the Sprinter and the canoe.

Hidden Valley and the winter weekend

Hidden Valley Highlands is Huntsville's ski hill, on Peninsula Lake beside Deerhurst, a family hill with night skiing and a lodge, and the winter weekend that Vaughan families book is Deerhurst or a town hotel, the hill on Saturday, Arrowhead's trail on Sunday morning, and home. The SUV is the vehicle; Highway 11 north of Barrie in a squall is a northern road and the chauffeur drives it as one.

The route

Highway 400 north to Barrie, Highway 11 north through Orillia, Gravenhurst and Bracebridge to Huntsville — a divided highway the whole way, and the reason Huntsville is the easiest of the northern trips. The routing estimate of two and a half hours is about right from Thornhill with a clear 400; on a Friday afternoon in July the 400 north of Vaughan is the cottage exodus and the chauffeur leaves before three or after seven with the fare fixed either way. The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and Maple are on the 400 already; Woodbridge and Kleinburg join it at Major Mackenzie or Rutherford.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family and for any winter trip; a Sprinter for a corporate retreat, two families, or a colour-day group; a Premium Sedan for a couple at Deerhurst in summer. Boosters are $25 each in the booking engine; the canoe on the rack is arranged at booking.

What the chauffeur replaces

The 400 on a Friday afternoon; the winter drive on Highway 11; the twenty-minute shuttles between resort, park, town and lake that a weekend here is made of. The fare is one number in the booking engine — a return pair for the resort weekend, hourly for the skating day, daily for the vehicle staying — and for a corporate group or two families in a Sprinter it undercuts the alternative; for a couple it is the comfort of arriving at the porte-cochère rested.

Seasons

Winter for Arrowhead and the hill, with the January-to-March skating window and the Fire & Ice nights; October for the Dorset tower and the lake road; summer for Deerhurst, the beach, the steam train and the Algonquin day from the town; spring for the quiet resort rates. Every season has a Vaughan booking behind it.

A winter weekend, in order

A family of five from Woodbridge in the last week of January: the Luxury SUV at 9 a.m. on Saturday, boosters fitted, the 400 and 11 on winter tires with the chauffeur watching the Barrie snow squall report; Huntsville by 11:30; lunch on Main Street; Hidden Valley from one to five with the family's skis in the cargo area and the chauffeur at the lodge; Deerhurst for the night — the resort's pool and dinner. Sunday, Arrowhead's skating trail at nine with the advance permit shown at the gate, two hours on the ice with rentals from the hut, hot chocolate, and the drive home at noon down Highway 11 with the children asleep by Orillia. Two days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, and the parent who would have driven the winter road twice has skated instead.

Muskoka Heritage Place and the Portage Flyer

For a summer family day the town's own attraction is Muskoka Heritage Place on Brunel Road: a pioneer village of moved and restored buildings with costumed interpreters, a museum of the region, and the Portage Flyer — the narrow-gauge steam train that once carried passengers between the Lake of Bays steamers and now runs a short line along the river in summer. It is two hours for a family with young children, with the train the reason they remember it; the chauffeur drops at the gate and the lot is easy.

The Lake of Bays cottage run

Lake of Bays is Huntsville's cottage lake — the big, deep, irregular one east of town with Dwight, Dorset and Baysville on its shores — and the transfer from Vaughan is the Sprinter booking this site sells for every Muskoka lake: family, luggage, coolers, dog and canoe in one trip, the cottage's directions rather than its address, the return a week later. The lake's roads off Highway 60 and Highway 35 are township roads and a chauffeur who drives them weekly knows which marinas serve the island cottages. The Muskoka route page sets out the transfer terms.

Corporate retreats at Deerhurst

Vaughan companies book Deerhurst for retreats and Huntsville for the conference facilities the resort was built with, and the corporate account version of this trip is a Sprinter up on Thursday with the team at the tables, the vehicle staying for the dinner in town and the Algonquin afternoon, and the return Saturday; invoiced as one line, replacing eight rental-car days and a shuttle. The resort's conference porte-cochère is a proper drop and the chauffeur has used it.

Pickup notes

The 400 from every Vaughan community — Maple and the VMC are on it, Woodbridge and Kleinburg join at Major Mackenzie, Thornhill crosses on Highway 7 — then Highway 11 the whole way. Give us the resort or hotel, the Arrowhead permit, the ski day, the seats, the cottage directions and loads if it is a transfer, and whether the vehicle stays; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the winter road report on it.

Limberlost, the Lions Lookout and the short walks

Two stops that a chauffeured family adds without planning: the Lions Lookout, a five-minute drive from Main Street to a platform above the town, the river and Fairy Lake — the first colour view of the trip in October and a picnic table in summer; and the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve, twenty minutes east toward Lake of Bays, a private reserve of seventy kilometres of free trails around a chain of small lakes, with the Buck Lake loop the family-length one. Neither needs a permit and the chauffeur drops at the trailhead and waits. The Big East River delta at Arrowhead, in summer, is the park's beach and a canoe rental; the Arrowhead Provincial Park page lists the summer day-use fees and the winter permit windows.

What a corporate booking looks like on the invoice

One line: the Sprinter from the Vaughan office on Thursday at noon, the team of ten at the tables with the deck on the screens, Deerhurst's conference porte-cochère by three, the vehicle on daily hire through Saturday for the dinner in town and the Algonquin afternoon, the return Saturday at two. No rental cars, no shuttle, no expense claims from ten people, and the corporate account page explains the profile and the monthly invoice.

Booking it

Book a return, hourly or daily hire from your Vaughan address to Deerhurst, a town hotel or a Lake of Bays cottage; tell us the Arrowhead permit date, the ski day, the seats and the loads, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Huntsville trip