Experience the best of Orillia

Orillia sits at the narrows between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, and its waterfront is the town's main public space. The humorist Stephen Leacock set his Mariposa stories in a town based on Orillia, and his summer home on the lake is now a museum.

The Trent-Severn Waterway, a route of locks and lakes across southern Ontario, passes through the town, and Georgian Bay lies under an hour's drive to the north. Muskoka, a region of lakes and forest, begins farther north, with cottages and resorts along its shores.

Lake Simcoe is known for perch, whitefish and winter ice fishing, and maple syrup from nearby sugar bushes is a spring product of the region. Summers are warm and the lakes are busy with sailing and swimming. Winters are cold and snowy, and the autumn colour peaks in October, the best season for walking the shore.