Vaughan to Lake George: the Queen of American Lakes by chauffeured car

Lake George, the American lake resort

Lake George is the thirty-two-mile lake at the Adirondacks' southeastern edge that Americans have holidayed on since the steamboats of the 1810s — Thomas Jefferson, passing in 1791, wrote that it was "the most beautiful water I ever saw" — and it is the resort lake in the way Muskoka is Ontario's: the village at the southern end with Million Dollar Beach, the steamboat docks, the arcades and mini-golf of Canada Street and the fort; Bolton Landing ten miles up the west shore with the Sagamore, the 1883 grand hotel on its own island; the east shore's quiet and the islands' campsites; Prospect Mountain's highway above the village for the view down the lake; Six Flags Great Escape's coasters and water park at Queensbury; and Saratoga Springs' racetrack forty minutes south. A Vaughan family that has done Muskoka's prices and wants a week with a beach, a boat, a fort and a theme park in one place drives eight hours and finds it; the Visit Lake George site has the lake, and the border guide has the bridge.

The road

From Kleinburg the 401 east, Kingston's lunch, the Thousand Islands Bridge, I-81 south to Syracuse, I-90 east to Albany and I-87 north — the Adirondack Northway — to exit 21 and the village; eight and a third hours by the estimate and eight and three-quarters with the booth and stops. The Adirondack road is the alternative for a family that wants the park — the bridge, Route 3 to Lake Placid, and Route 73 and I-87 south — about the same time with mountains in it; a family that splits the drive sleeps in Syracuse or Alexandria Bay, and the Sprinter carries a family and a week's lake gear.

The village and the beach

Lake George village is the lake's southern shore: Million Dollar Beach's sand and lifeguards at the lake's head, Shepard Park's smaller beach and its free summer concerts, the steamboat docks, Canada Street's arcades, mini-golf, fudge shops and the House of Frankenstein wax museum that every child asks for, the Lake George Battlefield Park behind the beach, and the hotels and motels along the shore whose pools face the lake. It is the American lake village of the 1950s kept in working order, and a family with children under twelve spends the evenings on Canada Street; the fireworks on Thursday nights in summer are the week's fixed point.

The steamboats

The Lake George Steamboat Company has run since 1817 — the Minne-Ha-Ha's paddlewheel for the hour's cruise from the village dock, the Mohican's full-lake cruise of four and a half hours to Ticonderoga and back through the Narrows' islands, the Lac du Saint Sacrement's dinner cruises — and a family's morning is the Minne-Ha-Ha with the calliope playing and the mountains on both sides; the steamboat company's site has the schedule. The lake's clear water — a Class AA drinking-water lake, the reason the swimming is what it is — is the cruise's floor.

The Sagamore and Bolton Landing

The Sagamore on Green Island at Bolton Landing is the lake's grand hotel — the 1883 resort rebuilt in 1930 and again in the 1980s, with the veranda over the lake, the pools, the spa, the golf course across the road, the Morgan's boat cruises and the beach — and a Vaughan family's week here is the version with the lake at the door and the village ten miles away; Bolton Landing's own main street has the Sembrich opera museum, the Up Yonda Farm nature centre and the restaurants, and the travel desk holds the Sagamore, which for July and August books in the winter. The lake's other resorts — the Lodges at Cresthaven, the Fort William Henry Hotel above the village, the Georgian on the shore — are the family alternatives.

Fort William Henry and the history

Fort William Henry at the village's head is the reconstructed 1755 British fort whose siege and massacre in 1757 are the events of The Last of the Mohicans — the guided tour with the musket and cannon demonstrations, the barracks, the museum — and a Grade 7 student's hour; Fort Ticonderoga, the French fort of 1755 at the lake's northern end where Lake Champlain begins, is the day's drive up the lake's west shore, with the fort's fife-and-drum corps, the King's Garden and the Mount Defiance road, and the fort's site has the season. The two forts and the Mohican's cruise between them are the history day.

