Cottage rental for a Christmas vacation

With just seven weeks to go to Christmas, you may have already decided on what you’ll be doing with the festive period, but if you’re looking for something different this year, why not rent a cottage to enjoy some relaxing time with family and friends.

There are still plenty of cottages available and you can often rent from 3 or 4 days rather than the complete week to make your mini-vacation more flexible. So what should you look for in a festive vacation? Here’s a few tips and questions to ask the owner or agency:

• Is the cottage decorated for the season? If the owner has spent time on making the place look festive, that is wonderful, particularly if you are arriving on Christmas Eve. All you have to do is turn on the tree lights and enjoy. If not, it could feel a bit stark and uninviting so you’ll need to take your own favourite ornaments and accents.
• Does the cottage have an open fireplace or wood burning stove? It’s a real treat for Christmas morning to light the fire and enjoy the crackle of flames and the smell of woodsmoke outside. Just find out if wood is supplied for your stay.

• Find out where the nearest cross country ski, or downhill area is. There are lots of smaller ski hills in southern Ontario , where you can enjoy a great half-day out with the family. Take a look here for some activity ideas.

• If you are planning on a big meal, check out the kitchen facilities at the cottage. Does it have a full size oven? What pots and pans are provided? Is there a potato masher? I add in that last one because that was the only thing missing in our recent vacation rental in Sedona, Arizona. Make a list of all the items you absolutely must have, and send that to the cottage owner.

•  Expect to pay a premium rate for a Xmas stay in a cottage as it is a high season week. In addition, most cottage properties are heated by electric baseboard heaters alongside wood stoves. Maintaining heat is very costly, both in hydro and wood, and it often surprises non-country dwellers how expensive it is to run wood burning heating.

• And will it be a white Christmas? Well, we all remember having a green December 25^th last year. The lakes were not frozen and in fact, I kayaked along our river on New Year’s Day. A really weird winter all round. The best chances of finding snow are to vacation in the Muskoka, Haliburton or Georgian bay areas where lake effect snow may occur when it is still dry and mild in the city. If we have some really cold weather in early December, the smaller lakes should be frozen but take care and ask the locals whether you should walk on them or not. A moonlit walk on a frozen lake is one of those really fun activities, but this shouldn’t be attempted unless you are fully confident it is safe to do so. Local cottage owners will know this, but remember, you do this as your own risk.

If you are looking for a Christmas cottage, check our availability calendars, then give us a call to see which cottage would be most suitable for you.