Vaughan to Wasaga Beach: fourteen kilometres of sand, one chauffeured drop

The beach, and its six areas

Wasaga Beach is fourteen kilometres of sand along Nottawasaga Bay at the southern tip of Georgian Bay, the longest freshwater beach in the world, run as Wasaga Beach Provincial Park in six numbered beach areas with the town of Wasaga Beach behind them. Beach Area 1 at the river mouth is the main strip — the boardwalk, the restaurants, the arcade, the crowds; Areas 2 and 3 south of it are the family beaches with the day-use lots and the picnic grounds; Areas 4, 5 and 6 further south along the bay are the quieter ones with the dunes behind them. Vaughan families have driven to it for three generations and the trip has one problem, which is the arrival: on a July Saturday the Area 1 lots are full by ten, the town's parking meters are at summer rates, and a family car with three children and a beach's worth of kit circles for the spot it will not find. The chauffeured version removes the problem.

The day, and the drop

A family of five from Maple in a Luxury SUV: pickup at 8:30 with the boosters fitted and the cargo area full — two chairs, an umbrella, a cooler, a beach tent, a bag of towels, the stroller; the 400 north and Highway 26 west through Stayner, or Highway 27 through Elmvale and 92 in; Beach Area 2's day-use lot at ten with the advance permit on the dashboard; the chauffeur carrying the kit to the sand's edge beside the family; the vehicle gone. Lunch at the picnic ground or, with a walk, on the strip's boardwalk; the shallow water that makes Wasaga the beach for small children; the collection at four at the same spot, the wet things in a bin bag, and the drive home with the children asleep by Barrie. Nine hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine.

Which area for which family

• Toddlers and a stroller: Area 2 or 3 — the day-use lots are beside the sand, the water is shallow for a long way out, the picnic grounds have shade and washrooms.
• Teenagers who want the strip: Area 1 — the boardwalk, the beach volleyball, the arcade and the food; the chauffeur drops at the Main Street end and the lots are the town's.
• A quiet day: Areas 5 and 6 — the dunes, fewer people, the same sand; the lots are smaller and the permit matters more.
• Two families in a Sprinter: Area 3's picnic ground, which takes a group and has the parking for a vehicle that stays.

Permits and the cap

Ontario Parks sells daily vehicle permits for the beach areas' day-use lots in advance, and on summer weekends caps them; when the cap is reached the areas close to arriving vehicles. A chauffeured family holds the permit from the moment the day is booked and arrives before ten; the travel desk can buy it with the booking. The town's Area 1 parking is separate and metered.

Nancy Island and the town

Nancy Island Historic Site, on an island in the Nottawasaga River behind Area 1, holds the hull of HMS Nancy, the British schooner sunk in the river in 1814, in a museum with a theatre and a lighthouse replica — an hour for a family with children over eight, and a break from the sun. The town behind the beach has the Wasaga Beach Blues festival in September, the Playland Park amusement rides on the strip, and the restaurants of Main Street and Mosley Street; the town's site has the calendar. A family that wants more than sand does Nancy Island at two and the strip's ice cream at five.

Wasaga in the other seasons

The beach in September is warm-water and empty; in October the dunes are a walk; in winter Wasaga's park grooms cross-country ski trails through the dunes at the Nordic Centre and the town runs a February winter festival with snowmobile drags on the frozen bay. The summer day is the booking, but a Vaughan couple books a September Sunday on the empty sand in a Premium Sedan and calls it the best day at the beach they have had.

The route

The 400 north to Highway 26 at Barrie's south end, 26 west through Stayner to the town — or Highway 27 north from Vaughan through Elmvale and Highway 92 west, the country road that Woodbridge and Kleinburg families prefer because it starts at their door. An hour and a half either way; on a July Saturday morning the 400 and 26 are the beach traffic and the chauffeur is on the road by half past eight.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family with boosters at $25 each and a cargo area that takes a beach's worth of kit; an Executive Sprinter for two families or a group of teenagers with a parent, with the bay for the coolers and the tent; a Premium Sedan for a couple's September day. A party bus is booked for a Wasaga stag or a birthday's beach day and the strip's lots take it.

