Pearson Airport to the Bruce Peninsula & Tobermory

How do I get from Pearson Airport to Tobermory?

There is no train and no useful bus: the intercity coaches reach Owen Sound from Toronto a few times a day and the peninsula beyond is a taxi, five hours from Pearson with the changes. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the harbour in one movement at a fixed fare with the hiking packs and the paddleboards in the Sprinter; the Blue Mountain page covers the Georgian Bay road as far as Collingwood for a visitor combining the two, and the long-distance page explains how a three-and-a-half-hour fare is set.

Tobermory: the harbours, the boats and the ferry

Tobermory is two harbours — Little Tub, with the village's inns, the dive shops and the glass-bottom boats to Flowerpot Island, and Big Tub, with the shipwrecks the boats pass over — and the Chi-Cheemaun ferry's terminal on the point, from which the big ferry crosses to South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island four times a day from May to October. The chauffeur drops at the inn's door — the Tobermory Princess, the Blue Bay Motel, the Harbourside, the cottages and the bed-and-breakfasts along the harbour — at the boat dock for the Flowerpot sailing, or at the ferry terminal for a visitor continuing to Manitoulin, and the village's whole length is a ten-minute walk. Flowerpot Island — the sea-stack "flowerpots", the caves, the lighthouse, the trails — is the day trip by the glass-bottom boat, and the Fathom Five National Marine Park's dive shops take the wreck divers who fly in from across the continent.

The Grotto: the reservation and the trail

The Grotto is the peninsula's reason — the cave in the escarpment's cliffs on the Georgian Bay shore with its turquoise pool, reached by the Cyprus Lake trails in the Bruce Peninsula National Park — and its popularity has produced a rule: from May to October, parking at the Cyprus Lake gate must be reserved online from Parks Canada in four-hour windows, sells out weeks ahead for summer weekends, and is not available at the gate. The chauffeur's version is the drop at the Cyprus Lake gate with the reservation held by the visitor, the wait in the lot or the return at the window's end, and the walk of forty minutes each way on the Georgian Bay or the Marr Lake trail; the Indian Head Cove beside the Grotto and the Halfway Log Dump's cobble beach further south are the alternatives when the Grotto's window is gone. The Ontario Parks and Parks Canada sites publish the rules, and the chauffeur books the drop to the window.

The peninsula: Lion's Head, Wiarton, Sauble and the Bruce Trail

The peninsula is more than its tip: Lion's Head's harbour and its lookout on the escarpment's cliffs forty minutes south of Tobermory; Wiarton, the town of the groundhog, at the peninsula's base; Sauble Beach on the Lake Huron side, eleven kilometres of sand with the sunsets the west coast is known for, an hour from Tobermory; Cape Croker's Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation park on the Georgian Bay side; and the Bruce Trail's northern terminus at Tobermory's harbour, the end of the nine-hundred-kilometre footpath from Niagara. A chauffeured day from a Tobermory or Lion's Head inn threads them, and a hiker walking the trail's last section from Lion's Head books the drop at one trailhead and the collection at the harbour two days later.

The summer week and the family cottage

The peninsula's summer is the family week in a cottage — at Tobermory, Lion's Head, Sauble, Oliphant or Red Bay — and the transfer from Pearson is the family's: the seats fitted, the paddleboards and the bicycles in the Sprinter, the stop at the Owen Sound supermarkets for the week's groceries, and the cottage's door at the end of a gravel road the chauffeur confirms before the day. A family flying in from Germany or the Netherlands for the peninsula — the booking this page sees most, the Grotto having become the province's most-photographed place — books the Pearson arrival to the cottage, a chauffeured day or two for the Grotto and Flowerpot, and the departure timed to the flight; the family page explains the seats.

Manitoulin: the ferry and the island beyond

The Chi-Cheemaun's crossing to South Baymouth is two hours, and Manitoulin — the largest freshwater island in the world, with its First Nations communities, the Cup and Saucer trail, the Bridal Veil falls and the Gore Bay harbour — is the week beyond the peninsula for a visitor with the time. The chauffeur delivers to the ferry terminal for the sailing, with the vehicle staying on the mainland; the island's own taxis and the rental cars at South Baymouth take over, and the collection at the terminal on the return sailing is booked with the drop. A visitor continuing north to Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie from the island's north shore books the network's partner there.

The seasons: the Grotto's window, the fall and the closed road

The peninsula's season runs from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving, with the Grotto's reservations from May to October, the Chi-Cheemaun from May to October, the Flowerpot boats through the summer and the Sauble sunsets at their best in August. The fall is the escarpment's colours and the empty trails; the winter is the closed Grotto lot, the frozen harbour, the snowmobile trails and Highway 6 in the snowbelt, where the squalls off Lake Huron close the road between Wiarton and Owen Sound a few times each winter. The chauffeur reads Ontario 511 before leaving, the vehicles run winter tyres, and a drive that cannot be made safely is rescheduled rather than attempted.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to Tobermory or the peninsula is fixed by vehicle class for the address and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, the 407 toll, taxes, curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area, a stop on the way and the included waiting with the flight tracked; meet and greet is the paid add-on; gratuity is never added; a cancellation before dispatch is free; the Grotto's parking reservation, the boats and the ferry are the visitor's bookings.

The wreck divers and Fathom Five

Tobermory's harbours hold the best-preserved freshwater shipwrecks in the world — the schooners and the steamers in Big Tub and the marine park's twenty-two wrecks in the cold clear water — and the Fathom Five National Marine Park draws divers from across the continent who fly into Pearson with the gear cases the dive shops on Little Tub cannot rent. The diver's transfer is the Sprinter with the cases in the rear, the drop at the dive shop's dock or the inn, and the collection at the end of the week with the tanks emptied; a dive club of eight from Ohio or Quebec travels on one manifest and the corporate account serves the shops that move their guests. The glass-bottom boats show the same wrecks to the visitor who stays dry.

Owen Sound, the Bruce Trail's south end and the base towns

Owen Sound at the peninsula's base is the region's city — the harbour, the Tom Thomson gallery, the Harrison Park, the supermarkets where a cottage week's groceries are bought — and it is the base for a visitor who wants the peninsula as day trips rather than a cottage: the Best Western Inn on the Bay and the Owen Sound hotels are ninety minutes from Tobermory and an hour from Sauble, and a chauffeured day from them reaches the Grotto's window in the morning and Lion's Head's lookout in the afternoon. Wiarton's motels at the peninsula's neck are the closer base, and the Bruce Trail's Sydenham section south of Owen Sound — Inglis Falls, the Bruce's Caves — is the hiker's alternative when the Grotto's reservations are gone.

Book Pearson to Tobermory