Vaughan to Port Carling and Lake Rosseau: the big lakes by chauffeured car

The hub of the lakes

Port Carling sits at the locks where Lake Muskoka meets Lake Rosseau, the village that calls itself the hub of the lakes because every boat between them passes through it: a main street on the water, the locks in the middle, the Muskoka Lakes Museum, and, around it on the three big lakes — Muskoka, Rosseau, Joseph — the boathouses and estates that the steamship cruises call Millionaires' Row. This is the Muskoka of the postcards and the resort weekends: the JW Marriott The Rosseau at Minett on Lake Rosseau's east shore, Windermere House on the west, Bala with its cranberry marsh and its falls at the lake's south-west corner, and the cottage roads that wind off Highway 118 and Muskoka Road 169 to the water. For Vaughan it is the Muskoka couples and cottage families book most, and the one with the most reasons for the vehicle to stay.

The resort weekend

The JW Marriott Rosseau is the grand resort of the region: a lakefront hotel with a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, restaurants, a beach and a dock on Lake Rosseau, and a porte-cochère that a chauffeured arrival was designed for. A Vaughan couple books it as a return pair — a Premium Sedan or Luxury SUV on Friday afternoon, the resort, home Sunday — or with the vehicle staying if the weekend includes dinner in Port Carling, a boat tour, the Bala road or the Rosseau village market on Friday. Windermere House, the 1870 white-clapboard resort on the west shore, is the quieter, older version and the one for an anniversary; its verandah is the reason. Corporate accounts book both for retreats in a Sprinter with the team at the tables.

Port Carling itself

The village is a main street of a few blocks on the water, with the locks and the swing bridge in the middle, the Muskoka Lakes Museum beside them, restaurants and shops, and the docks where the summer boat tours of Lake Rosseau and the Indian River leave; the locks' walls are where families watch the mahogany launches and the cruisers lock through on a July afternoon, which children find more interesting than any museum. The chauffeur drops at the bridge and waits in the village lot; the walk is flat and an hour with an ice cream.

Bala and the cranberries

Bala, at Lake Muskoka's south-west corner on Muskoka Road 169, is the village of the falls where the lake drains to the Moon River, of Johnston's Cranberry Marsh and Muskoka Lakes Winery just outside it, and of the Bala Cranberry Festival on the Thanksgiving weekend in October — the fall day Vaughan families book for this region: the marsh's harvest tours with the berries floating in the flooded beds, the festival on the village's streets, the falls, lunch, and the drive home through the colours on 169 and the 400. The marsh's site has the harvest dates; the chauffeur builds the day around the tour.

The cottage transfer

The big lakes' cottages are the reason the Sprinter exists on this site: a family from Kleinburg to a Lake Joseph cottage with a week's luggage, a dog, the paddleboards and the groceries, on a private road off a township road off Highway 118, with a name the GPS has never heard. The Executive Sprinter carries it in one trip, the chauffeur takes the cottage's directions and the marina if the cottage is on an island, the family unloads at the dock, and the return is a second one-way a week later. The Muskoka route page sets out the transfer terms, and the cottage's owner books the guests' arrivals the same way.

Boats, from the road

The lakes are a boat region and a chauffeured trip can put a family on the water without a boathouse: the Port Carling boat tours through the locks, the Segwun's Millionaires' Row cruise from Gravenhurst's wharf described in the Gravenhurst post, the resorts' own rentals, and the water taxis from the marinas at Port Carling, Minett and Bala that reach the island cottages. The chauffeur drops at the dock and collects at the agreed time.

The route

The 400 north to Barrie, Highway 11 north through Gravenhurst to Bracebridge, Highway 118 west through Port Carling to Minett and the Rosseau shore — or Muskoka Road 169 from Gravenhurst to Bala and up the west side to Windermere. The routing estimate is two and a half hours; the practical time from Maple is two and a quarter with a clear 400, and on a July Friday afternoon the chauffeur leaves before three or after seven.

Which vehicle

A Premium Sedan or SUV for a couple's resort weekend; a Sprinter for the cottage transfer, for a corporate retreat and for grandparents-included; an SUV for any winter trip — the JW Marriott is a winter resort too, with the lakes frozen and the roads plowed but northern. Boosters are $25 each; the rack for the paddleboards is arranged at booking; a stretch is booked for the wedding at the resort, and the wedding page covers the bridal-party run to Muskoka.

