Georgian Bay & Manitoulin Island

Neighbourhood: Northern Ontario (multi-day trip from Toronto) · Address: Manitoulin Island, ON (Toronto → Tobermory → Chi-Cheemaun Ferry → South Baymouth) · Hours: Recommended duration: 2 or more days | Ferry: seasonal (May–October) · Price Range: $$ · Editorial status: Not yet verified

Why Visit

Manitoulin Island is the only place near Toronto where you can cross an inland sea via ferry to an island dotted with Indigenous-run galleries, dramatic cliffs, and freshwater swimming holes. The ferry ride itself feels like a rite of passage for Ontario explorers.

What Makes It Unique

Nowhere close to Toronto comes close to Manitoulin's sense of remoteness, sprawling island drives, or mix of quiet Anishinaabe communities and old-school general stores. Unlike Muskoka or the Kawarthas, you’re actually on the world’s largest lake island, and the two-hour ferry is as much a highlight as the destination.

If you’re planning a proper Ontario getaway, Georgian Bay and Manitoulin Island are the kind of place Torontonians talk about with a slightly dreamy look in their eyes. This is a multi-day journey, and that’s part of the point. You leave Toronto for Tobermory, the traffic thins out, the landscape starts opening up, and by the time you reach the ferry terminal, you already feel like you’ve gone somewhere real. Manitoulin is the world’s largest freshwater island, and it doesn’t feel polished or over-curated. It feels spacious, grounded, and deeply tied to the water.

The route matters: drive from Toronto to Tobermory first, then take the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry from Tobermory to South Baymouth. The ferry does not run from Toronto or directly from the GTA, and South Baymouth is the Manitoulin-side terminal. Even if you’re not usually a “the journey is the destination” person, this crossing might change your mind. The two-hour ride across Georgian Bay is easily one of the best slow-travel experiences in Ontario. You stand on deck with a coffee, the wind gets a little aggressive, kids run around spotting the shoreline, and everyone quietly starts taking photos of the cliffs, the pale rock, and the unreal clear water. It’s simple and beautiful in a very Ontario way. Book ahead if you’re bringing a car, especially in summer, because it fills up fast.

Once you’re on Manitoulin, the pace shifts immediately. There are long stretches of road, limestone outcroppings, old farms, and sudden views of the bay that make you pull over without overthinking it. Small towns like Kagawong are worth your time not because there are a hundred things to do, but because it’s exactly the kind of place where you walk slowly, grab an ice cream, look at the water, and stop trying to optimize your day. Kagawong is especially lovely for that—quiet, scenic, and easy to spend a couple of unhurried hours in.

What makes Manitoulin feel different from a lot of other Ontario escapes is the strength of its Indigenous presence. This is Anishinaabe territory, and that’s not just a line in a brochure—it shapes the island in a meaningful way. Wikwemikong Unceded Territory is one of the most important places to understand if you’re visiting. If your timing lines up with the annual powwow in August, go. It’s moving, welcoming, and memorable, but go respectfully: read up a little, listen more than you talk, and understand you’re there as a guest.

The practical note is simple: plan for two or more days. From Toronto, drive to Tobermory, allow time for the ferry check-in and crossing to South Baymouth, then continue into Manitoulin rather than treating the island as a quick stop. Ferry schedules, summer traffic, stops on the Bruce Peninsula, and the distances between island communities all reward an overnight or longer stay. If you want a remote escape that gives you lake views, Indigenous culture, and that rare feeling of being properly away from the city, it’s hard to top. This is the kind of place you return to because it doesn’t try too hard. It just stays with you.