This tourism region is one of our preferred areas for a short break. We can reach it in a few hours and Canadian friends of ours had a small resort with cottages where we first enjoyed this kind of holidays.
We often visited at the same time the tourism region - Haliburton Highlands.

Lakes and forests line many streets. If you are looking for accommodation please pay attention to signs for "Bed & Breakfast". Bed and breakfast is popular with many travelers. You also will get to know the hopefully friendly hosts and the quality of the accommodation is often better than in a motel. Unfortunately sometimes the prices are higher.

On our last visit, we stayed in a house which was over one hundred years old. The renovation had certainly cost more than a new house. We enjoyed it very much and we had interesting discussions with the owners, who lived in the Bahamas for a long time and came to Canada because of the political changes that took place there.
The breakfast was so good and rich that we did not need lunch!
Wide areas of this part of Ontario are so sparsely populated that it makes no sense for certain places to create their own page. We then include them in the surroundings of a larger place.

Highway 401 between Montreal and Toronto. The opposite lane can not be seen here..

Of course you can not always avoid using some of the big "highways" during your holidays..
After surviving driving on the 401 in and around Toronto, you will no longer believe the prejudices of people who has spent three weeks in British Columbia that all Canadians drive decently and disciplined. There are idiots here as well - like everywhere in the world.
If you drive with the maximum allowed cruising speed - about 10% above the legal limit - and drive on the middle lane to allow right turners to merge in and keep the safety distance to the front car, suddenly someone out of place overtakes you, shoots through the gap on the left lane, overtaken , squeezes back on the right lane to continue to overtake.
Of course this causes accidents. We saw a few times getting cars airborne. Nothing against to overtake the right! That is allowed but the mad drivers should be disciplined. You do not have more privileges by driving certain cars!
I often escape to the HWY 2 for a while and you can see more interesting things than accidents.
So you have been forewarned!
Watch the YouTube Video below! In part, it is recorded in the time-lapse mode, which makes everything look even more terrible. In Germany, I had no problems to drive faster than 200 km / h,
Here I get sometimes scarred driving with a speed of 110 km / h . By the way, trucks and buses are allowed to travel just as fast as the rest. Be aware of that if you come from a foreign country.

Be sure to follow the St. Lawrence River. This stream connects the large lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and is therefore an important waterway.
Avoid the mistakes we made by not spending enough time.
You should definitely take a boat trip to the 1000 islands. We always missed that.
Visit also the USA - we gained a small impression by doing that. We returned to Canada from the USA via the "Ivy Lea Bridge".

If you only want to visit only one island instead of a thousand islands I recommend "Prince Edward Island" at Trenton or Belleville. I had planned a longer visit for this year (2017) and have already seen the offers of accommodation. Unfortunately, we has to stay at home. Elizabeth ha been admitted several time to hospitals and I'm worried about her life.

If you like it here in this region please do not limit to what we have visited - continue researching!
Visit the water buffalo farm at Sterling, north of Trenton or Belleville! Enter the search term "Ontario Water Buffalo Company" to find out more.
Watch the video.