Pearson Airport to the Shorelines Casinos

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the Shorelines casinos?

The alternatives are VIA Rail from Union to Belleville — two hours on the train, from Union rather than Pearson, with a taxi at the far end — and the casinos' own coach programmes from the east of the city. There is no train to Peterborough. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the porte-cochère at a fixed fare with the vehicle sized to the group; the Trent University page covers the Peterborough road and the Queen's page the 401 east.

Belleville: the casino at the gateway to the County

Shorelines Casino Belleville opened in 2017 on Bell Boulevard beside the 401's Highway 62 interchange, a single-storey casino with a gaming floor, a restaurant and a porte-cochère, and no hotel of its own — the Belleville hotels along Bell Boulevard and the 401, the Best Western, the Hampton, the Holiday Inn Express, the Comfort, are five minutes away and the transfer is a short fixed fare with the same chauffeur holding for the return. The casino's position is its point: Belleville is the gateway to Prince Edward County, the wine and beach peninsula across the Bay of Quinte, and a County weekend from Pearson — the wineries on the Loyalist Parkway, Sandbanks beach, the inns of Picton and Bloomfield — adds the casino as an evening on the way in or out. The Empire Theatre in downtown Belleville and the Quinte Mall bring the evening and the shopping.

Peterborough: the casino on the edge of the Kawarthas

Shorelines Casino Peterborough opened in 2018 on Crawford Drive beside the Parkway on the city's south side, a larger room with a gaming floor, a poker area, restaurants and a porte-cochère, and — like Belleville — no hotel of its own: the Holiday Inn on the river downtown and the hotels on Lansdowne Street are ten minutes away, and the lakeside resorts of the Kawarthas — Elmhirst's on Rice Lake, the Viamede on Stony Lake — are twenty and forty minutes for a weekend that splits the floor and the lake. The casino replaced the slots at Kawartha Downs, which continue as Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs at the harness track on Highway 28 at Fraserville, ten minutes south; the harness racing at the Downs is its own evening, and the two rooms are a short fixed fare apart.

Group nights, birthdays and the Sprinter

The group night is the eastern rooms' core traffic from Durham and the east of the city: a birthday party of eight from Oshawa or Whitby to Peterborough, a corporate team from a Cobourg office to Belleville, a stag from Kingston to Belleville the other way. The Executive Sprinter collects from one or two addresses, delivers to the porte-cochère, waits or returns at the booked hour, and the fare is one figure for the vehicle split however the group likes — lower per head than the coach when the coach's pickup point is not near anyone, and the only option that comes to the door. A group arriving at Pearson for a County or Kawartha weekend is met at the group meeting point inside the terminal and driven on one manifest.

From the rooms: the County, the Kawarthas and Kingston

The Shorelines rooms are on the way to somewhere, and a weekend from Pearson uses them that way. From Belleville: Prince Edward County thirty minutes south, Kingston and the Thousand Islands an hour east, Trenton and the Bay of Quinte on the doorstep. From Peterborough: the Lift Lock and the Canoe Museum in the city, Trent University on the river for a family visiting a student, the Kawartha lakes and villages north, Algonquin Park two hours north. A chauffeured day from either room covers them, and a circuit that takes in Peterborough, the Great Blue Heron on Scugog Island forty minutes south and Belleville on the way home is a weekend on one profile.

Winter on the 401 east and the 115

The 401 east of Oshawa in January crosses open country where the snow drifts off the lake, and the 115 north of the 407 crosses the snowbelt above it; both close 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; a trip already under way waits out a closure at the Port Hope or Trenton service centres with the passengers warm inside.

Responsible play and what the fare includes

The casinos are nineteen and over with identification checked and operate under Ontario's responsible-gaming programme; neither Belleville nor Peterborough has a hotel, and families stay at the hotels and the resorts nearby. The fare from Pearson to any Shorelines room is fixed by vehicle class 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 County weekend, planned properly

The Belleville room's best use is as the evening of a Prince Edward County weekend, and the itinerary that works from Pearson is this: the Friday arrival two hours east on the 401 to an inn in Picton, Bloomfield or Wellington — the Drake Devonshire, the Royal in Picton, the June Motel, the winery guesthouses — with the casino as a stop on the way in for the couple who want it; the Saturday as a chauffeured day on the Loyalist Parkway's wineries, Sandbanks beach and the County's restaurants, with the chauffeur as the designated driver the wineries assume you have; the Sunday departure with the casino as a stop on the way out, and the two-hour drive back to the terminal timed to the flight. The County page has the wineries and the seasons; the Belleville room is on the way to all of them.

The Kawartha weekend from the Peterborough room

The Peterborough room's best use is the same trick with the lakes: the Friday arrival an hour and three-quarters up the 407 and the 115 to a resort on Rice Lake or Stony Lake — Elmhirst's, the Viamede — with the casino as an evening on the way in; the Saturday on the water, at the Lift Lock or in the Kawartha villages; the Sunday departure with the casino or Kawartha Downs as the last stop. A family visiting a student at Trent adds the room as the adults' evening; a group from Durham on a stag weekend books the Sprinter from Oshawa to the room, the lake and home. The harness racing at Kawartha Downs runs through the summer and is its own evening on the event pattern, ten minutes from the Peterborough room.

The seniors' outing and the standing booking

Both Shorelines rooms are day-trip casinos by design, and the seniors' outing is their core weekday traffic: a residence in Cobourg or Port Hope with a monthly trip to Belleville on the Sprinter, a residence in Lindsay or Peterborough with the same to the Peterborough room, a couple in their eighties who have played at Kawartha Downs since it was slots in a trailer. The accessible page explains the vehicles and the pace — the accessible bay at the porte-cochère, the walker to the door, the hand to the floor — and a residence's outing is a standing booking with the same chauffeur and the same door, invoiced to the residence monthly.

Book Pearson to a Shorelines casino