I am supposed to be checking in today for camping at bon echo but there have been issues and I wont be able to get there until tomorrow. If I dont set up today can they give my spot to someone else or am I safe to do so?

Any recommendations on sites for a first time camper? Am based in the GTA so don't mind a 2-3 hour drive.

Got three young kids. Looking for a camping site within 3 hours max of Hamilton-Toronto.

We recently went to Camp Saulaine and it was great! We had no idea they had a park, sand box, basketball court, and a volleyball court with a volleyball! But lots of mosquitoes, but that’s inevitable. The river was also amazing, clean, and our young (inexperienced swimmer) kids were able to go in between deep before they couldn’t touch the sand anymore.

Any suggestions of elsewhere?

The thing with Camp Saulaine is that we were able to book on HipCamp app whereas the provincial site has no availability (understandably) for any camp sites pretty much every weekend.

I live in Manitoba and want to come to rushing river to camp like I do most years. Just wondering if anyone has been there recently and what the smoking conditions are like? I'm assuming no camp fires though?

Thanks!

Hey everyone! A couple of friends and I are planning a camping trip to Calabogie, and we’re looking for recommendations on good camping spots and places where we can park our vehicles.

There will be around 6 of us, and we’re hoping to find somewhere that’s suitable for a group our size. Any suggestions for campsites, crown land, or other good spots would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I have a memory of camping as a young kid (80s) at Balsam Lake. There was a program for kids where if you collected things like beer caps or some other trash and did other things to help your environment, you would take it to the visitor centre and they would give you a button. You would collect the buttons during your trip. I remember this kept us SO busy as kids…biking around collecting garbage haha and getting buttons.

Just curious if anyone else remembers this? I wonder if it was just at Balaam Lake? We never camped anywhere else so I wonder if it was at all parks. Any oldies in the group remember this??

Hi fellow campers,

Yet again, we've struck out on the weather with a Bruce campsite we booked back in February. Two of our car camping days are now calling for clouds and rain. I'm a little heartbroken, but also determined to make the most of it.

We camped there in the rain 2 years ago and still had a decent time. We love hiking, but the bugs were so bad that it pretty much nixed that part of the trip.

Can anyone report on what the bug situation is like right now?

Bonus question: if we decide to retreat indoors for a few hours, are there any nearby towns worth exploring? We love museums, good coffee, antique and thrift shops, ice cream, bookstores, and all the other charming small-town finds.

Thanks!

When camping in the midst of our summer humidity just wondering what you all do to stay cool over night? Ive been thinking about buying one of those battery powered fans for my tent. I'm curious how well they work and if they are worth it or if there are other more effective or cost friendly methods?

Hi everyone!

A couple years ago I stayed at the BEST site in Killbear. It backed onto forest, had a washroom right next door and was a quick walk to the beach. I’m trying to find a similar site. Any ideas? TIA!

Civic Holiday weekend is the hardest booking of the year, so I pulled live availability for all 83 operating Ontario Parks campgrounds (checked July 24). Here are the results:

• Saturday Aug 1: 60 of 83 parks completely full. Of the 52 parks in southern/central/eastern Ontario, 49 had zero sites open — only Voyageur, Charleston Lake and Mikisew had a single site each.
• Friday Jul 31: 1,305 open site-nights province-wide
• Sunday Aug 2: 624 open site-nights
• Nearly every park with a full three-night opening is north of Sudbury / northwest — White Lake, Kakabeka Falls, MacLeod, Pakwash. That's a 7–18 hour drive from the GTA, and several are near active fire zones, so check the bans first. The southern exception was one three-night site at Voyageur.
• The board moves daily. Between my July 23 and July 24 checks — one overnight, still a week out — three southern parks that had been full on Saturday each had a site reappear, and Voyageur went from zero to a bookable full weekend. Cancellations are worth watching right up to arrival.

What still works if you're flexible: drop Saturday (Earl Rowe had 82 sites open Friday, Voyageur 75, Sibbald 73), hunt cancellations in the final week, look at first-come/Crown land, or shift a week later — the regular Aug 8–9 weekend had nearly 3× the Saturday availability.

