How to Get to Muskoka in 20 Minutes

Air travel to Muskoka

UPDATE: Sadly, Porter ended its service to Muskoka, but stay tuned for other posts about this great region of Canada!

A quintessential summer experience in Ontario is a family vacation to Muskoka. Abundant lakes, nature, fresh air and quality time with friends and family.

Every weekend in the summer, hundreds of thousands of cars make their way up Highways 400 and 11 to arrive to this northern destination. On busier weekends, which increasingly become every weekend in the summer, traffic is a nightmare. Good drives to Muskoka normally take approximately 2 hours, but with traffic, it can turn into a nightmarish 4 hour journey.

This summer, Porter Airlines introduced a new route that takes passengers from downtown Toronto to Muskoka Airport, located halfway between Bracebridge and Gravenhurst, in about 20 minutes. For a little more than the cost of a bus ticket, cottagers can catch a flight on Thursday afternoon and return on Monday morning.

Porter Airlines is Canada’s newest airline that offers regional air service out of Toronto’s Toronto Island Airport. They are known for their friendly service and beer, wine and snacks!

So once you’ve arrived in Muskoka, how do you get to the lake? Easy! The good folks at Explorers’ Edge have a hassle-free shuttle service to take you to six destinations across Muskoka. For the low cost of $10 per journey, you can be taken to Port Carling, Parry Sound, Almaguin & Huntsville, Algonquin Park and Port Severn.

Each shuttle route makes plenty of stops along the way. In Huntsville alone, they stop at:

If public transit is not your thing, you can rent a car from either Enterprise Rent-A-Car or Discount Car and Truck Rental. Advance reservations are recommended.

There is no better place to spend your summer than in Muskoka! Make the most of your family time and fly in style!

Full Disclosure: We’ve provided links on this post which may pay us commission. We were not paid to endorse any products or services. We are simply trying to cover our expenses for this website. Thank you for your support!

Crossing the Border Quickly with Kids using NEXUS

Back in the good ol’ days, people could quickly cross the Canada-U.S. border without any trouble. Nowadays, increased security measures make border crossing lines longer – both on land and at airports. While no one doubts the importance of border security, it can be difficult to manage kids while waiting in line.  The best solution to crossing the border with ease is to get a NEXUS border crossing card.

Cross border with Kids
The NEXUS card allows either Canadians or Americans to quickly cross the border into Canada or the United States.  What’s more, you can use the NEXUS card to get through airport security faster! The Nexus card costs $50 and is good for five years. Better yet, the card is free for kids under the age of 18!

Passports are strongly recommended to cross the border.  If you have a NEXUS card, you don’t need to have a passport!  If you don’t need a passport to travel overseas, you can save a few bucks by getting a NEXUS card instead. Continue reading

Surviving Airport Travel with Kids

So you’ve booked a flight for a vacation with the kids, but as your trip approaches, you begin to think of the logistics of airport travel with kids.

How am I going to get to the airport? 

How will I manage to carry the luggage and the kids to check-in? 

How long will airport security take? 

How am I going to get the kids to the gate?

How do I keep the kids busy while waiting for boarding?

Lucky for you, we have some advice that will help you navigate the labyrinth that is the airport!

airport

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How to Help your Kids Adjust to Time Change While on Vacation

If you’ve ever flown across time zones, you will know how it can be hard to adjust to time change.  And that jet lag can affect not only your head, but your whole body.  Moving into another time zone can especially impact kids as they often live or die by their daily routine.

Adjusting to time change is all about resetting your internal clock and more importantly your child’s internal clock.  Young children can’t tell the time to know when to eat, they just know because their tummy tells them they are hungry.  From our travels, we have learned some tips on how to help you and your kids adjust to time changes while on vacation. 

how to help kids adjust to time change on vacation

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Best And Worst Airlines for Kids

One of the more difficult aspects of vacationing with kids involves air travel.  Kids who are used to running free don’t always take kindly to being asked to sit in one place for hours.

During our journeys, we’ve flown with many airlines and had different experiences on each of them. While this list is not exhaustive, it is simply our impressions of the airlines we have taken.

Best and Worst Airlines for kids

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