Staying Close To Home – Exploring Ontario: Prince Edward County, Picton Ontario

Living in Ontario for us is somewhat dull – we’d rather be off travelling around Europe or the Caribbean, but millions of people from around the world come to Canada and Ontario specifically for their holidays or vacation time. We don’t understand it, but people we talk to in other countries don’t understand why we go to their country for a holiday! Since we’re not flying anywhere anytime soon, we’re focusing on travelling closer to home by car for the time being – re-discovering home if you will.

This week we’re off to Prince Edward County, Ontario, an almost island-like area that can be accessed via Quinte Point/West or Belleville from the west, or via Marysville or Napanee from the east.

Our trip is short, but one of the highlights is our ride – the beautiful 2022 Infiniti QX55. Having been invited to spend a couple of days in Prince Edward County – otherwise known as “cottage country” was a nice break after the endless lock-downs and frustrations of the past couple of years. Located just east of Toronto (about a 4-hour drive for us), we were more than happy to take this beauty on a road trip to someplace we haven’t visited for many years!!

For more information on our week with the with the Infiniti QX55 visit our Road Test site – https://wp.me/pNEbw-2kj

* Disclaimer: Opinions are our own. We were not paid for this article, nor were goods or services received for free/discounted *

Most of our time was spent lounging around the cottage – after-all that’s why you go away to cottage country. We did a bit of exploring in the immediate area and found some interesting places to visit. Being right on a lake means you HAVE to fish – maybe not for food, but certainly for recreation. The owners of the cottage had left a couple of fishing rods, but they were mediocre at best, so we headed out to get a better and easier to use fishing rod. The closest big store was located about 15 minutes from us in Belleville.

Proof that this is truly fishing and hunting country, is easily found at the local Canadian Tire store – one of the biggest and best stores we’ve ever encountered! We’ve never seen a Canadian Tire store so dedicated to fishing and hunting in Ontario. From the outside it doesn’t look very big or impressive, but once you walk through the doors!! … oh my.. I’m in heaven!

We purchased a rod and reel set for Gail’s nephew and headed back to the cottage where we spent the rest of the day landing tons of fish… none of them were big enough to eat, so it was simply catch and release (that’s good, cause none of us wanted to gut a fish).We caught loads of Pumpkinseed fish (a member of the sunfish family) that grow to a maximum of 25 cm /10”. The biggest one we caught was probably no bigger than 6.”

Things To Do In The Area…

Town of Trenton

Trenton is a typical Ontario town located on the Bay of Quinte and is the starting point for the Trent-Severn Waterway, a 386-kilometre-long (240 mi) canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and Severn River – basically, all of Ontario’s cottage country.

Trenton is a hot spot for sport fishing, the most popular freshwater fish in the area are: walleye (pickerel), bass, pike, perch, mudcat, and during certain times of the year, you can bag a salmon or rainbow trout. Also very popular of course are numerous water sports and boating.

There’s plenty of camping / RVing in the area too. Sandbanks Provincial Park takes up a huge area and having spent a weekend there several years ago, we’d highly recommend that as an option if that’s preferable to cottaging.

There are a number of breweries and wineries in the area and we chose a couple to visit.

Note: we use What3Words to locate the exact location of the establishment – it’s far more accurate than GoogleMaps. Many vehicle manufacturers now use it incorporated within their navigation system, but it’s available for free on Android/Apple phones.

Prince Eddy’s Brewing Company

Easy to get to, with plenty of parking. They also have a large outdoor area with a stage for local concerts as well as a sand volleyball court. Environmentally friendly, their plastic cups are 100% Biodegradable and Compostable – nice!! I wanted to grab the sampler option, but it wasn’t available thanks to “The Science” TM so I purchased a can to drink there and a couple to take home. The staff are friendly and spent time with us figuring out our taste preferences in beer and recommending them – every recommendation was spot on!

Chin Dropper Blonde Ale – a tropical lighter tasting beer that was superb – I highly recommend that one!! 10/10

So Many Friends was almost as good… it has an IPA bite to it, a little fruity, but not too much. Wouldn’t drink more than one before moving on to something else if I was drinking more beer at that time, but terrific none the less. Not unlike the amazing Belgian beer, Hoegaarden – 9/10

I’m not a big light beer fan but I got the Fast Eddy’s Light Lager based on the staff recommendation and was not disappointed. It was light and refreshing, like a typical German-style lager. Definitely a beer you can drink regularly. Very enjoyable – 8.5/10

Website: http://www.princeeddys.com / Phone: 613.476.2253

Location: 13 MacSteven Dr, Picton, Ontario K0K 2T0

what3words: sprinkling.skyscraper.cuties // https://w3w.co/sprinkling.skyscraper.cuties

SUMMER HOURS – Sun – Wed • 10-8pm // Thur – Sat • 10-9pm

Black Prince Winery – Wine | Ice Cream | Pizza Oven | Barrel Aged Vinegar’s

The shop and wine/vinegar sampling are in the front building and in the barn behind it you’ll find the Barrel House Pizza and restaurant, where you can get food, drinks and ice cream. It has indoor and outdoor seating as well as patio seating available. We tried the pizza (gluten free) and it was very good. It’s cooked to order, so no pre-cooked pizza, you can even watch them prepare and cook it for you in their outside oven area. Afterwards we each had a tub of ice cream – delicious!!

