Top Things to do in Northeastern Ontario
Top Hotels in Northeastern Ontario
- 1. Hampton Inn by Hilton Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada
- 2. Quattro Hotel & Conference Centre
- 3. Hampton Inn by Hilton North Bay
- 4. Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Sudbury
- 5. My Friends Inn Manitoulin
- 6. Days Inn & Suites by Wyndham Sault Ste. Marie on
- 7. Homewood Suites by Hilton Sudbury
- 8. Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Sault Ste. Marie
- 9. Super 8 by Wyndham Sault Ste Marie On
- 10. Wayside Motel Manitoulin
The 10 Best Nature & Parks in Northeastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario
Discover the best top things to do in Northeastern Ontario, United States including Georgian Nordic Outdoor Activity Centre, Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, Mount Jamieson Resort, Killarney Provincial Park, French River Provincial Park, Rotary Algonquin Regiment Fitness Trail, Killbear Provincial Park, Cup and Saucer Trail, Massasauga Provincial Park, Canadian Polar Bear Habitat.
Restaurants in Northeastern Ontario
1. Georgian Nordic Outdoor Activity Centre
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 20 reviews
Georgian Nordic Outdoor Activity Centre offers skiing, snow shoeing, and biking. Located 5 minutes north of Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada.
Reviewed By Experience552
I love skiing and hiking at GNOAC. It is also an excellent exercise/recreation area for snowshoeing, fat biking and mountain biking and I hope to try the latter three in the future. Chancing upon peaceful little lakes, picturesque swamps, wildlife and flora along the varied trails are my favourite experiences. I have taken way too many photos and selfies from there!
2. Kettle Lakes Provincial Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 82 reviews
As a result of glacial movement thousands of years ago, twenty self-contained lakes were formed in this park, which now offers various activities for all seasons.
Reviewed By amomenttochange - Timmins, Canada
We went to this parc often during our stay in Timmins from 2012 thru to 2019. It is a magnificent serene area. Lots of walking trails wildlife and lots of wild blueberries. We highly recommend for everyone.
3. Mount Jamieson Resort
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 32 reviews
Here at Mount Jamieson Resort, we proudly offer skiing & snowboarding, rentals & lesson, tube park, kitchen & full bar service. Come and ski Northern Ontario's hidden gem!
Reviewed By timothysH3996LC - Chapleau, Canada
Went here for a school trip. Had a great time. Friendly staff, great food, cool chairlift guy. Overall a great trip.
4. Killarney Provincial Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 363 reviews
Reviewed By ItsaSunshineyDay
Great Provincial Park with awesome hiking trails with gorgeous panoramic views!! Fall colours are spectacular!!
5. French River Provincial Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 53 reviews
Reviewed By Canadian_Guy1000 - Toronto, Canada
I’ve always considered the French River area to be one of the most beautiful places to go canoeing and camping, so my friend and I were quite thrilled to it again. It was very hot and sunny and we were aware of the fire ban—well, we had to forgo sitting around a campfire in the evenings, but it was not the first (and last) time I had to deal with fire bans. We left Hartley Bay around 4:00 pm and soon reached Wanapitei Bay and paddled towards its western shore. The campsites along that shore appeared to be vacant, but we kept paddling until we reached the ‘intersection’ of the Main & Western Channels. First, we checked out campsite #617, where I had camped 9 years ago. It was nice, offered a breathtaking view, but we could not find a good spot for the tents (except on the small beach facing east—and I really like watching sunsets). Besides, it was quite windy and we were incessantly attacked by horse flies. We saw blueberries bushes with very few tiny, dry and bitter blueberries. We paddled to campsite #618 across the river, but it was occupied. So we continued paddling on the Western Channel for several minutes until we arrived at campsite #619. The campsite was not perfect, but since it was very humid, sunny and hot (over +30 C), my friend was extremely reluctant to keep paddling any father. The campsite faced west and at least we could admire sunsets! It had nice rock formation and a fire pit already full of wood. There was a spot for at least one tent near the fire pit, but we decided to set up our tents on the small ‘beach’, farther down from the fire pit. By the way, we could see that probably during the spring thaw the width of the river increased by up to 10 meters—there were sandy deposits even in the forest. Well, we hoped that during our trip the river was not going to suddenly become as big as to flood our campsite—unless there was a huge rainfall or the dam near Lake Nipissing burst! Although we were not aware of any issues with pesky bears this summer, we still decided to hang our food. The problem was finding the right tree in the forest, not