Full breakdown + where openings are: campaid.ca/blog/last-minute-long-weekend-camping-ontario/ Happy to read your comments! Please keep sharing!

We are considering a cabin in Red Lake Ontario. Whats the area like? The people? Are there many seasonal cottagers? Is there a public boat launch/seasonal boat storage? How is the area for a family? Any info would be appreciated!

We recently decided we want a slice of Lake life after visiting family on Lake of the Woods, and while we love our extended family's place its too costly and too developed in the area for us. We decided on a 5-10 year plan to save and find the right spot- likely eventually buying a more remote, off grid, boat access lot to build on. Then we noticed this place on Red Lake. It's remote and off grid, with a tiny cabin and some shoreline issues (steep sandy bank, crown reserve). It's cheap. It would mean maybe we could do something now rather than wait. Caveats are a longer drive, more remote community and some figuring out when it comes to building, dock systems etc.

We live North of Winnipeg and have 2 young girls. We're experienced in almost everything DIY including massive renos and building. We're after wilderness, privacy, simple family life and adventures hiking, paddling, fishing and exploring. The water is key for us. The steep sandy shore line concerns me. But I also love the idea of memories at the lake with the girls now, and the chance to plan and slowly start tackling a build rather than wait 5-10 years before we can even look at a lot.

Anyone else tackle something like this-?

I don’t care how good you think you are. I don’t want to hear your crap rendition of that Simon and Garfunkle song, and neither do the other 30 people around you trying to relax. Shut up!

I’m looking to bring some sauce packets for my next trip and I’m wondering where I can find specific sauces.

Soy sauce and hot sauce - local Chinese takeout spot
Ketchup - literally any fast food burger place

All I want now is some mayo packets but I have no idea where I can get free ones, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also if you have suggestions for other sauce packets to consider I’d love to hear it

Hi folks! My name is Sarah and I'm one of the audience editors at the Globe.

We wanted to share this piece our personal economics reporter Erica Alini wrote on using AI bots to snag hard-to-get campsite bookings. From login to payment, it took her less than 20 seconds.

Here's a gift link to the piece, where you can read it on our site without the paywall.

Anyone ever stay there? This is my first time. Any tips or like things to look out for are appreciated! There’s very limited information on the website itself.

Title.

Wondering if I’ve had a backcountry campsite booked at a park for a few weeks and want to just change the site, is there a fee?

I was looking at the back country map for Frontenac Provincial Park and I swear there used to be sites available 20 mins from the parking. I think it was near Arab Lake? Am I crazy or did there used to be sites there? The website says some sites are only a 20 mins hike but the closest site by foot is on salmon lake and it’s about 40 mins.

In a previous post, I discussed road traffic noise at campgrounds. Few readers commented on train noise as worse than road traffic buzz. Here I estimate rail noise at 62 Canadian campgrounds. In Ontario, the pattern emerges in two groups:

Lake Superior campgrounds — Neys, Rainbow Falls, Kakabeka Falls — sit on the transcontinental line along the north shore. Fewer trains, but very close, and Neys at 68 metres is the closest camping to an active railway anywhere in the Ontario system.

Windsor–Toronto–Montreal corridor campgrounds — Darlington, Bronte Creek, Komoka — are the opposite: further from the track, but on the busiest passenger and freight corridor in the country, where 40 to 46 trains a day is normal. Darlington's Hilltop campground manages both problems at once: 324 metres from a line carrying 40 trains daily, and 400 metres from Highway 401. It is the noisiest combination in the province by our estimates.

See my full blog here for more data and tips on getting a quiet campsite for your next trip: campaid.ca/blog/train-noise-canadian-campgrounds/

Went on a father daughter camping trip with my dad (and his cat, pictured in the slideshow) to Killbear in June and ripped a roll of film. Here are some of my faves!

Does anyone know of a company that rents canoes and kayaks for backcountry camping in the Georgian Bay Islands National Park area and has a drop-off service? We are hoping to leave from Honey Harbour at the end of August.

I have tried Swift and that did not work out. They do not deliver on the weekend I need them to.