- Ontario housekeeping cottage resort
- Waterfront rental cottages
- Georgian Bay fishing
- Couples romantic getaways
- Family vacations
- Group meetings & family reunions
WELCOME TO PLEASANT COVE RESORT
Our 4 star 4 season Premiere Fishing and Vacation Cottage Resort is nestled among Georgian Bays prestigious 30,000 Islands, one of the best fresh water boating and fishing locations in North America. Discover spectacular landscapes, time-worn rock faces, diverse habitats and the rugged beauty of the Canadian Shield.
Just 2 1/2 hours north of Toronto, 4 1/2 hours north of Niagara Falls, here at Pleasant Cove Resort you will encounter excellence in 1,2,3 & 4 bedroom well appointed accommodations, a full compliment of recreational fun and outstanding hospitality, rooted in three decades of devoted family ownership.
Whether paddling or motoring, fishing or exploring, swimming or just kicking back to enjoy sensational sunsets is your passion, Pleasant Cove Resort has everything you need for the perfect family vacation, weekend getaway, fishing trip or romantic retreat.
FISH WHERE THE PROS FISH!
We've had the extreme pleasure of successfully hosting some of Canada's most revered Fishing Professionals here at Pleasant Cove Resort. To mention a few, Mike Miller and Pete Bowman from TV's Fish'n Canada show; Bob and Wayne Izumi from TV's Real Fishing show and Lonnie King, writer for Ontario Out of Doors magazine.
The recurring comments coming from all of these fishing experts is how much they enjoyed the great variety and abundance of fish like Pike, Walleye, Bass and Musky, while surrounded by the beauty and diversity of Georgian Bays spectacular 30,000 Islands. We are very proud, to have received acclamations like "...excellent amenities for all ages and a great variety of fish" and "Some of the greatest fishing right at your back door." So, whether you consider yourself a sport or recreational fishing enthusiast we know that your experience while staying at Pleasant Cove will rank right up there with the Pros!
EXPERIENCE COTTAGE COUNTRY FUN
While staying at Pleasant Cove Resort enjoy the many area attractions and events available throughout the seasons. Awe inspiring 30,000 Island Cruises, Festival of the Sound, 18 Hole Golf Courses, Arts on The Bay, Fly-In Day Fishing Trips, Artisans, Theatre, Bobby Orr Hockey Hall of Fame, Science North, just to name a few.
EXPECT PERFECTION... it's in our nature.
Season after season, year after year, Pleasant Cove has proudly welcomed thousands of vacationing friends, families, colleagues and couples from near and far.
Some come to experience our many available activities including sport-fishing, family recreational fishing, boating, swimming, fitness room, hot tub, steam sauna, tennis, basketball, pedal boats, canoes, kayaks, KIDZ CLUB July & August, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, ice fishing, nature walks and more.
Others come simply to lay back and enjoy the soulful cry of the majestic loon, accompanied by the tranquil lull of waves washing ashore and the quiet whisper of wind through the trees.
These are the sounds of Pleasant Cove. And they call for you.
At Pleasant Cove Resort, guests may choose from a wide variety of housekeeping cottage accommodations. For a romantic couples getaway, we offer Ultra and Deluxe one bedroom waterfront cottages and studio suites. For family vacations, girl's getaway weekends or fishing retreats with the guys, we have 2 bedroom Ultra Deluxe cottages and chalets, as well as 3 bedroom lakefront efficiency cottages. For large family holidays or group accommodations, we also have a spacious 4 bedroom Ultra Deluxe cottage that sleeps up to 8 people. Located close to the water, all of our self contained cottages boast private sundecks and verandas that offer spectacular views of Georgian Bay and the surrounding grounds. At our Georgian Bay cottage resort, each rental cottage comes complete with a gas BBQ and deck chairs for your outdoor enjoyment. Our lakefront cottages are meticulously maintained and feature fully equipped kitchens with stove, fridge and microwave, tastefully furnished living areas with double size sofa bed, coloured TV, 4 piece baths and very comfortable, well dressed beds. Some of our cottages offer additional features such as dishwashers, fireplaces, Jacuzzi tubs, DVD players, and High-Speed Wireless Internet. With every cottage rental, a 16ft boat and 20 hp motor is included for your exclusive use.
