Pineaires Resort — Hotel in Trent Lakes

Pinaires is a dangerous hillbilly trailer park full of belligerent drunks and lax owners.

The lake is nice (stick to the left, gravelly side from shore, because the right side has deep, oily mud), and i always appreciate a place that has a rec centre with staffers running activities for the kids.

However, certain rules (like no smoking on the beach) didn't exist there, and others (like no glass containers on the beach) weren't enforced. Neither were any noise restrictions. We spent our first night there with one of our kids literally crying because she couldn't sleep with all the drunken hooping and hollering from a neighbouring site. That same night, at 3 in the morning, our site was beset by snarling raccoons that had no apparent fear of people, suggesting to me that the seasonal trailer folks might be too familiar with them, and feed them. Although the place does have showers, they are coin-operated. The picnic tables are in disrepair, and see-saw dangerously when you sit on them. This doesn't sound like a big deal, until you factor pots of boiling water and pans of hot bacon grease into the equation.

A monster truck was parked in front of the office most of the time, near a campsite with a novelty sign saying "Harley Parking Only - all others will be dragged off." The ZZ Top-looking owner's son came to the office desk shirtless. If this place sounds like your speed, more power to you, but the whole feel of Pineaires was way off for us.

At one point at around 7pm, a drunk guy from one of the trailers stumbled onto our campsite and started berating my friend for driving too fast past his trailer. He wouldn't leave when we asked him at first politely, and then more insistently. His more sober wife had to walk him off, but not before he made a few vague threats of harm. We had four children on our sites, and began to feel unsafe.

Later, the drunk's equally tipsy friends walked past our sites, and my wife overheard them saying "guess what's gonna happen to THAT car tonight?" i confronted them and asked what they had meant. They were evasive. i said "what do you mean? Is that guy gonna key my friend's car in the dark?" "No, no - nothing like that." "What? Slash the tires?" "Yeah. Probably more like slash the tires."

i flagged down the now-shirted owner's son, and brought him into the dispute. He was noncommittal and seemed somewhat afraid of his seasonal drunk locals who - let's face it - were his bread and butter (while we were just single-weekend tenters passing through). We felt very threatened and entirely unsafe, and after that whole exchange, we decided to strike our site at 10pm at night in the pouring rain with our four frightened children, and get the Hell out of Dodge.

Avoid this place at all costs, unless you want to star in a Dukes of Hazzard episode that slowly turns into...

Unfortunately, the new owners seem to be in over their heads. The park used to have a fabulous reputation but customer service has declined significantly to the point I have found them to be utterly incompetent. Hopefully, the new owners will learn better business, organizational and time management skills in order to be successful in their new endeavour.

Edited to respond to Pineaires' response: I am not disappointed about not having a site at your resort as you did call to offer me a seasonal site. You also indicated availability in our email correspondence - so lack of availability was never the issue. The disappointment stems from your inappropriate and unprofessional dealings with me and with the collection of personal information used for that which it was not intended/provided. I had told you when you called to offer me a seasonal spot that I was no longer interested. I had found another spot at another (amazing) resort as I decided you were not the type of owners with which I choose to do business. Your response to my review is therefore misleading (false!!) about the events that transpired between us as there was never an issue of no site available and had no relevance to my review. Rather, I found your behaviour was inappropriate, unprofessional and ignorant. Kindy review our correspondence and reflect on our conversation - all of which was BEFORE the season started. Again, I do hope you are able to learn better organizational, time management, and customer service skills in order to be a success with your park. However, based on what I've seen of the park and my dealings with you, it is not a resort that I would recommend in any way. And that is why I declined your offer of a seasonal site (which had always been available based on our ongoing correspondence) - and still prior to the camp season.

I contacted six parks altogether. Three had availability (one being Pineaires who told me all along they did have availability) and three did not. This is the only negative review I've left. It has absolutely nothing to do with site availability. I would never fault a camp for being full. That would...

Spent 5 days at pineaires with our tent trailer. This place is cash only..no debit. During our stay it seemed very noisy..alot of ATV and gators being driven by park staff. We were on the main rd. Beach is small but it was sandy and had a nice floating dock. Was a great place to launch our kayak which we left at the beach. It was safe and people are friendly. There is new play equipment for kids. There is a little fishing dock if you dont have a boat.

We rented a canoe $7/hr or $40 day which are located behind the house..canoe paddles were in need of repair as they had duct tape on them and stuff was all left sitting outside including life vests.(perhaps this could all go inside)

The office has ice for $3 bag,worms and wifi wood is delivered to your site for $8/load The rec hall didnt have much but some old empty fridges, storage and a motorcycle inside.

They have 1 bathroom building with laundry and showers for 25 cents. Woyld be nice to see an outhouse near the beach. The lights in the shower area never worked and bathrooms were very dirty and not cleaned daily. Toilets look like they came from the 60's and are all cracked.

There was a potluck and street dance on the saturday. It was amazing and was all quiet by midnight. The sites are nice and all have electric and water. The people are friendly and the staff are very accomodating if you need something. There is a free boat launch and the lake is crystal clear.

It is a 5 min ride to buckhorn where u can see lock 31 and try kawarthas dairy ice cream.

Overall we enjoyed this park We recommend staying away from the main rd and hope they will upgrade the washrooms. Bring sandals or water shoes for the shower its...