The best Ontario beaches - Port Colborne beach

Port Colborne beach

Very common is the phrase ‘a place where the sea and sky meet’, but it is not common to hear of a place where water meets the air, rail and the road. Port Colborne beach is one such place, may be exclusively. It is a distinguished tourist destination today with white sand beach on the shore of Lake Erie. Although Colborne is a place of industries and port, with its geographical distinction it happens to be a perfect place of tourism. The name, Nickel Beach particularly announces its silver white sand. St. Lawrence Seaway’s Welland Canal is the most prominent waterway running through Port Colborne. Along the canal, there is a lovely walking and biking trail. This canal was built to support the marine and fishing industry.

Besides beautiful Nickel Beach of white sands, Port Colborne is known for a lovely docking facility for yachts and other luxury cruisers. The city has plush shopping districts, places for entertainment and art galleries. It is equally great for abundance of restaurants serving a wide variety of cuisines. Its golfing grounds are lovely. The summer season festival of Canal Days is a prominent annual event of the whole region and draws a large number of domestic and American tourists. During this festival, entire city turns into a fun and merry making spot of entertainment, sports, traditional cultural performances, antique car show, fireworks, live music and plenty of food delicacies. Though you will have plenty of festive indulgence throughout the city, much of it centers around West Street along the canal.

Other places of tourist attraction are Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum, Showboat Festival Theatre and the heritage property, Kinnear House. The Historical and Marine Museum is a rich archive of local history with a substantial collection of artifacts. The jurist Helen Alice Kinnear was the first female judge in Canada and the Kinnear House property is associated with preserving her memory.

The white sand Nickel beach on the shore of Lake Erie is situated in the east of Welland Canal. The beach provides a lovely natural setting of sand dunes and a big expanse of forest. This place offers every facility for the tourists to have resting shelters or have refreshing drinks and fresh food from the stalls. The tourists get every facility for windsurfing. If you wish, you can go for swimming.

The charm of olden days is particularly enjoyable along with the modern facilities in this one-time renowned port city. Recognizing the great prospect of tourism provided by Port Colborne, the authorities have drawn up plans as a part of Niagara encompassing tourism development strategy. The place has plenty of smaller sandy beaches like Cedar Bay and Sherkston Shores. You will find plenty of hotels, inns, restaurants and more like bed and breakfast type accommodation all over the place including the smaller beaches. Whichever beach you choose to go, the long expanse of white sand is waiting to welcome. The Long Beach Conservation Area on Lake Erie is another is the upcoming place for picnics, fishing, beach games and sunbathing.


Check out cottages for rent near the Port Colborne beach on the map below, or visit Rent Cottage Canada for more Ontario cottage rentals.

The best Ontario beaches - Cobourg Beach

Cobourg Beach

Cobourg beach is the most enchanting beach for sun and fun on the soft white sand, enjoyed by the children and grownups alike. If you have not seen the blue water and the contrasting expanse of white sands of Cobourg, you have not seen a pretty beach. Cobourg is the sought after destination of the beach lovers. This get away place is adjacent to Victoria Park for shelter under the shades if you have had enough sunbathing. The snack bars in the garden have sufficient verities to go with liking of your palate. The beach is perfectly safe for kids to play with soft sand in a clean environment. More charming are the lawn chairs for those who have difficulty sitting on the ground.

Victoria Park has much more for entertaining the tourists. In evenings, you can enjoy the old-styled band played in the park. Movie and live performances are also a regular feature. On occasions, you will have the charm of the music from Cobourg Royal Marine Concert Band. It is a close knit place and you will find everything within a close distance, whether looking for shopping pleasure or cozy restaurants for dining or want to go for nightlife. Everything is with a perfect semblance for the tourists to spend every hour with something exciting without having to cover miles. Incidentally, the location of Cobourg is right across the lake in Rochester, USA. As such, this place has been an established destination for vacation for the residents of Rochester for years. You will come to know of it the moment you are at the beautiful marina of Cobourg.

One of the major festivities of Cobourg is the Cobourg Waterfront Festival; a gala of fun and entertainment held for 4 days in July every year. This festival offers one of the major expositions of cultural heritage, arts, live performances and other human talents. During a waterfront festival, you must not miss the beautiful band and firework in the evenings in Victoria Park. You will have the opportunity of buying a plenty of lovely handicrafts cheap. The Winter Festival in Cobourg is equally popular for fun and frolic including exciting carnival games of Lumberjacks and Polar Bear Dip.

