Blue Mountain and Collingwood: A Day from Toronto

Blue Mountain Village and the Collingwood harbour are two different stops in two different towns. The village is at Blue Mountain Resort, 190 Gord Canning Drive, in the Town of The Blue Mountains. The harbour, the bus terminal, and the waterfront lots are in the Town of Collingwood. A day from Toronto can do one of those well. The local bus can join them after you arrive. That bus does not start in Toronto.

In short: Pick the village or the harbour as the point of the day. Use Colltrans only once you are already in Collingwood.

Two towns, not one stop

Blue Mountain Resort publishes its address as 190 Gord Canning Drive, Blue Mountains, Ontario. Its parking map shows the approach as Grey Road 19, also called Mountain Road. Collingwood's waterfront is a separate municipal shore, east of that resort road. Harbourlands Park looks west toward the mountain. It is not the village.

Walk the village if the day is about a paved centre, food, and shops. Walk the harbour if the day is about the bay. Doing both means a bus ride or a second drive. It is a transfer, not a stroll.

The opening photograph is the harbour at Harbourlands Park, with the mountain in the distance. A later photograph shows the retail walk in Blue Mountain Village. Those are the two stops. They are not one place.

When to go

Summer is the harbour season and the easy village-walking season. Winter is when the resort is a ski hill and the harbour is a short look, not a beach day. The town posts seasonal visitor parking on the waterfront. Those dates sit on the town page. Fall weekends fill the village lots. A ski day and a harbour walk are two trips, not one.

Getting there from Toronto

Highway 400 and then Highway 26 is the Georgian Bay corridor into Collingwood. The resort is past the town, on Gord Canning Drive. Colltrans does not pick up in Toronto. There is no GO train to Collingwood.

The resort's getting-here page lists FlixBus from Toronto Union Station Bus Terminal and from Toronto Pearson. That page describes the ride as a summer service. Read it for the current days before you leave a car behind.

Other full days from the city are on the Toronto day trips guide. Elora is the closer gorge-and-village day if this Georgian Bay drive is more than you want.

The local bus

Colltrans is the Town of Collingwood system. The terminal is at 28 Second Street, beside the municipal lot at Second Street and Pine Street. Three routes run in town. Blue Mountain Link, called BLINK, connects Collingwood with the Town of The Blue Mountains.

A transfer on the in-town routes is not valid on BLINK. The town says a separate fare is required between the two areas. Passes are separate as well. Fares are on the transit page. The town lists Colltrans and BLINK under accessible transit. Terminal washrooms follow the hours on that same page.

Parking

At the resort, the parking page says lot P2 at the Village is paid. The seasonal parking map marks P1A, P1, P3, P4, P5, and P6 as free day parking. P1 is at South Base, across from the South Base Lodge, and it has bus parking. Read the parking page on the day you go. The map and the paid lots have changed before. The accessibility page lists accessible spaces at the Inn, Parking Area 3, and in the Village, Parking Area 2. A government accessible-parking permit has to be displayed.

In Collingwood, waterfront visitor parking is seasonal and paid. The town page names Sunset Point Park at 79 St. Lawrence Street, Princeton Shores, Harbourview and Harbourlands at 45 Heritage Drive, Millennium Park at the end of Heritage Drive, and Collingwood Harbour. The inner Harbourlands lot is for vehicles with boat trailers. Cars use the outer edge. Rates and the exact season are on the waterfront parking page.

What to do, in order

Choose the point of the day before you park.

For the village, use a day lot the map marks for day guests, then walk to the village centre. Lifts, lessons, and the adventure park need tickets. Walking the village is free. The gondola and the hill are separate admission.

For the harbour, use a visitor waterfront lot when the paid season is on, and walk Harbourlands Park. The view west takes in the bay and the mountain. That walk does not put you in the village.

If you want both, ride BLINK between the Second Street terminal and the resort, and pay the separate fare. Do that only after the first stop is finished.

What to skip

Skip Scenic Caves on the same day. It sits up Scenic Caves Road and it is its own ticket. Skip a ski afternoon, a harbour evening, and the drive home as if they were one plan. Skip any plan that treats Collingwood and The Blue Mountains as one downtown with one parking lot.

Families and accessibility

The village paths are paved, which suits a stroller. The harbour walk is the calmer option with kids if you do not want ticketed hill time. Colltrans describes accessible service for the in-town routes and for BLINK on the transit page. At the resort, use the named accessible spaces on the accessibility page.

Cost

Walking Blue Mountain Village is free. Lift tickets and activity tickets are admission products on the resort site. Colltrans and BLINK fares are on the town page. Waterfront parking fees are on the town page. Day-lot rules are on the resort parking page. Those amounts stay on the operator pages because they change.