Our modern, lakefront cottages are just step away from the majestic Georgian Bay shoreline. This Ontario cottage resort provides the ultimate Georgian Bay cottage rental experience. With one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom and four bedroom cottages with full baths, we have a rental cottage that is just the right size for you and your party. We have efficiency cottages that can accommodate a couple or a group of eight. All of our comfortable housekeeping cottages have fully equipped kitchens, screened-in verandas or private decks. Our well-equipped rental cottages are furnished to provide a first class Georgian Bay family cottage vacation or a successful family reunion. For a really romantic couples cottage vacation, rent one of our lakefront cottages with wood-burning fireplace and Jacuzzi tub. With a location that offers a spectacular view of towering trees and peaceful waters - every Pleasant Cove Resort cottage rental takes full advantage of our lovely wilderness setting.
While at our Pointe au Baril housekeeping resort on Georgian Bay, there is so much for our resort guests to do that they may not ever wish to venture off the resort property. Here at Pleasant Cove Resort, romantic couples, families and groups on vacation can do as little, or be as active as they like. During the summer, guests can enjoy swimming in the clean clear waters of Georgian Bay from our beautiful sand beach, or to take a dip in our large heated outdoor pool with magnificent views of Georgian Bay. Both areas provide guests with a relaxing sanctuary to soak up the sun, read, or do nothing at all. Water sports abound at Pleasant Cove. For our guests, we have kayaks, canoes, paddle boat, pontoon and fishing boats. Children young and old love our water trampoline, and for the more adventurous, we also offer water skiing.
Many of our repeat guests tells us that they picked Pleasant Cove Resort for their Ontario resort vacation because of its fabulous location amidst the famous 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay, but they return for Pleasant Cove's superior rental cottages and amenities, wonderful views and the warm hospitality that we extend to all of our resort guests. Pleasant Cove Resort has been welcoming families, couples, seniors and groups to our Ontario lakeside resort for years. We take the time to give our resort guests the individual attention that they deserve. Our goal is to make your Georgian Bay vacation with us very special and hope that you will return to Pleasant Cove again and again.
The nearby town of Pointe au Baril Station has all the supplies that you might need during your stay at our Georgian Bay housekeeping cottage resort, including groceries, an LCBO outlet and a Beer Store. For fishermen, the well-stocked waters of Georgian Bay can be the source of some of the best tasting freshwater fish available anywhere. Cooking your own meals will be a pleasure in our housekeeping cottages equipped with everything that you will need, including your own gas barbeque. Alternatively, when on vacation, you might also want to dine out occasionally. Here in Ontario's Rainbow Country, you will find a number of restaurants for those times when you don't want to cook. Pointe au Baril Station offers a family style coffee shop and diner for casual meals and a local lodge that offers both dining and evening entertainment. The popular Ontario resort town of Parry Sound is less than a thirty minute drive away and offers a wide choice of restaurant options, including fine dining establishments, pub-style, road-house and fast food restaurants.
The extensive recreational and wilderness areas that surround Pleasant Cove Resort rival the most beautiful places and tourist destinations in the world. Here, on the shores of Georgian Bay, you will find an Ontario tourist and vacation wildlife landscape that offers the finest scenery in Canada and includes some of Canada's best known and best loved unique geographic areas. Fabled places like the North Channel of Lake Huron, the 30,000 Islands of Georgian Bay, Manitoulin Island, and Ontario's Rainbow Country, to name a few, are rich in Canadian history, distinctive beauty and ecological significance. While you are enjoying your Georgian Bay vacation at Pleasant Cove, we invite you to explore this interesting area, to marvel at its magnificent beauty. Its diversity makes Rainbow Country and Georgian Bay a great place for photographers and Pleasant Cove Resort makes an ideal base for a Georgian Bay photography getaway.