The wine we sampled was very good and we purchased a bottle of Merlot to take home ($30) which is way more than we typically spend on a bottle of wine. The sales person did the typical “Assume The Sale” technique and it worked – I’d purchased it before I’d stopped to consider if I wanted it or not. Kudos to him, cause I’m usually very hesitant to purchase wine costing more than $15! When we got home and drank it – it definitely wasn’t worth more than $10-15.

Barrel House Pizza

open daily • 12 – 8pm. Bottle Sales, Wine By The Glass, Local Beer & Cider

Wine Tasting (3 choices/$10) plus Gourmet Fruit & Balsamic Vinegar sampling daily. Tasting flight of 4 wines and unlimited gourmet vinegar tastings; $11.30

Open Daily • 10am – 6pm.

Also new this year (2022) is an 18-hole County Disc Golf Course, but we didn’t have time to try that out – next time though!!

Open Daily • 10am – 6pm.

Website: https://BlackPrinceWinery.com

Address: 13370 Loyalist Parkway, Picton

what3words: sweaters.cynically.support // https://w3w.co/sweaters.cynically.support

National Air Force Museum of Canada

If military planes are your bag, this is the place to go. Almost everywhere you go in the area you’ll see various planes flying around doing manoeuvrers and training at Canada’s largest air force base still operational (CFB Trenton). Located right beside the town of Trenton, it’s very easy to find – just off Hwy 2. You can’t miss it with all the planes parked in a field. With over 75,000 square feet of display space attached to a sprawling 16-acre air park, plan to set aside a few hours to truly enjoy this. Unfortunately we ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to take a tour – it’s yet another a reason to return to visit Prince Edward County again though! Check out the website, some really cool stuff there.

Website: http://airforcemuseum.ca / Phone: 613-965-7223 or 1-866-701-RCAF (7223)

220 RCAF Rd, Astra, ON K0K 3W0

what3words: feathered.heartbeats.extroverted // https://w3w.co/feathered.heartbeats.extroverted

Trip Advisor Link: HERE

Hours / Prices – Open daily from May 1^st to September 30^th • 10 am to 5 pm

From October 1^stto April 30^th – Wednesday through Sunday • 10 am to 5 pm

Admission Rates * Last Admission at 4:30 pm

Senior (65+): $8 • Adult (18-64): $10 • Student (13-17): $8 • Youth (6-12): $5

Child (5 & under) – free • Family (2 adults, 3 children – max 5 people): $30

Fields of Sunflowers sounds pretty cool, and we were there exactly at the prime time for the sunflowers to bloom, so we tracked it down on got there and….meh. It was a field, it has sunflowers, but that was about it. Normally sunflowers will bloom anytime between mid-July and mid-August. The blooms look amazing for 2 weeks and then start to fade – although they still look good.

The prices to go walking through the fields was in our eyes – criminal… as was the prices for Ice Cream/Milkshakes/Gelato. That was a waste of time for us, but if you want to go, here’s the details…

Sunflower Fields Ice Cream Shoppe – Ice Cream (incl. Lactose Free) | Milkshakes | Gelato

Website: https://sunflowerfields.ca/ Open 7- days • 12pm – 8pm including holidays

Address: 886 County Road #10, Picton, Ontario

what3words: tortoise.outer.lengths // https://w3w.co/tortoise.outer.lengths

Hours / Prices – Sunflower Fields Opens at 10:00am. Last admittance at 7:30pm

Admission fees: Adults: $8/person • 2 Adults together: $15 total • Youth (5-15yrs): $5 • 4 & Under: free

Family Rate – $20.00 – includes two adults and up to 3 children/youth

Final Thoughts…

We had a great time in the Prince Edward County area and plan on returning again soon. The cottage was rustic, but not too rustic, after-all we like our comfort! Located right on the lake was really worth the travel time and we went out canoeing in the nice calm waters. It was very relaxing – just what you want when going away for a break. We barely touched what was available in the area, so you’ll never be bored there. Even using it as a base and going further afield on day trips would take months to see everything in the surrounding area. To be perfectly honest… it’s the kind of place we’d gladly move to – it’s that nice!