Near Blue Mountain
A rental near Blue Mountain, and nowhere near the village.
The Collingview sits west of Blue Mountain on open country above Georgian Bay. Close enough to be on the first chair, far enough that the evening is yours.
Check winter availabilityThe thing nobody tells you
Most of these hills you cannot ski.
Drive the escarpment between Thornbury and Collingwood and you will count six ski areas. Five of them are private. Georgian Peaks, Craigleith, Alpine, Osler Bluff and Beaver Valley are member clubs with waiting lists, and no amount of asking at the gate will get you a lift ticket.
Blue Mountain Resort is the public one. It sells day tickets, rents gear, runs a ski school and sits on the Ikon Pass. It is also, for exactly those reasons, where everybody goes.
We mention this because people book a house near the escarpment assuming they can pick a hill in the morning, and that is not how it works here. If a member is hosting you, wonderful. If not, plan around Blue Mountain and buy tickets ahead.
The hills, plainly
Who can ski where, and how far it is.
- Blue Mountain Resort
- Public. Day tickets, rentals, lessons, night skiing, and a village at the base with restaurants and bars. On the Ikon Pass. About 25–30 minutes from the house. The default for any visitor.
- Georgian Peaks
- Private member club, and the closest to the house. It is one of the three things named in the property’s own 360-degree outlook. The longest vertical on the escarpment. Members and their guests only.
- Craigleith · Alpine · Osler Bluff
- Private member clubs along the same face, running east toward Collingwood. No day tickets.
- Beaver Valley Ski Club
- Private, in the valley south of the house. Smaller and family-oriented, and again members only.
- Cross-country and snowshoe
- No membership needed. The Georgian Trail runs flat and wide between Meaford and Collingwood, and Scenic Caves has groomed Nordic trails and a suspension bridge above the valley.
Village or country
What you give up, and what you get back.
Staying in Blue Mountain Village means you can walk to dinner and leave the car for two days. That is a real advantage, and if it is your first trip here it may be the right call.
What you give up is quiet. The village is designed to be busy. It is busy at Christmas, busy in March, and busier than people expect in July. Accommodation is mostly condominiums, which means shared walls, shared lifts and a small kitchen. For a group of ten that is a lot of negotiation.
Half an hour west, the trade reverses. You drive to the hill. In exchange you get a whole vacation home on two and a half acres with nobody through the wall, a kitchen with a fifteen-foot island that a group can cook in, four bathrooms so nobody queues at eight in the morning, and a rooftop terrace with a fire and a hot tub for the part of the day that happens after the skiing.
Both are valid, and both get called luxury. We are only useful to you if you want the second one.
Not only winter
The hill in summer is a different hill.
Blue Mountain does not close in April. The village runs an open-air gondola, a mountain coaster that runs most of the year, a ropes course and a long programme aimed squarely at families with children who need tiring out.
Nearby, Scenic Caves is the better half-day: crevice caves you climb down into, a suspension bridge over the valley, treetop walkways and a zip line. The Georgian Trail runs thirty-four kilometres of flat old railway line from Collingwood through Thornbury to Meaford, which is the easiest cycling in the region.
Summer here is busy. If you are coming on a long weekend in July, book dinner before you arrive, not after.
It also works as a base for a company booking. An executive retreat near Blue Mountain usually means people arriving from different directions, and this is an easier meeting point than the village — there is parking, and nobody is walking through a resort to get to dinner.
Where to eat near Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain Village · 25 to 30 minutes
- Tholos · 170 Jozo Weider Blvd
Greek and Mediterranean, in several dining rooms. Takes group reservations. Good for a group. - Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill · Westin Trillium House, 220 Gord Canning Dr
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with private dining. Takes reservations. Good for a group. - Northwinds Brewery · 180 Jozo Weider Blvd
A brewpub pouring its own beer, with pub food and a patio.
Craigleith · about 20 minutes
- The Alphorn · 209881 Highway 26
Swiss, German and Austrian cooking — schnitzel, fondue — for more than forty years, from breakfast on. Takes reservations and events. Good for a group.
Checked September 2026 against each restaurant’s own website. Hours change with the season, so check before you go, and book ahead for a group on a weekend.
Planning a trip to the hill?
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. We will tell you honestly whether the house suits the trip, including if the answer is that a condo in the village would suit you better.
Keep reading
- Ski and winter staysThe house in winter: the fires, the drying space, the drive, and a season taken whole.
- ThornburyThe village directly below Georgian Peaks, and the closest place to eat.
- CollingwoodThe bigger town east of the resort, and what it is good for.
- The wider regionGeorgian Bay, Grey County and the Beaver Valley, season by season.
- Winter without skiingThe resort, the spa and the Nordic trails, for anyone not on the hill.
- Where to stay near Blue MountainThe village, Collingwood, Thornbury or Meaford, compared fairly for each kind of trip.
Drive times on this page are ordinary-conditions estimates rather than measured door-to-door times, and they stretch on a winter weekend. Ticket prices, pass rules and club membership policies change every season. Check the resort directly before you plan around anything on this page, and see how we quote for what a winter week here involves.