Fall is a wonderful time of year to visit the Georgian Bay region of Central Ontario. The months of September and October here in Georgian Bay are becoming extremely popular with visitors to the area for Ontario fall colour tours, romantic couples escapes and value priced midweek resort getaways. In order to best see the spectacular Georgian Bay fall colours at their finest, plan to book your fall Georgian Bay resort stay for any time between the last two weeks of September and the first two weeks of October. No other resort in Rainbow Country can offer a finer view of the beautiful autumn foliage than Pleasant Cove Resort. From your cozy Pleasant Cove lakeside cabin, you will enjoy the glorious cavalcade of colours. Our Georgian Bay cottage resort is the ideal location for a fall colours photography weekend, artist retreat and an Ontario fall colours tour.
Located in the heart of Ontario's beautiful Rainbow Country, Pleasant Cove is close many provincial parks, including Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park, Round Lake Provincial Park, Kilbear Provincial Park, The Massasauga Provincial Park, Magnetawan Provincial Park, Naganosh Lake Provincial Park and Grundy Lake Provincial Park. All of these Ontario parks are less than an hour's drive, and some, like Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park, are within 30 minutes of Pleasant Cove. Each unique in their own way, Ontario provincial parks offer wilderness viewing, nature trails for hiking, fishing and canoeing. The parks provide something of interest for every member of the family. At Kilbear Provincial Park you can walk scenic trails and learn about nature and cultural resources at the new visitors centre. Accessible by water, The Massasauga Provincial Park is a protected sanctuary for the Massasauga rattlesnake and home to prairie warblers. Round Lake Provincial Park provides a protective reserve for one of Ontario's largest communities of Atlantic coastal plain flora, including numerous rare or uncommon species.
Sometime referred to as Canada's 6th Great Lake, Georgian Bay is about 320 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide. Covering over 15,000 square kilometres, it is almost as large as Lake Ontario. With more than 30,000 islands and 2,000 kilometres of shoreline, Georgian Bay's beauty is legend. The area is famous for its windswept pines, majestic towering cliffs, endless beaches and clear blue water. While on you Georgian Bay vacation, discover the region's rich marine heritage and the historic lighthouses that dot the coastline, relax on one of many sand beaches, discover the great outdoors of Rainbow Country and Parry Sound County or explore along the Georgian Bay Coastal Route by boat or by car.
Our lakeside Ontario cottage resort is located on the east side of Georgian Bay, approximately half way between the Killarney and Midland, right in the middle of the 30,000 Islands. Here in Eastern Georgian Bay, we are part of the southern edge of the Canadian Shield. Exposed by the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, approximately 11,000 years ago, the Canadian Shield's granite bedrock is synonymous with Canada’s great north. The granite rock formations and windswept Eastern White Pine are characteristic of the Parry Sound area, the islands of Georgian Bay and much of the Georgian Bay shoreline. The rugged beauty of the Georgian Bay and the Parry Sound region has inspired landscape artists, most notably, the Group of Seven. Canadian artists like A.Y. Jackson, Fred Varley and Frank Carmichael, whose paintings of the ruggedly beauty landscape are famous throughout the world.
With Manitoulin Island to the north and Bruce Peninsula to the west Georgian Bay is connected to Lake Huron. As well as it famous 30,000 thousand of islands, Georgian Bay includes many established communities, both large and small, dotting its uneven shoreline. As part of the Canadian Shield, in many places the terrain is rocky and rugged, as well as rich in mineral deposits. The massive old growth forests of the past are long gone, but the Georgian Bay area still has abundant forest cover. The trees include black and white spruce, jack pine, tamarack, poplar, white birch and balsam. The rock in Georgian Bay has been dated by scientists and is thought to be as old as 1.5 billion years. It is believed that rock of this age could represent part of the Earth's initial crust layer.
