Vaughan to Prince Edward County and Sandbanks: dunes, wineries and the County weekend

The County, from a Vaughan driveway

Prince Edward County is an island — attached to the mainland by bridges at Belleville and Deseronto and by the Glenora ferry from the Kingston side — and it behaves like one: slower, self-contained, with a main street in Picton that shuts for the market, a beach at Sandbanks that is the longest freshwater dune system in the world, and forty-odd wineries in converted barns along roads named for the Loyalists who laid them out. For Vaughan it is the trip that replaced Niagara for the families who found Niagara too busy: two and a half hours east, no coaches, and a weekend that feels like a week.

Sandbanks as a beach day

Sandbanks Provincial Park is three beaches — the Outlet, Sandbanks and Dunes — and a day-use system that fills on summer weekends by mid-morning; Ontario Parks sells daily vehicle permits in advance, and on a July Saturday the park closes to arriving cars when the lots are full. This is where the chauffeur earns the fare twice: the vehicle holds a pre-booked permit, arrives before the closure, drops the family at the beach access with the cooler, chairs, umbrella and stroller, and the family does not spend the day's first hour in a queue at the gate. The vehicle waits in the lot; the family walks the dunes, swims in Lake Ontario's warmest water and eats a picnic in the shade; the chauffeur reloads everything at four and the family sleeps on the 401.

A Sandbanks day from Maple is a 7 a.m. pickup, the park by ten, and home by seven — a twelve-hour hourly booking in a Luxury SUV for a family of five or an Executive Sprinter for two families sharing a picnic and a fare.

The County weekend

The weekend is the version adults book, and it is a wine, food and town trip rather than a beach one. Picton is the county seat: a main street of Georgian and Victorian storefronts with the Regent Theatre, restaurants that fill on Saturday nights, and inns in the old houses. Wellington on the lake has its own main street and the Drake Devonshire's pull; Bloomfield between them has the shops. The wineries are everywhere, concentrated along the Loyalist Parkway (Highway 33) toward Wellington and on the roads north of it, and the Visit PEC site maps them with the breweries, cideries and the farm stands.

A chauffeured County weekend is a daily hire from Vaughan: down on Friday afternoon to a Picton or Wellington inn, a Saturday of four estates with lunch at one — the vehicle moving the group, the chauffeur not tasting — a Sunday of the market, the Sandbanks dunes for a walk rather than a swim, and the drive home. Couples do it in a Premium Sedan; groups of six to twelve in a Sprinter, which is the vehicle the County's tasting rooms expect.

The road, and the ferry option

From Vaughan the chauffeur takes the 407 east to the 401 and the 401 east past Cobourg and Trenton to Belleville, then Highway 62 or 49 over the Bay of Quinte onto the island; Sandbanks is reached through Picton or via County Road 12 from Bloomfield. The routing estimate above is three hours ten; in practice with the 407 it is under three with one stop. The alternative is the Kingston route and the Glenora ferry — a free crossing that runs continuously through the day — which is longer but turns the trip into a loop: the 401 out to Kingston, the ferry into the County, Sandbanks and Picton, and the Belleville bridges home. Families with children ask for the ferry; the chauffeur builds it in.

Vehicles, and why the Sprinter suits the County

The County's roads are two-lane county roads, its estate lots are gravel, and its inns have small forecourts; a stretch limousine is wrong for it, a party bus is wrong for it, and a Sprinter or SUV is right. The Sprinter's bay carries the beach kit for a family or the wine cases for a group — estates sell by the case and the bay fills by Sunday — and its tables and headroom make the drive part of the weekend. Booster seats are $25 each in the booking engine; for the beach day the chauffeur keeps them fitted for the sandy return.

The market, the theatre and the food

Picton's farmers' market runs on Saturday mornings in the summer season and closes part of the main street; Wellington's is on Saturdays too. The Regent Theatre in Picton runs films and live shows; Base31, the former air-force base near Picton, has become a summer venue for concerts and outdoor markets; and the County's restaurants — the ones Vaughan couples book the weekend around — take reservations weeks ahead for a summer Saturday. The chauffeur drops at the door of each and waits or returns; the evening in Picton after four wineries is the whole argument for not driving.