What the fare replaces

The 400 on a Friday; the cottage road; the second car for the paddleboards; and, for the resort weekend, the arrival itself — a family car at a porte-cochère after two and a half hours of the 400 is a family car, and a chauffeured SUV with the luggage handed to the bell staff is the weekend beginning. The fare is one number in the booking engine and for a couple it is a comfort choice, for a Sprinter of eight a saving; the site says which.

Seasons

Summer for the resorts, the locks and the cottages; the Thanksgiving weekend for Bala's cranberries; October for the lake roads in colour; winter for the JW Marriott's spa weekend on a frozen lake; the May long weekend for the cottage openings, when the Sprinter transfers begin.

The resort weekend, in order

A couple from Thornhill at the JW Marriott Rosseau in September: the Premium Sedan at 2 p.m. on Friday, the 400 and 11 to Bracebridge, Highway 118 west through Port Carling with a stop at the locks for the boats, Minett and the resort's porte-cochère by five; the vehicle released. Sunday at noon the same chauffeur is at the porte-cochère, the bags go in, and the drive home is by Muskoka Road 169 through Bala for the falls and the marsh — a request made at booking — and the 400. Two one-way fares, shown in the booking engine before Friday, and no vehicle idling on their bill for two days.

The family version keeps the vehicle: a Sprinter of six at Windermere House with a day on the water — the Port Carling boat tour, the locks, lunch in the village — a day at the resort, and the drive home, priced as two days of daily hire.

Millionaires' Row and the boathouses

The east shore of Lake Muskoka between Beaumaris and Port Carling is the stretch the Segwun's long cruise calls Millionaires' Row — the boathouses and summer houses built by Pittsburgh and Toronto families from the 1880s on, with their two-storey boathouses, their launches and their flags — and while the road does not run along it, the Port Carling boat tours and the Segwun's cruise from the Gravenhurst wharf do. A chauffeured weekend that wants the boathouses books the cruise and lets the chauffeur do the drive between the wharf and the resort.

Rosseau village and the Friday market

At the north end of Lake Rosseau, the village of Rosseau holds a Friday-morning farmers' market in summer that draws the cottagers of three lakes, and the drive up the east shore from Minett on Muskoka Road 7 and 632 is the prettiest lake road in the region; a couple at the JW Marriott with the vehicle for a Friday morning does the market, the village's general store and the drive, which is the argument for the vehicle staying a half day.

Port Carling's locks, for children

The locks in the village centre are a free show: the big lock and the small lock beside it, the swing bridge that stops the main street when a tall boat passes, and the cruisers, the wooden launches and the occasional steamship locking through on a summer afternoon while families watch from the walls. Children who have no interest in a museum will watch a boat rise a metre in a stone box for half an hour; the Muskoka Lakes Museum beside them explains why the locks exist.

Pickup notes

The 400 for 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 and 118 or 169. Give us the resort and its check-in, the seats, the cottage's directions and marina, the loads and the rack, the cranberry tour if it is October, and whether the vehicle stays; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Bala's falls and the Moon River

Bala is the village where Lake Muskoka pours over two sets of falls into the Moon River, in the middle of the village beside the highway bridge and the old Bala station, and the walk from the Bala Falls lot along the river to the second falls is twenty minutes of the region's best free scenery; the Kee to Bala, the 1942 dance hall on the lake, still runs summer concerts. A chauffeured colour day from Vaughan does the marsh's tour, the falls walk, lunch in the village and the west-shore road north to Windermere before turning for home — a day the chauffeur has driven every October.

The winter version, honestly

The JW Marriott Rosseau in February is a spa and a frozen lake with snowshoe trails on it, and the drive is Highway 11 to Bracebridge and Highway 118 west, which is plowed and northern and driven on winter tires by a chauffeur who is watching the Barrie squall report from the Thursday; the Luxury SUV with the rear seats heated is the vehicle, and the return pair prices the same as summer. Couples who have done it in their own car once book the SUV the next year.

Booking it

Book a return pair or daily hire from your Vaughan address to the resort, or a one-way for the cottage with the return date and the directions; tell us the seats, the loads, the rack, the marina and the cranberry tour if booked, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Lake Rosseau trip