You will have a majestic feeling walking on Cobourg beach for the majestic blue water waves rolling down and breaking by your side. Lake Ontario’s pristine water is so clear that you can see the bottom to a considerable depth along the shore. Quite enjoyably, the shallow water runs to a distance of about 50 meters.
The most important piece of historical richness of Cobourg beach is over 150 year old Victoria Hall standing today with its imposing richness of architectural attraction and fabulous interiors. You will first encounter the impressive entrance with 4 Corinthian columns forming the speaker’s balcony. The exterior is stunningly beautified with carvings featuring symbols, intricately designed shells, dolphins and bearded faces. The Grand Concert Hall is the splendid room of Victoria Hall. Originally it had a nice wooden floor supported with pine wood beams. But, now the concrete floor is overlaid with a nicely finished hardwood. The interior and ceiling of the hall are magnificently designed.

Check out cottages for rent near the Cobourg Beach on the map below, or visit Rent Cottage Canada for more Ontario cottage rentals.

The best Ontario beaches - Barrie beaches

Barrie Beaches


The focal point of Barrie Beaches is the city of Barrie, located near throbbing megalopolis of Toronto. Barrie is a member of Georgian Bay area known for white sand and granite rock. The city stands out for its generous activities in the cultural and recreational domain in Toronto region.  It has much to feel proud about its location on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, which is well-known for the gleaming Lake Simcoe. The beaches in Barrie are Johnson's Beach and Centennial Beach, also Minets Point Beach, Tyndale Beach and The Gables in the second tier.  

The climate
Usually Barrie has warm and humid summers and icy winter months with a considerable amount of snowfall, as such called the Snowbelt.  Mercury touches 78º F in July-August, the warmest summer months. August and September bring the rainfall. Late spring and summer months have the occasional thunderstorms. Winter begins from the month of November when the temperature starts sliding down from 20 ºF. January and February are the coldest months with temperature averaging at 7 ºF.

Magnificence of gleaming Lake Simcoe
Excluding waterfront beaching activities in Kempenfelt Bay, Lake Simcoe has much significance to add to the setting.  Lake Simcoe is also called Ice Fishing Capital of Ontario, being one of the biggest fresh water lakes that get frozen in winters. Most of the winter activities are centered around this lake. It offers an obsessive location for enjoyment of the whole family; for lovers Lake Simcoe echoes the inner feeling.

You need to explore a serene beauty of the lake in the fall with the ground laden with fabulous color of maple leaves. The magnetic festivals, events and fairs begin with this season. A drive along the lake will take you through this area’s natural galore of attraction.

In summers, the lake glows with bustling and joyous water sports activities of all sorts. You will like to span across on your personal watercraft as many do. It is also very popular spot for paddle-wheel boating and rowing excursions.  The tourists love to get indulged in fishing since the lake has abundance of whitefish, trout, yellow perch and smallmouth bass. Lake Simcoe is demarcated within Zone 16 by the Ministry of Natural Resources for Fisheries Management Plan.

The Beaches in limelight
Both Johnson's Beach and Centennial Beach get prominence under the shade of Barrie. The beaches complement unrestrained economic spurt of the city by supporting all sea front activities like carnivals and shows being grand areas for fun and frolic of the community. The Lakeshore Drive along the bay is an amazing stretch for walking, cycling and ice climbing.

Centennial Beach is the largest beach on the coast of Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie. The expanse offers unrestricted breathing ground for the children.  Johnson's Beach is a good location for comfortable relaxation for the families since manned by lifeguard facility. It is situated on the north shoreline of Kempenfelt Bay. 

Other activities in the Snowbelt
Snowbelt, as the Barrie area is nicknamed, offers indulgences like snowshoeing, snowmobiling, snow tubing, downhill skiing and even cross country skiing. Snowbelt’s fun filled activities extend to surrounding Blue Mountain, Snow Valley, Horseshoe Valley and St. Louis Moonstone.

The city has a good number of nice shopping and dining spots as well as places for entertainment.  

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