Costs, plainly

For a family of four the Sandbanks day is an hourly hire of about twelve hours and it is a comfort purchase against a family car and a 6 a.m. departure to beat the gate closure — the booking engine shows the number before you commit, tolls included. For two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars, two permits and two tired drivers. For a group of eight adults on a wine weekend the daily hire divided eight ways compares with a coach tour that does not stay in a Picton inn or choose its own estates, and it is the version this site sells most.

Seasons in the County

The beach season is July and August, when Sandbanks closes its gates by late morning and the permit is the thing to hold. September and October are the wine season — harvest, the roads in colour, the estates at their most generous, the inns still full on weekends. May and June are the quiet, green months when Vaughan couples get the reservations they cannot get in July. Winter closes most estates to walk-ins and the County becomes a Kingston side trip; the Sandbanks dunes under snow are a photograph, not a day.

Pairing it

The County pairs with Kingston by the ferry — a three-night loop this site books as one daily hire — with Cobourg and Port Hope on the way home, and with the Thousand Islands for a week on the water. Vaughan families who have done Niagara book the County next; the ones who have done the County book it again.

A County weekend, as the chauffeur plans it

The daily-hire weekend for a group of eight from Thornhill runs like this, and it is the shape the chauffeur will propose if you ask for a plan rather than a list.

Friday. A 2 p.m. pickup — two addresses, five minutes apart — the 407 to the 401 and the 401 to Belleville with the group at the Sprinter's tables; a stop at Cobourg's beach for twenty minutes because it is on the way; over the Bay of Quinte on Highway 62 and into Picton by five. The inn's forecourt drop, the vehicle away, dinner on the main street on foot.

Saturday. A 10:30 start: an estate on the Loyalist Parkway toward Wellington when the tasting room opens; a second one north of Hillier on a gravel road, reached in twelve minutes; lunch at a third with a terrace, ninety minutes; a cidery near Waupoos in the afternoon on the way to the Lake on the Mountain lookout above the Glenora ferry; Picton by five, the vehicle parked, dinner at the restaurant reserved in June.

Sunday. The Picton market in the morning, a walk on the Sandbanks dunes at noon with the group's shoes off and the chauffeur at the Outlet Beach lot, lunch in Wellington, and the 401 home with the wine in the bay and the group asleep by Cobourg. Two days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine before Friday.

Sandbanks in detail: three beaches, one permit

The park's three beaches have different characters and a chauffeured family can choose without worrying about re-parking. Outlet Beach is the family one — long, shallow, with the day-use lots and the snack bar; Sandbanks Beach on the West Lake side is the dune beach, with the walk up into the sand hills that children remember; Dunes Beach on the far side of the park is the quieter one with the steeper dunes and the best evening light. The advance daily vehicle permit from Ontario Parks covers the vehicle for the day and the chauffeur holds it on the dashboard; arrival before ten on a July weekend is the rule the chauffeur will insist on, because the park's gate closure is real and a family in a queue on County Road 12 at eleven is not going swimming.

The County's other stops

Beyond the wineries and the beach the County has half a dozen places a chauffeured group fits into a weekend: Lake on the Mountain, the lake sixty metres above Lake Ontario at the top of the Glenora hill with the lookout across the ferry; the Millennium Trail, the rail bed across the island for a walk or a cycle; the lavender farm near Hillier in June and July; the County's breweries and cideries, which have their own trail; the Waupoos side with its estate and its ferry to the small islands; and Base31 near Picton, the wartime air base turned summer venue with concerts, night markets and the hangars' art. The Visit PEC calendar is the source; the chauffeur, who drives the County every summer weekend, knows which are on.

Pickup notes from Vaughan

The County run begins on the 407 at Weston Road for Woodbridge and Kleinburg, Jane for Maple, Dufferin or Bathurst for Thornhill and Concord, and from the tower loop for the VMC. Give us the inn, the estates or ask for a route, the child seats for a beach day, the Sandbanks permit date and whether the ferry loop is wanted; the fare is quoted from the exact address with the tolls and the ferry (free) inside it.

Booking it

Book an hourly day from your Vaughan address for Sandbanks with the permit date in the notes, or a daily hire for the weekend with the inn and the estates you have in mind — or ask for a route. Tell us the number of child seats, the beach kit, and whether the ferry loop is wanted; the travel desk can hold the inn and the Sandbanks permit together.

Book the County trip