Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve — Attraction in District Municipality of Muskoka

I want to start by saying the Limberlost is a beautiful place full of amazing hiking and gorgeous scenery. That being said, I wanted to share the negative experience we had renting a cottage recently.

We stayed in the Long House cottage for a few days over the Christmas break. We arrived after a long drive, tired and ready to get settled. The Long House has five bedrooms and we promised each of our kids their own room. As they were starting to unpack, my daughter screamed that there was mouse poop on the floor in her room. Sure enough there were droppings scattered across the carpet. Of course, this was not ideal but as cottagers we understand that you may find a dropping or two. My husband grabbed a tissue and picked them up. Not a minute later from a different room my other daughter yelled that there were not only droppings on the floor of her room, but in the bed sheets as well. This led us to begin to check every room. As we looked, the excited feeling of our vacation was overshadowed by the discovery of significant mouse feces throughout the cottage. There were droppings in every one of the five bedrooms, including in the bed sheets on three of the beds. They were in both bathrooms, around the toilet and on the bathmat. Due to the mouse feces in the bedsheets, two of the bedrooms were unusable the first night. At Limberlost sheets are provided, you only bring your own blankets. You can imagine how uneasy we felt that first night, feeling we had no choice but to use the provided sheets on the remaining beds but being fearful they too contained feces that we failed to see.

Knowing the office was closed for the night, we felt we had no option but to clean up the droppings ourselves and make the best of things. Unfortunately the extent of the infestation became more apparent when we went to prepare dinner. Feces were throughout the kitchen, not only on the floor, but in several drawers and cupboards. The attached photos are of one of the higher drawers so the problem wasn't even isolated to near the floor. As there were droppings in the drawers that contained utensils and dishes, we had to do a significant amount of washing and disinfecting to be able to prepare our meal (at which point we didn't have an appetite anyway). Not only was the situation gross, but also a significant health hazard and totally unhygienic.

The next day, we told the office of the issue, which they acknowledged they were aware of and asked if there was another accomodation we could move to. There wasn't so we requested a thorough clean of the cottage and new sheets which was agreed to. In order for the cottage to be properly cleaned, it was requested that we move our stuff out of the rooms. Not a big deal but we had already unpacked once only to have to pack things back up again and have to unpack later. With kids and dogs, this was an inconvenience. We went out for the evening and when we came back the cottage had been cleaned and we were provided new bedding, and oven mitts (which had been eaten by mice). Over the course of our stay (three more nights) we continued to find feces which we cleaned up ourselves.

After our stay, my husband filled out the online form on the Limberlost website explaining the situation and requesting a refund for the first night due to the feces throughout and the kitchen and three beds being unusable. The Limberlost never responded so last week I followed up via email and phone. We felt a refund for the first night ($625) was fair considering. Not only did the Limberlost refuse to refund us any amount, they didn't apologize whatsoever for the inconvenience. Rather, they quoted us feed percentage rates in their pest control company's bait boxes which quite honestly as a customer, we don't care about. What we do care about is the fact that there was mouse fecal matter in the beds and touching food preparation utensils and that we had to clean most of it up ourselves.

Beautiful place, very disappointing customer service. An apology and any effort to make things right would have...

Love this place. Been going there for many many years. The trails are extensive and free for day use. You just drive in sign in at the registry (so they know to come get you if you don't come out ;) and hike/snowshoe/trail run ect. No cost.

The trails, in my opinion, are exceptionally well maintained. Especially the main ones. The views and lakes are gorgeous and you could spend days there are I think close to 70km of trail all together and connect to ones in the adjacent park. This is where I go when I'm going hiking instead of a provincial park. They also hold some great events like the Limberlost Challenge that I really enjoy (as long as you like trail running ;).

I've rented cabins with friends for different events over the years and had friends who've stayed longer term. I would stay and organize events there more often if the prices were lower for rentals. I have a thing against paying "per guest" when you have the cabin rented for a time frame and you pay a base rate already. So many people included but then having to pay extra to use all the beds I don't like. I would rather see a flat fee and a guest limit. If you do spring the cash to rent cabins I have really enjoyed my time there. Rustic but nice and comfortable, great for yoga retreats, art retreats, time away from it all and you have access to amazing trails and wilderness at your doorstep. Just a note on the wildlife reserve part, if you see wild animals it is luck and timing on the trails, I feel some people may be expecting animals there because of the name, you shoud know the wildlife live in the forest of their own accord, the forest is protected from development/hunting/motorized vehicles ect. The only animals you are guaranteed to see are the sculpture ones which you should make a point of seeing, the bronze horses are beautiful!

Overall love this place, there's a trail map permanently stashed in my trail running backpack because I go so often. Highly recommend . Overall 5 stars! Get out there and visit...but...maybe not too often? or it won't be a hidden gem...

Review reflects our stay Sept 2020 at Rivers Bay Cottage. This cottage is directly adjacent to a popular hiking trail with no privacy between the trail and the cottage, all the tress have been removed for some reason and no attempt to separate the trail from the cottage has been made, so prepare for a steady flow of people and dogs walking by. Also because the trail is not well marked, people were asking for directions whenever we were on our deck.

The interior of the cottage seems like it has never been updated of refreshed and everything is is old, tired, worn, and grimy. Appliances are the cheapest you can get. We had to clean the windows just to see outside without looking at finger prints and grim. The rugs were smelly, the floors sticky and there were mouse droppings in the corners. The bathroom was small dirty and smelly with no blinds on the window to shut for privacy. The second bathroom had an advertised jacuzzi tub but with the water pressure it would take half a day to fill up. Another negative is check out is extremely early at 10am barely enough time to pack up, its not like they use the time to due a thorough cleaning.

The canoe leaked, a lot, and there was only one paddle that was functionable. The lake was very nice from what we saw but really wished we could have canoed it. If you wanted to fish, they charge $60/day per person!!

The hiking trail was awesome and well maintained and on its on would give it a 10/10, but overall this place in not worth the $$ because of the filth and lack of upkeep. Just use the trails and stay...