Vaughan to Parry Sound and Georgian Bay: the 30,000 Islands by chauffeured car

Parry Sound, where the 400 meets the bay

Parry Sound is the town at the end of the four-lane 400, on a deep harbour of Georgian Bay's eastern shore, and it is the Georgian Bay that the Group of Seven painted: pink granite, wind-bent pines, thirty thousand islands scattered from the harbour to the open water. It has a cruise ship, the Island Queen, that spends three hours threading the islands; a tower on the hill above the town with the bay laid out beneath; a summer classical festival in a concert hall on the water; a hall of fame for the hockey player the town is proudest of; and, twenty minutes west, Killbear Provincial Park, whose beaches and campground are the family week that Vaughan books in March. It is two and a half hours from a Vaughan driveway on one highway, and the chauffeured day and the cottage transfer are the two bookings this post is about.

The Island Queen and the 30,000 Islands

The Island Queen sails from the town dock through the summer season: a three-hour afternoon cruise into the islands that is the reason most first-time visitors come, and a shorter morning sailing that suits families with young children. The islands are the show — the channels between them narrow enough to see the cottages' porches, the granite shelving into the water, the lighthouses on the outer islands — and the ship's upper deck is where the family stands. The sailing is a fixed time and it goes in the booking notes; a chauffeured day from Maple is built around it: pickup at 8:30, the town by eleven, the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame and the harbour walk, lunch on the waterfront, the afternoon cruise, the tower at five, home by eight.

The town: the tower, the hall of fame, the festival

The Tower Hill Lookout is a steel fire tower rebuilt for visitors on the hill above the town, with a climb to a platform above the trees and the harbour, the trestle bridge and the islands below it — the photograph of the trip, and the chauffeur drops at the top. The Bobby Orr Hall of Fame is in the Charles W. Stockey Centre on the waterfront, the town's tribute to its most famous son, with his memorabilia and an interactive hockey gallery for the children; the Stockey Centre's concert hall is the home of the Festival of the Sound, the chamber-music festival that runs for three weeks each July and August with concerts in the hall and on the cruise ship. A Vaughan couple books a festival evening as an hourly hire or as a weekend at one of the town's inns with the vehicle staying; the concert-cruise combination is the festival's signature and sells out.

Killbear and the beaches

Killbear Provincial Park is a peninsula of granite and pine twenty minutes west of the town on Highway 559, with three kilometres of beaches in coves along the bay, the Lighthouse Point trail to the bent pine that is on every postcard, and a campground that Ontario Parks fills the day reservations open. A chauffeured family does Killbear as a beach day from Vaughan — an SUV with the cooler, the day-use permit on the dashboard, the Beaver Dams beach in the morning, the Lighthouse Point trail in the afternoon, home by seven — or as a campsite drop with the Sprinter carrying the family and the camping load, a week later the reverse. Day use is capped on summer weekends and the advance permit is the item to hold; the chauffeur arrives before the closure.

The cottage transfer

The Georgian Bay shore north and south of Parry Sound — Carling, Nobel, the roads off Highway 559 and 124, the islands reached from the marinas at Snug Harbour and Killbear Marina — is the cottage country that Vaughan families have discovered as Muskoka filled, and the transfer is the Sprinter booking this site runs for every northern lake: family, luggage, coolers, dog and canoe in one trip, the cottage's directions rather than its address, the marina for the island cottages, the return a week later. The shore roads are granite-cut township roads and the chauffeur has driven them; the Muskoka route page sets out the transfer terms that apply here too.

The route

Highway 400 north from Vaughan, through Barrie and past the Muskoka exits, to Parry Sound's exits at Bowes Street and Highway 124 — four lanes the whole way since the 400's extension, and a road that a family from the VMC or Maple is on within minutes. The routing estimate is two hours fifty; the practical time is two and a half with the 400 clear and three and a half on a July Friday afternoon, when the chauffeur leaves before three or after seven with the fare fixed either way.

Which vehicle

A Luxury SUV for a family day with boosters at $25 each; a Sprinter for the cottage transfer, the Killbear campsite drop and a group's festival weekend; a Premium Sedan for a couple at a festival concert or a town inn. The canoe on the rack is arranged at booking.