South of Pointe au Baril, along Georgian Bay's east shore, the town of Honey Harbour serves as the southern jumping off point to the 30,000 Islands of Georgian Bay. The islands around Honey Harbour are dotted with thousands of cottages that serve mostly as summer residences due to water only access. Further up the coast, the Georgian Bay community of Parry Sound is situated north of Honey Harbour and south of Pointe au Baril. It is another popular jumping off location for Georgian Bay cottagers and visitors to the 30,000 Islands. A town of approximately 6,000 year-round residents, in Parry Sound you will find several marinas, Georgian Bay sightseeing boat tours, Georgian Bay seaplane sightseeing tours, as well as water taxis and float plane water taxi service.
The history of Georgian Bay and the Pointe au Baril area is fascinating. It has been estimated that aboriginal people settled here more than 11,000 years ago, according to archeological records. Actual evidence of later paleo-Aboriginal inhabitants has been discovered near Killarney and on Manitoulin Island. By the time Europeans arrived in the area, the aboriginal peoples had separated into several tribes. The Ojibwa Tribe and Ottawa First Nation (Anishinaabe) inhabited areas along the northern, eastern and western coast of Georgian Bay and the Hurons (Wendat) and the Tionontali people lived in areas along the south shore. Today, evidence of the rich cultural history of Georgian Bay's original inhabitants is reflected in the names of many Georgian Bay islands and landmarks, like Manitoulin Island and the Great Spirit - the Gitchi Manitou and Giant's Tomb Island, named for the Huron legend about a god called Kitchikewana.
Europeans arrived in the Georgian Bay area at the beginning of the 17th century. It is believed that a young man named Etienne Brule was the first European to live in the area known as Huronia, when he was sent by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain to train as an interpreter in 1610. Champlain himself visited Huronia in 1615. To commemorate his travels through the region, a monument was erected in Pointe au Baril in the 1940s. The monument can be found near the newly renovated Ojibway Club, a gathering place for many of the local islanders. French missionaries started to arrive soon after. Sainte-Marie, Ontario's first European settlement, located in what is now the town of Midland, Ontario, was built by Jesuit priest Jean de Brebeuf in 1639. The Jesuits, along with many of their Huron allies, were killed by a tribe of warring Iroquois. Today the reconstructed mission; Sainte-Marine among the Hurons, is a popular Georgian Bay tourist attraction, as is the nearby Martyrs' Shrine church and park.
Small European settlements continued to appear slowly throughout the region, from the southern tip of Georgian Bay, up past Pointe au Baril to the North Channel, and on to Lake Superior. By the end of the 18th century, John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor had built a British naval base where the town of Penetanguishene, Ontario is today. During the war of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, Georgian Bay played an important role in the defense of Upper Canada. The Bay itself was first charted by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen in 1815. Owen named it Lake Manitoulin. Later Captain Henry Bayfield made more detailed charts and in 1822 renamed it Georgian Bay in honour of King George IV. The town of Bayfield on Lake Huron's western shore was named after Captain Bayfield.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, lumber, ship building, trapping and fishing were the most important industries in the area, with the waters of Georgian Bay providing a convenient way to transport goods and materials from bayside communities to the larger markets in the south. In the mid 19th century, train service arrived to the larger towns. By the early 20th century, ship building, lumber and trapping were slowly dying, but, at the same time, a new industry was emerging; tourism. People had begun to take the train to Georgian Bay to spend their summers on the Bay. From Parry Sound to Muskoka, on lakes and bays all across cottage country, private cottages were built, along with many lakefront resorts, lodges, cottage resorts and lakeside inns. By the mid 20th century, a new network of roads enabled anyone with a car to visit this beautiful Ontario vacation area.