an easy task considering swarms of voracious horse/deer flies and mosquitos. Supposedly the food should be hanging over 30 meters from the tents; in our case, after almost one hour, we managed to hang the barrel with the food and the cooler about… 3 meters from the tents. I guess it’s still better than NOT hanging it at all… By the way, I again appreciated the bear-proof bins installed on some campsites in the Massasauga Provincial Park—I wish all parks had such bins. The campsite had several rock formations, which were perfect for sitting or relaxing. However, it was quite exposed and it was difficult to find shade—we had to keep relocating our chairs all the time. Another issue was boat traffic—not far from us was Atwood Lodge (on Atwood Island) as well as other cottages, so plenty of motorboats (including, on a couple of occasions, a barge carrying construction equipment and building materials) were passing by all day. From time to time we saw canoes and kayaks too. At night we could sometimes hear trains’ whistles. It was our intention to do as much fishing as possible, but the hot, sunny & humid weather prevented us from paddling during the day, it would have been too arduous. So we ended up spending most of the time sitting at the campsite, relaxing, talking and reading books. Fishing from the campsite during the day did not bring any results. A couple of times we took the canoe for an evening paddle around Atwood Island and nearby bays. In no time we caught several pikes—some of them we had to release due to the size limits (we were not permitted to keep those between 53 and 86 cm in size). Unfortunately, when we brought the fish to our campsite to clean & fry, we encountered another problem: MOSQUITOES! They became very active after 8:00 pm and while my friend was cleaning the fish, I had to wave a towel to chase them off, but due to their huge numbers, it didn’t do much good. But the worst was yet to come: when I was frying the fish (on my propane stove, of course), a huge, dense CLOUD of mosquitos appeared and they were all over me and the frying pan, it was absolutely horrendous! Even though I did spray myself with a DEET-based insect repellent, it did not help much: while the mosquitoes were not biting me, they were getting into my eyes, ears and mouth. As soon as the fish was ready, we hastily ate it, with our headlamps on, standing close to the shore and still being attacked by multitudes of hungry mosquitoes. I’ve been camping for tens of years and it was the second time I encountered so many mosquitos. We quickly went to our tents and could hear the continuous buzzing outside for at least another hour. We decided to skip fishing in the evenings—even if we caught any fish, it was impossible to clean & eat them. One night we were fishing from our campsite and apparently caught a catfish—but it must have been very big because the 35 lb. fishing line snapped. Regarding horse flies, I found a perfect solution to get rid of them. Namely, I taped a sticky patch (from Canadian Tire) to the top of my hat. Because horse flies are somehow compelled to sit on the top of one’s head, the patch made the perfect landing strip… and once they sat on it, they stayed there… forever! Without exaggeration, this method eliminated 95%+ of flies. We didn’t see or notice any bigger animals on our campsite, not even a squirrel. Once I found a garter snake near my tent’s entrance—I gently grabbed it and moved to the forest. The next day my friend saw another garter snake, much bigger, near the water. As we were watching, it suddenly jumped towards a small frog, but it escaped. We also saw several birds circling above our campsite. It was mainly turkey vultures, looking for carrion. While fishing, we spotted several blue herons and loved observing them majestically taking off, flying and landing. On one occasion I saw a falcon and a blue jay. And we often heard invisible woodpeckers in the forest. On the sixth day the weather became somehow peculiar—layers of darker clouds moved in, but it did not rain and we could still see regular clouds behind them. Soon, we noticed—and later smelled—patches of smoke. Obviously, there was a fire going on somewhere! The sun, shrouded by the smoke, appeared unusually red. The next day the sky looked similar, leaden and full of smoke. We thought that the fire was very far from us and we were even planning to go fishing later afternoon as the sun was much less intense. Then before noon a park boat arrived at our campsite with an assistant superintendent (the same one that we had met 3 years ago, in 2015) and another park employee. We were told that a major fire had been raging in the Key River area for two days and that there was mandatory evacuation of all campers, cottagers and visitors, so we had to immediately pack up and head to Hartley Bay Marina. Within one hour we were on the water. From Wanapitei Bay we could see the smoke in the south. There was a chopper flying above us. Soon we noticed many other kayaks, canoes and motorboats, all proceeding towards the marina. The park boat once again approached our canoe and the warden took down our campsite