What the chauffeur replaces

Five hours of the 400 in a day; the town dock's summer parking; the Killbear gate queue; and the cottage road with a full car. The fare is one number in the booking engine — hourly for the day, a one-way each way for the cottage, a return pair or daily hire for a weekend — and for a Sprinter of eight it undercuts two cars; for a family of four it is a comfort purchase and the site says so.

Seasons

The Island Queen sails from June to Thanksgiving with the fall-colour sailings in early October; the festival is July and August; Killbear's beaches are July and August with the permit cap on weekends; the cottage transfers run from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving; winter is a quiet town on a plowed 400 with the bay frozen and the snowmobile trails open.

A cruise day for a family of five, in order

Pickup at 8:30 from a Woodbridge driveway; the 400 north with the boosters fitted and the cooler in the back; a ten-minute stop at the Barrie service centre for the youngest; Parry Sound by 11:15. The Tower Hill Lookout first, because the lot is empty before noon and the climb is a hundred steps the children want to do; the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame at noon for the interactive gallery — the shooting cage is the memory; lunch on the waterfront at one; the Island Queen's afternoon sailing at two, three hours on the upper deck with the family's jackets on because the bay is cooler than the town; the town dock at five, an ice cream, and the 400 home with three children asleep by Barrie. Eleven hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, and the SUV moved between the tower, the Stockey Centre, the restaurant and the dock — four parking hunts a family car would have made.

Killbear, cove by cove

Killbear's beaches are in a chain of coves along the peninsula's north and west shores, each with its own campground and day-use lot: Kilcoursie Bay's long sand for families with small children, Beaver Dams and Georgian for the older ones, Harold Point for the sunset over the bay and the lighthouse trail. The Lighthouse Point trail is a kilometre to the point where the wind-bent white pine stands on the granite — the photograph that appears on the park's own signs — and the Twin Points and Lookout trails are the other short ones. On a July or August weekend the park closes its day-use gate when the lots fill, usually by late morning, and the advance daily permit from Ontario Parks is what a chauffeured family holds on the dashboard when it arrives at ten; the chauffeur drops at the beach lot with the cooler and the umbrella and waits.

The campsite drop, worked through

A family of five to Killbear's Beaver Dams campground for a week: a tent, sleeping bags, two coolers, the stove, the bins, three bicycles, a canoe on the rack, the dog. A family car does it as two trips or a rented trailer; the Executive Sprinter does it in one with the bicycles in the bay and the canoe on top, drops at the campsite's pull-in on the check-in day at two, and returns a week later at eleven for the reverse. The family spends the week without a car and the park is small enough that it does not matter; the town is a taxi if needed. The fare is one number each way; the Muskoka route page explains how transfers with waiting are priced when the campsite is not ready at two.

The eastern shore, cottage by cottage

North of the town, Highway 559 and the Carling roads reach the cottages of the eastern Georgian Bay shore — Snug Harbour, Dillon, Pointe au Baril further north — many of them on islands reached by the marinas; south, Highway 400's Oastler and Nobel exits serve the bay's southern shore and the inland lakes. The transfer from Vaughan is the Sprinter booking: the family, the load, the cottage's directions or the marina's name, the return a week later. The shore roads are cut through granite and switch back to the water; the chauffeur has driven them and knows which marina's dock is the cottage's.

Pointe au Baril and the Ojibway Club

An hour north of Parry Sound on Highway 69, Pointe au Baril is the Georgian Bay of the old summer families — island cottages, the Ojibway Club's summer social calendar, the lighthouse — and the transfer from Vaughan is a Sprinter to the Pointe au Baril marina with the family's week and the water taxi arranged; it is the longest of the Georgian Bay transfers and the one where a chauffeur who has driven it before is worth the fare.

Pickup notes

Highway 400 for every Vaughan community — Maple and the VMC are on it, Woodbridge and Kleinburg join at Major Mackenzie or Rutherford, Thornhill crosses on Highway 7 — and then the 400 the whole way. Give us the sailing, the seats, the Killbear permit, the cottage directions, the marina and the loads, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Booking it

Book an hourly day from your Vaughan address with the cruise sailing in the notes, a one-way for the cottage with the return date, or a weekend with the inn and the concerts; tell us the seats, the loads, the rack, the Killbear permit and the marina if any, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Georgian Bay trip