Great Escape and Prospect Mountain

Six Flags Great Escape at Queensbury, ten minutes south, is the region's theme park — the Comet wooden coaster of 1927, moved here from Ontario's Crystal Beach; the Steamin' Demon; the Sasquatch drop; the Hurricane Harbor water park on the same ticket; and the Great Escape Lodge's indoor water park across the road for the rainy day and the winter version — and a family's day with the park's site for the tickets; Prospect Mountain's Veterans' Memorial Highway climbs from the village to a summit lot and a shuttle to the top's hundred-mile view down the lake to Vermont's Green Mountains, the family's late-afternoon hour and the photograph.

The week, in shape

Saturday at 7 from Kleinburg, Kingston's lunch, the bridge at 11:15, I-81 and the Thruway, the Sagamore's porte-cochère by 4:30, the lake from the veranda; Sunday the beach and the Minne-Ha-Ha; Monday Fort William Henry and the village's evening; Tuesday Great Escape; Wednesday the Mohican's cruise to Ticonderoga and the fort; Thursday Prospect Mountain and the village fireworks; Friday Saratoga's racetrack or the drive home — I-87, the Thruway, I-81, the bridge at 1:30 with the 48-hour exemption, Kleinburg by 7:30. Six nights, the Sprinter on daily hire with the resort days released, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eight hours each way with a week's lake gear as a driver; the bridge; the Thruway's and the Northway's hours; the village's summer parking, which is the lake's one flaw; the Great Escape's lot; and the Friday drive home. For a couple the trip is a car's; for a family of five with a resort week or two families in a Sprinter it is one fare and a parent on the steamboat rather than the Northway.

Seasons

July and August for the beach, the boats and the village at full tilt, with the Thursday fireworks and the Americade motorcycle week in early June and the Adirondack Nationals car show in September filling the village; late September and October for the lake's colour from Prospect Mountain and the Mohican's fall cruises; winter for the Great Escape Lodge's indoor water park, the Winter Carnival's weekends in February on the frozen lake and the ice bar; the lake's water is warmest in August.

Pairing it

Lake George pairs with Saratoga Springs forty minutes south for the racetrack and the spa, with Lake Placid two hours north for the Olympic sites, with Burlington across Champlain by the Ticonderoga ferry, and with Boston as the drive's split for a family continuing east.

The lake day, in order, for a family of five

From the Sagamore at 9:30 in the Sprinter: the village's Steamboat dock at 10:15 for the Minne-Ha-Ha's eleven o'clock hour with the calliope and the paddlewheel; Million Dollar Beach from 12:30 with the cooler and the umbrella from the bay until 3; Fort William Henry's 3:30 tour with the musket demonstration for the Grade 7 student; Canada Street's mini-golf and the House of Frankenstein at 5; the Log Jam's dinner; the Thursday fireworks from Shepard Park at 9:30; the Sprinter back to Bolton Landing by 10:15. Twelve hours, a beach, a boat, a fort and a wax museum, and a parent who did not park in the village in July.

The east shore and the islands

The lake's east shore is the quiet one — Route 9L past the Lake George Battlefield Park to Pilot Knob and the Shelving Rock trail's waterfall and lake-shore path, the Kattskill Bay marinas, the state's island campsites in the Narrows reached by boat, the Buck Mountain hike's two hours to a summit over the whole lake — and a family that has done the village does the east shore's day with the Sprinter at the Shelving Rock trailhead; the Lake George Association's site has the trails and the lake's stewardship, and the water's clarity is its work.

Costs, plainly

The Lake George week is a daily hire in the booking engine with the resort days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; the resort, the steamboats, the forts and Great Escape are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers Canada Street's fudge. Against the fare are eight hours each way with a week's lake gear as a driver, the bridge, the Northway and the village's July parking; a couple does this in a car, and a family of five with a resort week or two families in a Sprinter book it for one fare and a parent on the Minne-Ha-Ha rather than the Thruway.

The Adirondack Experience, on the road

A family that takes the park road home stops at Blue Mountain Lake's Adirondack Experience — the museum of the region's story in twenty buildings on a hill over the lake, with the guide-boats, the Great Camp rooms, the logging and mining halls, the Marion River Carry's steam locomotive and the Life in the Adirondacks gallery that the children run through — for two hours between Lake George and Lake Placid's road; the museum's site has the season, and the drive through the park's middle is the reason to go home the long way.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the resort days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; tell us the resort, the split, the cruises, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Lake George week