The drive from Toronto to Sudbury takes about four hours if you do not stop. Most people do not stop, which means they miss the Parry Sound town beach (5 minutes off Highway 400, picnic tables, swimming), the Gibson Lake rest area on Highway 17 (jack pines, water views, quiet), and Driftwood Provincial Park (sandy Ottawa River beach, hiking trails, most east-west travellers blow right past it). Ontario's highways pass through some of the most striking landscape in the country, and the best parts are invisible at 110 km/h.
We document three kinds of roadside stops: scenic picnic areas where you can eat lunch at a table overlooking a lake instead of in a Tim Hortons parking lot, waterfront parks that offer swimming and shore access within minutes of the highway, and the rest stops and pulloffs that provide a break from driving with something better than a gas station washroom. These are the stops your GPS does not know about.
Picnic tables with lake views, forest settings, and the kind of lunch stops that make a road trip feel like a road trip.
ExploreMunicipal and provincial parks with beaches, boat launches, and shore access minutes from Ontario's highways.
ExploreONroute service centres, scenic pulloffs, and the rest areas along Highways 400, 17, and 401 with honest washroom ratings.
ExploreOntario is a big province. The drive from Toronto to the Manitoba border takes 20 hours. Even the common trip from Toronto to Algonquin Park is over 3 hours. These are distances that turn a fun trip into a slog if you drive them straight through. Roadside stops turn driving time into trip time.
A 30-minute stop at Driftwood Provincial Park on Highway 17 -- walk the dog, stretch on the beach, let the kids throw rocks in the Ottawa River -- costs you half an hour but makes the remaining drive feel shorter. A picnic lunch at the Gibson Lake rest area with jack pines and water views instead of a drive-through sandwich changes the whole quality of the day. We think of roadside stops as the punctuation in a road trip. Without them, the trip is just one long run-on sentence.
ONroute service centres near Barrie for fuel and food. Oastler Lake Provincial Park beach (day-use available, but you pay the park entry fee). The Parry Sound town beach, 5 minutes off the highway with picnic tables and swimming. Moose Lake Trading Post for ice cream. See our scenic picnic areas and highway rest stops guides for specifics.
The most scenic highway in Ontario for roadside stops. Pimisi Bay Picnic Area east of Rutherglen. Driftwood Provincial Park near Deep River with its sandy beach and Oak Highlands Trails. Gibson Lake rest area with jack pines and water views. The NPD Lookout near Deep River with views of the Laurentian Hills. Meilleurs Bay Picnic Area. Mattawa Island Park with river views. See our waterfront parks guide for the full list.
Presqu'ile Provincial Park near Brighton for a lakefront break (day-use available). The Prince Edward County turnoff near Belleville for farm stands and Sandbanks Provincial Park day-use beach. Various ONroute centres between Toronto and Kingston. See our Eastern Ontario guide for stops in this corridor.
Provincial parks charge a vehicle entry fee for day-use ($12-21 depending on the park), even if you only want to use the picnic area or beach for an hour. An Ontario Parks seasonal day-use pass ($87.50) pays for itself after about 5 visits. Municipal parks and highway rest areas are free.
Browse the specific guides for detailed stop-by-stop information along each highway corridor, or check our road trip planning guide for how to build roadside stops into a multi-day route.
Build roadside stops into a multi-day Ontario route with our trip planning guides.
Plan Your Route