Pearson Airport to Wasaga Beach & Georgian Bay

How do I get from Pearson Airport to Wasaga Beach?

The alternatives are the GO bus to Barrie and the county's bus from there — three hours from Pearson with the changes — and nothing else a family with beach bags books. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the cottage's door or the beach's lot in one movement at a fixed fare with the seats fitted and the cooler in the boot; the Barrie route page covers the 400's timing for the first hour.

The beach: fourteen kilometres, six areas, one town

Wasaga's beach runs fourteen kilometres along the bay in the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park's six beach areas, each with its lot and its entrance off the shore road: Beach Area 1 at the town's main strip on Mosley Street, with the boardwalk, the arcades, the ice cream and the crowds; Areas 2 and 3 the family stretches with the calmer water; Areas 4, 5 and 6 further along the shore the quieter ones with the dunes behind. The park's day-use permits are bought from Ontario Parks online or at the gate, and the lots fill by eleven on a summer Saturday — the reason a chauffeured drop at the area's entrance beats a family car in the queue. The chauffeur drops at the area on the booking, the cooler and the umbrellas to the sand, and the collection at the booked hour; the town behind the beach is the motels on Mosley, the cottages on the side streets and the Nottawasaga River's marinas.

The family cottage week

The bay's summer is the family week in a rented cottage — at Wasaga, at Allenwood Beach and Tiny's beaches north of it, at Balm Beach, at Thunder Beach, at Penetanguishene's shore — and the transfer from Pearson is the family's: the seats fitted, the beach bags and the bicycles in the Sprinter, the stop at the Barrie or Wasaga supermarkets for the week's groceries, and the cottage's door on a side street the chauffeur confirms before the day. A family flying in from overseas for a Canadian summer — grandparents in the cottage for a month, the cousins arriving from Calgary and Halifax on different flights — books the Pearson arrivals as they come, the chauffeured days for the beach areas and the bay, and the departures timed to the flights, and the family page explains the seats and the stroller.

Midland, Penetanguishene and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons

The bay's east shore is the history: Sainte-Marie among the Hurons at Midland, the reconstructed seventeenth-century Jesuit mission that was the first European settlement in the province, with the Martyrs' Shrine across the road; Discovery Harbour at Penetanguishene, the British naval base of 1817 with its tall ships; the Huronia Museum and the Wye Marsh's trumpeter swans; and the harbours of both towns, from which the 30,000 Islands cruises leave for the archipelago that stretches north along the bay's east side. A chauffeured day from a Wasaga cottage threads them — forty-five minutes from the beach to Midland — and the cruise's sailing time sets the day; the Ontario Parks site covers Awenda Provincial Park's beaches at the tip of the Penetanguishene peninsula.

Blue Mountain, Collingwood and the bay's west shore

The beach's west neighbour is Collingwood and Blue Mountain, twenty minutes along Highway 26 — the Village's summer concerts, the Scenic Caves, the Scandinave Spa, the Georgian Trail's bike path along the bay to Meaford — and a family week at Wasaga adds them as a day; a family week at Blue Mountain adds the beach the same way. The Bruce Peninsula and the Grotto are two hours further along the bay for a family with a second week, and the legs between them are fixed fares on one confirmation.

The beach's calendar: the summer, the fall and the frozen bay

Wasaga's season is the May long weekend to Labour Day — the Canada Day fireworks on the beach, the volleyball tournaments, the Wasaga Beach Blues festival in September — with the shoulder months quieter and the water warmest in August; the fall is the dunes' walk and the empty beach; and the winter is the Wasaga Nordic Centre's ski trails, the snowmobile trails from the beach's edge and the frozen bay's ice fishing. The drive in January is Highway 26 in the snowbelt, where the squalls off the bay close the road between Barrie and Stayner a few times each winter; the chauffeur reads Ontario 511 before leaving and the vehicles run winter tyres.

Groups, reunions and the Sprinter

The bay's group traffic is the family reunion at a rented cottage, the company's summer outing on a 30,000 Islands cruise, the volleyball team for a tournament weekend, the wedding at a bayside inn: the Executive Sprinter carries ten from the airport or the city on one manifest with the gear in the rear, delivered to the cottage or the dock, one fare split however the group likes; a company's charter of a cruise boat books the Sprinter and the coach from the office on a corporate account, and a bayside wedding is on the wedding pattern with the guests from the airport and the Barrie hotels.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to Wasaga Beach, Midland or the bay is fixed by vehicle class for the address and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, the 407 toll, taxes, the child seats, 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 park's permits, the cruises and the cottages are the visitor's bookings.

Tiny's beaches and the bay's quiet shore

North of Wasaga the bay's shore turns into Tiny Township's beaches — Allenwood, Woodland, Balm, Lafontaine, Thunder Beach — twenty kilometres of cottage roads and public beach accesses on the water, quieter than Wasaga's strip and the reason families who know the bay rent there instead. The transfer is the same ninety-minute drive with the last twenty minutes on Tiny's concession roads, which the chauffeur confirms before the day, and the family page explains the seats and the gear; Awenda Provincial Park at the peninsula's tip, with its beaches and its campground in the forest, is the Ontario Parks alternative to Wasaga's crowds and a chauffeured day from a Tiny cottage.

The Nottawasaga River, the marinas and the boats

Wasaga's river is the Nottawasaga, which reaches the bay through the town with the marinas along its last miles, and the bay's summer is on the water as much as the sand: the boat rentals and the jet-skis at the marinas, the fishing charters for the bay's salmon and trout, the paddleboards and the kayaks on the river's calm water, and the Collingwood and Midland harbours' sailing charters. A family's boat day begins at the marina's dock with the chauffeur holding or returning, and a company's fishing charter for its clients books the Sprinter from the airport or the city on a corporate account; the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park's dunes trail and the Nancy Island historic site — the War of 1812 schooner's remains at the river's mouth — are the afternoon off the water.

Book Pearson to Wasaga Beach