Ontario Hotels

In article <78428b09-b3b2-4cf7-bae5-9233ec7497ec DeleteThis @1g2000hsl.googlegroups.com>,
Lee <leemeadowcroft DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:

>I decided to go ahead and book the (strangely named) Saucy Willow Inn
>at Coboconk. We will stay there three nights on the 3rd, 4th & 5th
>September. Next is to plan a route cross-country from Coboconk towards
>Ottawa

There are three possible routes.

You can go up highway 35 to highway 60, drive east through Algonquin Park,
follow 60 through the small Canadian shield towns to Renfrew, and then
southeast to Ottawa via 17/417. Longest route but you also get to see
Algonquin Park.

You could make your way down to highway 7, which runs all the way to Ottawa
and is pretty scenic between about Marmora and Tweed. You could use this route
to check out Lindsay and Peterborough, although this will slow you down. (You
could avoid Lindsay and Peterborough by driving through Fenelon Falls and
Bobcaygeon, but getting down to 7 from around Buckhorn will take some
navigation.)

Or you can go to Buckhorn as above, and then take highway 28 up to Bancroft
and follow 28/41/132 to Renfrew, then to Ottawa via 17/417.

The simplest and most scenic route is the 35/60/17 combination, but it's also
a full day's drive.

The southern route via 7 lets you look at Lindsay (sometimes aka Kawartha
Lakes) and Peterborough, and in eastern Ontario Tweed (a nice mid-size town)
and Carleton Place (larger, largely commuter town).

All three routes spend quite a bit of time in Candian shield country.

>and to find a nice play to stay either in or near Ottawa. I've
>looked at the Lord Elgin that has been suggested above and that is
>currently on my short list but I need some others to compare. I don't
>mind staying half an hour outside of the city, preferably on the West
>or South side. If anyone has suggestions of a pleasant route that is
>not hugely off track then I would like to hear about it, same goes for
>places to visit on the way. I've found a couple of nice places in
>Perth, what is that area like?

Perth is a nice historic town. It's a considerable drive from Ottawa, though;
count on at least a hour one-way.

There are historic towns along the Rideau River/canal system where I'm sure
you can get a very nice hotel or B&B. I haven't lived in Ottawa for years, so
maybe someone else can make better suggestions, or search on "Rideau canal".
Merrickville is supposed to be very nice.
For example, look at http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/accom-inns.html

Kanata is a ready-made suburb, I imagine kind of like Milton Keynes. I wouldn't
stay there for vacation (and I don't think it's an interesting place to live,
either). Stittsville has obviously grown into a bedroom town; you may care
to live there, but it isn't a vacation destination. I'd stick to Ottawa or the
Rideau towns.

On Jan 30, 12:57 pm, Lee <leemeadowcr... DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
> > Then there is the Scotsman, who seeing his first moose in Canada said "Ach. if that's
> > a moose, I'd hate to see a rat"
>
> lol, very good.
>
> I decided to go ahead and book the (strangely named) Saucy Willow Inn
> at Coboconk. We will stay there three nights on the 3rd, 4th & 5th
> September. Next is to plan a route cross-country from Coboconk towards
> Ottawa and to find a nice play to stay either in or near Ottawa. I've
> looked at the Lord Elgin that has been suggested above and that is
> currently on my short list but I need some others to compare.

The Westin http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?prop...yID=108
is just across the canal from the the Lord Elgn. Excellent location.

There is also the Chateau Laurier ( the old grand dame of Ottawa
hotels) http://www.fairmont.com/laurier/ about midway between the
Lord Elgin and the Westin.

I think I already suggested a Gatineau (Hull) hotel. Another is the
Place Chaudiere http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/yowcp?firstpoint=dcb1&_...uestid=
a good location for easy access to Ottawa plus close to some decent
restaurants and a bit of night life.


> I don't
> mind staying half an hour outside of the city, preferably on the West
> or South side.

This is on the West side but on the Québec side of the river.
http://www.chateaucartier.com/ Excellent location, right on the
river and with a great pathway / cycle path along the river Much
handier to Ottawa than Perth. Ten minutes to downtown by car outside
of rush hour perhaps and handy public transit if you don't want to
bother with a car in downtown Ottawa.


>If anyone has suggestions of a pleasant route that is
> not hugely off track then I would like to hear about it, same goes for
> places to visit on the way. I've found a couple of nice places in
> Perth, what is that area like?

Perth is a very nice small town of about 6,000 people. It' all of
about 2 km by 1 km so there is no sprawl, some light industry, various
services for the surrounding area (shopping, medical, etc.,
education).

People are quite friendly. Some good high quality stores and a couple
of not bad restaurants. I believe it has a couple of gardens, one for
the blind, that are interesting [1] . The local museum (Matheson
House) is worth a visit.

Some of the buildings look quite Scottish, a result of the Scotish
stonemasons who settled in the area after the Rideau Canal was build.
Perth is on a spur of the Rideau Canal.

There are a some nice places to stay there. I've been in the Perth
Manor and Nevis Estate, just on an open house day tour, and they both
look like good places to stay.

The area is basically farmland shading into rougher Canadian Shield
type terrain as you head South-West towards the village of Westport
or North towards the village of Lanark. It's about 10 km from
Murphy's Point Provincial Park which is good for nature walks &
swimming. Annother interesting nature spot would be Foley Mountain
Conservation Area (County Rd. 10 just outside of Westport (about 30 km
from Perth). Again good for nature walks and swimming.

You would be roughly an hour from downtown Ottawa (i.e. the
Parliament Buildlings and the Lord Elgin ) outside of rush hour
traffic.

An alternative to Perth is Merrickville, south of the city (about same
distance as Perth perhaps.) In my opinion, not 'quite' as attractive
as Perth but very nice. Sir Sam Jakes Inn there has an excellent
reputation.

[1] I'm originally from 30 km away so I never did the tourist things.

>
> As I'm thinking about possioble future areas to live I've being doing
> a satallite tour of the Ottawa region on Google and looking through
> loads of photos on TrekEarth. There are some areas to the south of the
> city that look quite nice, such as Manotick, Stittsville and Kanata.
> Are these nice places or I have just come accross good pictures of bad
> areas?

They are essentially very nice dormatory communities for Ottawa and
nowadays are incorporated into the City of Ottawa. I tend to think of
them as just suburbs.

If you want to be really outside the city you need to look at
something about as far out as Merrickville, Carleton Place Perth, or
Embrun or perhaps Rockland (all on the Ontario side) or Wakefield or
Buckingham on the Québec side.

Come to think of it, Aylmer on the Québec side might interest you if
you're looking for the equvalent of Manotick/Stittsville. Alymer has
the advantages that you can really be into the country quickly (less
sprawl than on the Ontario side) and it is on the Ottawa River (big
lake with about 30 -50 km of sailing range at that point).

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada