Thursday 31 August 2023

Muskoka BeerSpa, Torrance, ON

Gord and I heard about Muskoka BeerSpa a couple years ago at a beer festival. It sounded like fun but I found it was hard to get a reservation to stay in one of their cabins, which range from a one-room, 1, 2 and 3 bedroom cabins. They even have economical "crash cabins" which are basically sheds with a bed and TV but no washroom ... you use the spa facilities for that.


Cabins have a full size fridge/freezer and wet bar facilities, in room draft taps (beer is an extra charge), complimentary snack foods, satellite TV, WIFI and a VCR along with vintage VHS movies. There are linens, pillows and room towels but you have to bring your own soap, shampoo, etc. Guests have access to the beach, lake and water along with canoes and kayaks. Overnight guests who are 19+ have full day access to BeerSpa (pool, hot tub, saunas, etc.)

About a month ago, I managed to reserve Cabin 9 from Monday until today. Whoohoo!


There's our cabin, which was a couple minutes walk from the parking lot.

The selection of VCR movies!
Free snacks
Free coffee and snacks

Here's the view from our door ...


Here's the view from our deck, looking towards Lake Clear.


The lake was just a couple minutes walk from our cabin.


Check-in was at the parking lot.


The hammocks were relaxing ...

Nice view looking up

The spa area


The "crash cabins" ...


It was great to get away and we had a fun time ... so glad we got to experience it. Though the weather was unusually cool, it was nice to have access to the pool and lake. Both were chilly but that didn't stop people from going in. The pool is unheated. Gord and I spent some relaxing time sitting in Muskoka chairs on the dock by the lake.

Our cabin was cute, old and rustic. Because the weather was cool, the cabin was cool too. There were a couple base heaters on the floor and they helped. It would be interesting to see how warm it stays in the winter.

There was a small shower stall in the bathroom and the water pressure sucked. 

There was a microwave oven and a crock pot but it would have been nice to have a stove or even a hot plate. We brought up sandwich fixings to cover some meals. Unless you want to drive 5km to Bala or 20km to Gravenhurst (and you don't want to do that if you are drinking), you only have two options available to you within walking distance (across the street) ... we went to Clear Lake Brewing Co. (owned by the BeerSpa) three times and El Gringo's Cantina twice over our three days there. The Cottage (also owned by the BeerSpa) is across the street too but it is closed for the season, which was a disappointment. We didn't know it was closed and had been looking forward to having pizza there, which we heard was really good.

There was a VCR and movies and satellite cable. We discovered right away that the Shaw cable box wasn't working and could log onto our NetFlix account on the TV when we wanted to watch TV. It became a big deal yesterday when we wanted to watch the Blue Jays' afternoon game and had to watch it on an iPad. I contacted the resort and they sent a fella down with a new cable box ... that didn't change anything. So then he came back with a new plug cord and the box worked. Yay! But we couldn't figure out how to make it connect with the TV so we contacted the resort again. They sent the same fella down and he couldn't figure it out either. By then, the ball game was over so it became a non-issue for us. They should check things like this before and after guest leave.

WIFI was complimentary. It was either right on or non-existent (so we used our phones a hot spots).

You can't drink the water in the cabins as it comes from the lake but if you bring a container, you can get water from them.

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