permit’s number, to keep record of those campers who were safely leaving the area. Once we reached Hartley Bay Marina, we quickly packed the car, put the canoe on the car and left the loading area to let other people use it—and indeed, it was a very busy place, teeming with campers and boaters forced to cut short their vacation! At the entrance to the marina we were stopped by local firefighters who asked us to write down our names—that we had safely left. While driving on Hartley Bay road, the smoke was getting more visible. There was a police cruiser at the end of the road, making sure nobody was going back towards Georgian Bay. As we were driving to Grundy Lake Provincial Park on highway 69, the smoke became much thicker; it was like driving in a dense fog. All cars slowed down and had their lights on. Luckily, Grundy Lake Park was still open and we managed to get a campsite (it was Saturday)—and since the smoke had not reached the park, I could air out my car to get rid of the ‘burning’ smell. Sixteen days later (August 5, 2018) the fire, called “Parry Sound 33”, was still quite active and it turned out to be one of the major fires in Ontario, scorching over 11 thousand hectares. It is so sad to see so much damage! Out of my approximately 15 camping & canoeing trips on the French River, this one was the least successful due to the sweltering weather, fire ban, clouds of mosquitos and finally the evacuation that cut our vacation short. Of course, such inconveniences did not change my opinion on the French River—it was still my favorite place to come camping and canoeing! Well, it was another adventure and I’m looking forward to visiting this outstanding park again and again in the future.
6. Rotary Algonquin Regiment Fitness Trail
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 7 reviews
7. Killbear Provincial Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 424 reviews
Reviewed By Andy206B - Collingwood, Canada
One of the downsides of sailing around Georgian Bay is that it is sometimes difficult to find shore activities both for pleasure and also for exercise. Killbear provides both. There are several 'hikes' or 'walks', given they are not strenuous. One day we even managed to walk for some 12k kms. The Visitor centre is very informative and well designed. The anchorage itself has great holding and protection from most wind directions though it can get a little noisy with campers' dogs barking, PWC traffic etc.
8. Cup and Saucer Trail
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 296 reviews
Reviewed By ian24241964 - Toronto, Canada
Great walk and beautiful view. The path is wide open with very few tricky spots for the walk. 4 or 5 great views from the top overlooking the whole north side of the island.
9. Massasauga Provincial Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 48 reviews
Reviewed By Pike53 - Mississauga, Canada
Our site offered very scenic views and in general it was quiet—however, from time to time we were disturbed by noisy boats and especially very raucous jet skis, which is one of the very few drawbacks, especially if you’re camping on Blackstone Harbour near the channel. The weather was excellent, yet there were still active black flies and mosquitoes. Blackstone Harbour wasn’t a good place to fish—we saw plenty of fishing boats around our campsite, fishermen were trolling or casting—and hardly ever catching anything big enough to keep. Rocks, and especially wet moss, can be very slippery—even if you’ve got good boots/shoes, you may still fall. The campsite was clean, picturesque and very spacious. I was very glad that there was a food storage bin on the campsite. Be careful when you close it, you might hurt your fingers as the lid is very heavy. Overall it’s a great park.
10. Canadian Polar Bear Habitat
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 150 reviews
There is no other place in the world like the Canadian Polar Bear Habitat. It offers the most space in the world for polar bears in human care, all while providing unique research opportunities for polar bear specialists. The Habitat is currently home to Ganuk, Henry, Inukshuk, and Eddy, who could not survive without human help. These four bears have 24 acres of pristine, subarctic and boreal terrain to roam, including a 10-acre lake. The best time to see the bears is usually in the mornings when they are at their most active. Since the bears have as much control over their environment as possible, they choose when and where to eat, swim, sleep, or explore. You may have to be patient to get the best views, but they’re worth it. The Habitat offers daily talks with Animal Care Staff to provide guests a chance to speak one-on-one with the people who take care of the bears. While you-re on-campus, check out the Heritage Village (seasonal), the Snowmobile Museum, and the Gift Shop.
Reviewed By bprouse
Saw the bears being fed and playing with enrichment toys. All the staff were extremely friendly and welcoming and answered all our questions. Cute little village with antiques as well. Learned a lot! Worth the drive.
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