If you live in Ontario, a yearly lake visit is a must during the summer months. My family and I love a rustic cottage and spending our days swimming, canoeing, eating simple meals and enjoying the beautiful outdoors.
This year we were invited to Viamede Resort located about 2 hours outside of Toronto and in the Kawartha Lakes area. The resort is actually situated lakeside to Stoney Lake which happens to be a well-known fishing lake.
Viamede Resort has all the amenities needed to enjoy a lakeside getaway with your family. In addition to the basic amenities, we were excited to hear that the resort had full-service restaurants so we didn’t have to cook a single meal while we were there!
I am so excited to tell you guys about it, so, I’m going to break it down for you right here:
Accomodations
We stayed in one of the lakeside cottages, the most central cottage that is located right at the main dock and in front of the main resort house. It was great to be right next to the outdoor pool, playground, beach, and communal fire pit.
The cottages are small but perfectly sized for a family of four. There is a little kitchenette, a dining table that seats four and a family room with a large flat screen television and even a fireplace. We had a master bedroom with a very large bed and an updated bathroom with a shower. The boys had their own bedroom with two double beds and their own upgraded bathroom.
We were so pleased about the updated bathrooms which is something we don’t often see in a lakeside rental cottage. Having a separate bedroom for the kids is great because the boys were often very tired after a day in the sun so they went to bed before we did and we didn’t worry about disturbing them.
Dining
There were so many great dining options so, we were never left with the question “what should we eat”? The main house has a restaurant called 1885 and this is where we got our food for our entire stay.
Breakfast is buffet-style in the main restaurant and is included with your accommodations, so you never have to pay for breakfast. There is plenty of seating and the breakfast service runs for two hours so you can take your time. We loved the setup of this restaurant because on one side they set up a living / wreck Room filled with books, games, toys, a dart board, table soccer and a ping pong table. When the kids were done eating, they spent time in this space while Dave and I ate our meals in peace.
For lunch, 1885 had a few options, eat-in, order a picnic basket to go or, take out and eat at your cottage / dockside. The picnic basket option is great because you can pack your family and food into one of the available canoes and picnic on one of the small, unoccupied islands just off of the resort. We chose to do our lunch right on our dock, picnic-style.
The lunch options are great and there is even a kids menu with everything my kids like to eat.
For Dinner, there are lots of options: Mt. Julian is an adult-only gourmet dining experience (we obviously couldn’t eat here but if you have older kids, or visit Viamede Resort for a couples trip, then this is definitely a spot you want to check out). 1885, the main house, had a full dinner menu. We dined in our first night and had a lovely, and pretty gourmet I might add, dinner experience. There is an indoor patio room that overlooks the lake that is beautiful. The final dinner option, and my favourite option, is the communal Cook Out experience. We met a lovely family during our stay so we decided to come together for a BBQ cook out dinner. We simply ordered our meat and sides and they take care of the rest. We ordered chicken, ribs and steaks and the great part about this is that the ribs and chicken were cooked sous vide so all that was required was seasoning, heating through and a generous brushing of BBQ sauce. The steaks came raw but that was great because we could cook them to our desired doneness. We ordered plain vegetables that we grilled and they prepared a delicious potato salad side dish for us to have with our meal.
I forgot to mention there is a barbecue deck that is lakeside where there are plenty of picnic tables, 2 barbecues and a lot of prep space available for your cook out. We used the plates, cups and cutlery from our cottage (or you can ask the restaurant for some). We had to borrow spices and a barbecue brush from a family who was having a cookout next to us who seemed like experts at this whole cook out thing. We ate our dinner as the sun was setting – a truly beautiful dinner experience. It felt like home but away from home.
Activities
There is so much to do for all ages at Viamede Resort. We wanted to try everything but we needed a few more days!
Swimming options, there are three. There is an incredible indoor pool that has a swim through area that leads outside to an upper pool deck. Within this area there are steam rooms and saunas as well as luxurious showers. The next swimming option is the outdoor pool which overlooks the lake and has plenty of loungers and even complimentary towels. The third and best swimming option, in my opinion, is right in Stoney Lake! There are plenty of life jackets available and a small sandy beach to get into the lake (if you’re afraid to jump off of the dock like I am). The lake was incredibly warm too! Viamede Resort provides canoes, kayaks and paddle boards as well. We did a family canoe ride around the lake — it was a great way to spend the time before lunch or pre-dinner.
Some other notable activities include:
-indoor gym and yoga studio
-walking trails
-a farm
-a fire pit with complimentary s’mores
-A library of family board games and movies to take back to your cottage
During the summer months, Viamede Resort also hosts a kids club for kids six years old and older. They entertain your children with four hours of activities while the parents enjoy some quiet time.
Thank you to Viamede Resort for an absolutely memorable kick-off to summer! We can’t wait to visit again soon! For more details, visit viamede.com.
With Love,
Julie
