Balsam Lake Provincial Park — Hotel in Kawartha Lakes

The best thing about this was the large campsite we had booked (rv). That's about it. We were able to hear the cars on the highway near the campground as well as sirens and other "non-camping" noises, which was disappointing. The beaches were gross and extremely over packed, we stayed a week and didn't get a good chance to actually use the beach without at least 100 people there at any given time. We did all the hike paths available, and truly were disappointed by this as well. I wrongly assumed we'd get some great views, but unfortunately we only got views of lots of fields and dead trees (not the pretty kind).

The boy at the canoe rental place on Sunday August 25th was extremely rude and just terrible at any semblance of customer service. We showed up to rent a canoe and were told it was about a 20 minute wait, we said no problem. Tried to give him the money up front to make sure we didn't lose out on renting a canoe, he said he couldn't take the money until he could give us the canoe. Okay, no problem. We asked if we could wait outside, he said sure of course. We waited outside (had 2 large dogs and wanted to be out of the way), but where we could still see him and he could see us through the glass. About 10ft away from the building. Other people came and went, we went back in after 20 limited to check on it and he said he gave it away bc we left. Apparently we had to wait IN the building and it was "first come first serve". The building was small, and again, we didn't want to be in the way, and we double checked that it was okay that we wait outside IN VIEW. He refused to speak to us and just kept repeating "oh well, it's first come first serve".

All in all, there are much nicer campgrounds than balsam in Ontario and I would not recommend coming here, and will not be...

We went there mid week, August 2024. We have a large trailer and only 1 spot showed available, site 220. It was very hard to get in to, the roads were very narrow, trees so close to the corners, we could not turn into our spot. Many in that area had the same issues. There were no signs directing one to where your spot was, so it took a long time to even find the spot (parked, walking around). We had to cut through an open spot, 213, and make several back and forths to get in. The spot was very small, the firepit was under the awning, there was very poor drainage (it rained). We asked about site 213, it showed booked all week. For the 3 days that we were there, no one showed up. I doubt it was really booked. The web showed maximum 25ft trailer, I paced it, it was 25 yards front to back!!!. I imagine there were several others mislabelled and probably artificially closed, lots of sites were open in that area, no one on them. Nice lake, with boat launches and beaches. Be aware that there is one main fill station outside the gates, you may miss it. There is a second one inside. Again, maybe better signage is needed. There is only one dump pit, for such a large park. Wow. P.s. the water must be chlorinated, you can smell it. What a bummer, we waited a couple years to try this park, what a let down. Picture...

Had a great time at Balsam Lake. It was my first time being there and it did not disappoint. I used to camp regularly when I was younger but I got older and life got in the way. So when the wife suggested we go camping this year because of the pandemic I was in. As we aren't as young as we used we decided to rent a trailer from Canadream.

We got to the park and finding our site was easy because everything was well marked. We booked a lakeside site with power but our only complaint was the power pole was about 30 to 40' away and our camper's cord wasn't long enough. Luckily we thought to bring an extension cord or we would've been in trouble. (The power box is between two sites and it was right on our neighbour's site and we had to go through the trees to get to it.)

Other than that little complaint everything else was awesome. Park staff were helpful, very welcoming and the park itself was beautiful. There were lots of trails to walk on and I saw plenty of people fishing. It also was a peaceful camp, there were no loud parties or music being played at excessive volumes. It's also a dog friendly park with lots of people, us included, that brought their pet. Everyone kept their dogs under control and there was no excessive barking at any time.

All in all we had an excellent time and...