What the chauffeur replaces

The lot that is full, the meter that is not, the walk from the car to the sand with a cooler and a toddler, and the drive home in wet swimsuits with the sand in the car. For a family of four it is a comfort purchase against a beach that has never been easy to arrive at; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars and two permits. The fare is one number in the booking engine, and the site says which it is.

Pairing it

Wasaga pairs with Midland and Penetanguishene for a history morning and a beach afternoon, with Collingwood and Blue Mountain twenty minutes west for a weekend that does the village and the sand, and with Barrie for a Kempenfelt dinner on the way home.

Two families in a Sprinter, in order

Two families from Thornhill — four adults, five children between three and eleven — in an Executive Sprinter: pickup at 8:15 from the first address, the second five minutes later, the bay holding two coolers, a beach tent, six chairs, two umbrellas and a stroller; the 400 to Barrie and Highway 26 west with the children at the tables; Beach Area 3's day-use lot at 9:50 with the permit on the dashboard; the chauffeur and the fathers carrying the kit to the sand in two trips; the Sprinter gone. The shallow water until noon, lunch under the tent, the picnic ground's washrooms, the older children walked to Area 1's strip by one adult for the arcade at two while the Sprinter shuttles them — the chauffeur's afternoon errand — and everyone back at Area 3 for the collection at four. Eight and a half hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, split two ways, and two cars' worth of permits, lots and driving removed from a beach day.

The dunes, the river and the Nordic Centre

Behind the beach areas the park's dunes are among the largest in Ontario and its Dunes Trail system — a network of loops in the forest and sand behind Areas 4 to 6 — is the walk for a family that wants an hour out of the sun; the Nottawasaga River behind Area 1 has the canoe and paddleboard rentals and the flat water that suits children. The Wasaga Nordic Centre in the dunes grooms cross-country ski and snowshoe trails in winter with a chalet and rentals; a February Sunday there with a Luxury SUV is the winter version of the trip, and Highway 26 in a squall is the reason it is chauffeured. The park's site has the trails and the winter hours.

The strip, honestly

Beach Area 1 and the town's Main Street behind it are the Wasaga that has been in the papers for seventy years — the boardwalk, the beach volleyball courts, the arcades, the Playland rides, the ice-cream stands and the crowds of a July Saturday, with the town's parking meters and a lot that is full by ten. It is the teenagers' Wasaga and a chauffeured family lets the teenagers have it: the Sprinter drops the older children at the Main Street end with an adult and the younger ones at Area 2 with the rest, and the chauffeur moves between them. The town's site has the strip's summer events and the September blues festival.

Stayner, Elmvale and the road's stops

Highway 26 passes through Stayner, whose main street has the bakery the chauffeur stops at on the way home; Highway 27 and 92 pass through Elmvale, the country town with the Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival in April and the farm stands of the summer. A chauffeured beach day that comes home through Elmvale with a stop for corn in August is the Woodbridge version of the trip.

Pickup notes

The 400 and Highway 26 for Maple, the VMC, Thornhill and Concord; Highway 27 and 92 for Woodbridge and Kleinburg. Give us the beach area, the permit date, the seats, the kit and the number of adults and children, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the weather on it.

Packing, and the bin bag

Two chairs per adult, one umbrella per family, a beach tent for the toddlers, a cooler with the lunch and the water, towels in a bag that will come home wet, sunscreen, hats, sandals for the hot sand at two, and a change of clothes for everyone for the drive home; the SUV's cargo area takes it and the Sprinter's bay takes two families' worth. The chauffeur carries a roll of bin bags for the wet things and a broom for the sand, which is the small detail that a family in its own car remembers for a month afterwards. Nothing about the day needs a plan beyond the permit and the pickup.

Booking it

Book an hourly day from your Vaughan address with the beach area, the permit date, the seats and the kit in the notes; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the weather on it, and the travel desk holds the permit.

Book the Wasaga beach day