My family (my parents, sister, bf and 2 dogs) try to take a vacation together each year. While we live 5 minutes away from each other and see each other on weekends, it’s still nice spend family time outside of running errands together.
There’s been years we’ve gone on more elaborate trips but it’s not always feasible with budget and coordinating vacation schedules. We started renting cottages in 2004, first one being in Novar, Ontario and became one of the best vacations we’ve ever taken together. I still remember the 2.5 hour road trip listening and singing along to 50’s-80’s classics, floating on my water-bed on Clear Lake, barbecuing each night, witnessing our first meteor shower, hiking Algonquin trails, sleeping in till 11am and not feeling like we wasted the day.
This year, we decided to head to the cottage again. In the past I used www.CottageRental.com, a cottage management portal with verified listings. With all the horror stories of renting cottages that doesn’t really exist, I decided to stick with a management company and pay the admin fee. This time I used www.clrm.ca and while I was still a handful of months away from our vacation time, many cottages were already booked. Luckily, we found Annie’s Lake House on Lake Couchching that just went on the market. On my call with CLRM I briefly asked how cottages were verified – they have account managers that will go visit the property and take pictures to ensure authenticity. CLRM provided great service and was quick to answer any questions.
August 15th rolled along and we headed to Annie’s Lake House, 1.5 hour drive from Toronto. Upon arrival everything was as pictured – it was beautiful and for $1,600/week, you can’t go wrong. The only thing that we didn’t love was the proximity to the neighbours. Unfortunately we were beside a group of teenage boys that decided to use our dock without permission. But other than that, we had a good time.
Our schedule involved waking up at 10:30am, making breakfast together, enjoy coffee in front of the lake (being lake front felt like we were in a boat), watch some TV and step outside to float around on the lake. While we don’t have kids yet, we have 2 little pups and one of them loves to be in the water. Scruffy didn’t necessarily like swimming but we found out last time at the cottage that he loves standing on a wake board and float around. No one loved this trip more than this little guy. First to wake up and ask to go in the lake, naps by the dock, patiently watches the sunset and sleeps by the campfire. He’s a smart little pup and we’re so lucky to have found him. Sassy on the other hand wanted to hide under the Muskoka chairs away from the sun or float on the water-bed with me.
My one regret is that we didn’t get the chance to go outside the cottage and do some hiking trails like we usually did or take a stroll in Casino Rama like my dad wanted. Once we got to the cottage, we just wanted to lounge around and lounge around we did.
If you’re looking for an affordable family vacation (cottage rental rates can start much lower than $1,600 depending on your needs), I highly recommend heading to the cottage. It’s great to get away from busy schedules and spend quality family/pet time without the craziness of back to back travel schedules.
Some things to consider when choosing your cottage:
- Distance to home
- Distance to grocery stores
- Is it waterfront? Is there a gradual slope? (sand, rock, weeds?)
- Water crafts – what the cottage comes with
- Are motorized water crafts allowed on the lake? (this may be an important one to consider for those with young children)
- Privacy from neighbours
What’s your favourite Canadian summer vacation? Comment below!
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