Toronto Airport to Prince Edward County

How do I get from Pearson Airport to Prince Edward County?

The alternatives are VIA Rail from Union to Belleville — two hours, from Union rather than Pearson, with a taxi across the bay to the County — and the County's own shuttle and taxi services for the wine day once you are there. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the inn's door in one movement and stays as the designated driver for the wineries, and the Shorelines casino page covers the Belleville gateway's evening.

The County: three villages, one parkway, a beach

The County's geography is simple: the Loyalist Parkway runs west from Picton through Bloomfield to Wellington and Hillier along the lake's north shore, with most of the wineries on it or a concession road off it; Picton at the eastern end is the county town with the Regent Theatre, the Royal Hotel and the Main Street shops; Bloomfield in the middle is the antique shops, the ice-cream stand and the Angeline's inn; Wellington on the lake is the Drake Devonshire, the Wellington Market and the beach; and Sandbanks Provincial Park on the south shore is the largest freshwater dune system in the world with the two beaches — Outlet and Sandbanks — that fill the park's lots by ten on a summer Saturday. The chauffeur knows the concession roads, the wineries' hours and the beach's gates, and the Prince Edward County site publishes the wineries' map.

The wine day: the chauffeur as the designated driver

The County's forty-odd wineries — the Hillier cluster at the western end, the Closson Road wineries north of the Parkway, the Waupoos ones on the eastern shore — assume a designated driver, and the chauffeured day is that driver: the chauffeur at the inn at ten, four or five wineries on the list with the tastings and the cases to the boot at each, lunch at a winery's restaurant or in Bloomfield, the beach or the Waupoos cider house in the afternoon, and the inn at five with the cases carried in. The three-hour minimum covers three wineries; a whole day covers the Parkway and Closson Road with the beach; and the cases ride home to Pearson in the boot at no charge, packed so they do not roll. A group of eight in the Sprinter from Toronto for a wine weekend is one fare split however they like, and the wineries' own tour operators book the Sprinter for their guests on a corporate account.

The inns and the County weekend

The County's lodging is the reason the weekend works: the Drake Devonshire and the Drake Motor Inn in Wellington, the Royal Hotel and the Merrill House in Picton, Angeline's and the Bloomfield inns, the June Motel on the Picton side, the winery guesthouses at Huff Estates and the Grange, the cottages on the south shore and the Airbnb barns that the County is known for. The weekend from Pearson is the Friday arrival two and a half hours east to the inn — with the Shorelines casino at Belleville as the couple's stop on the way — the Saturday as the wine day, and the Sunday as Sandbanks and the departure timed to the flight, on one confirmation; a visitor working through eastern Ontario continues to Kingston and the Thousand Islands an hour east.

Sandbanks: the beach day and the park's gates

Sandbanks Provincial Park's two beaches — Outlet Beach on the east with its shallow water for families, Sandbanks Beach on the west with the dunes behind it — are the County's summer, and the park's day-use permits sell out online by the Thursday before a summer weekend, with the lots closed to cars without one by mid-morning. The chauffeur's version of the beach day is the drop at the beach's gate with the permit bought from Ontario Parks in advance, the cooler and the umbrellas to the sand, and the collection at the booked hour with the family's towels in the boot; a family at a Wellington or Picton inn books it as a leg on the hourly day, and the family page explains the seats and the stroller.

The County's year: the seasons and the festivals

The County's season runs from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving, with the wineries open through the year on reduced winter hours: the spring is the vineyards' bud-break and the Maple in the County festival in March; the summer is the beach, the Picton fair and the wineries' Friday-night concerts; the fall is the harvest, the Wellington Pumpkinfest and the County's Taste! festival; and the winter is the wineries' fireside tastings, the Drake's winter weekends and the frozen bay. The drive in January crosses the open country east of Oshawa and the Skyway across the bay, which closes in a crosswind; the chauffeur reads Ontario 511 before leaving and the vehicles run winter tyres.

Weddings, the barns and the group weekend

The County is the province's wedding country — the winery lawns, the barns, the Drake's lawn on the lake — and the wedding pattern covers it: the stretch limousine for the couple, the Sprinter and the coach for the guests from the Toronto hotels and the airport, and the standing cars for the weekend's events on a manifest. A company's retreat at a County inn or a winery's event space books the same way on a corporate account, with delegates collected from the airport through the day on the shuttle pattern.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to the County 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 wine cases ride home at no charge; the long-distance page explains how a two-and-a-half-hour fare is set.

The Glenora ferry and the County's back door

The County's eastern end has a back door: the free Glenora ferry across the Bay of Quinte's Adolphus Reach, a fifteen-minute crossing from Glenora to Adolphustown on the Loyalist Parkway's continuation toward Kingston, which a visitor working through eastern Ontario takes from the County to Kingston in an hour rather than the 401's ninety minutes. The Lake on the Mountain above the ferry dock — the lake on the escarpment's top with no visible source, and the view over the reach from its edge — is the stop before the boat, and the chauffeur times the drop to the ferry's schedule; the Waupoos wineries and the cider house are on the road to it.

The County's food: the restaurants, the cheese and the Taste! trail

The County's wine came with its food, and the wine day's lunch is the point: the winery restaurants — the Drake Devonshire's dining room on the lake, the Hubb at Angeline's, the Grange's and Huff Estates' patios — the Black River Cheese company's factory store on the eastern shore, the Picton and Bloomfield bakeries, and the fall's Taste! festival in Picton where the County's producers gather. A visitor flying in for the food books the chauffeured day around the reservations rather than the wineries, and the chauffeur holds at each door with the cheese in the cooler; the County's chefs' own suppliers are the farm gates on the concession roads, which the chauffeur stops at when the passengers point.

Book Pearson to Prince Edward County