This is luggage for three days and two nights.
I take my favourite pillow when ever we drive.
Easter weekend JT and I treated ourselves to a little R&R getaway up in cottage country. We received raving reviews for the JW Mariott in Rosseau from my friend/neighbour/boss, my best friend and my SIL so when we decided we wanted to go away, we thought “why not?”! So we booked a Thursday to a Saturday on the Easter weekend. This is the only time I will say this, but if you want a romantic get away, then don’t go on a long weekend, the place is packed with families and lots and lots of kids. Thursday and Friday were more couples but as soon as Saturday hit, mayhem!
The drive up through the Canadian Shield.
The Rosseau Marriott is an easy 2 hour drive from our home, but we stopped for lunch in Barrie and a little shopping at an outlet mall so it took a bit longer than expected. We decided to take an extra day and go up on Thursday to beat the rush hour traffic. Winter has been dragging its ugly feet in these parts and as we drove north we could still see remnants of snow in places.
It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive, but we stopped for lunch in Barrie.
It’s a four star, all season resort.
Our room had a little kitchenette, which was great for breakfast and cocktails.
We were told not to bother upgrading the room because the basic room was just as lovely.
The gas fireplace was a lovely touch, particularly since it was still winter at Easter!
The bathroom was spacious with a separate shower.
The bathtub could have been nicer.
The view from our room. We didn’t pay extra for the lake view, which was still covered in snow.
A real annoying thing is when a hotel (particularly one out in the middle of no where) charges $18 per day for in room WIFI — it drives me crazy. Fortunately, they offered free WIFI in the common areas, so we were able to keep in touch when we were in the gorgeous lobby. But then upon returning to our room we noticed that we hadn’t dropped the free WIFI, so if you don’t want to pay for WIFI in your room, ask for a room directly above the lobby, we were on the third floor and we had full WIFI power, FOR FREE!
The hotel was tastefully decorated in the “Muskoka” style.
Evan the chandelier looked like a giant pine cone.
There were a lot of common areas where you could just chill without having to order anything.
The hotel offers some winter sports for free, such as snow shoeing.
I almost regretting bringing my winter jacket, it was so warm in the sun.
JT enjoying the view.
Me.
Even though they had a lot of snow, it was very pretty.
The sun was so warm as it penetrated the trees.
Some of the snow melted.
Directly in front of the main doors, there is a fire pit that has a fire going all the time, all seasons. There is also a wishing pond that they collect the money once a week and donate it to a local childrens charity.
We kept the fire going for a while.
Sitting and not moving made it a little chilly, so it was lovely to have a warm fire at our feet.
A very nice walk after our snow shoeing.
The Mariott has a few restaurants and we ate at two of them; Teca was the high end dining, open for dinner only and Cottages the more casual eatery open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had a breakfast and a lunch at Cottages and the food was not overly impressive, although we met the loveliest server, Chris. The Mariott has a trading program that the allows employees to migrate to a location of choice for a short time, so Chris traveled from Barbados to Muskoka for the winter months (why, you might ask) and then in the summer he’ll head back to his regular job in Barbados! Chris truly made our experience so lovely.
For one dinner we shared the small portion charcuterie ($24). It was enough for dinner, breakfast the following day and an hors d’œuvres. Really good value and very tasty.
As for amenities, this Mariott has several pools but only one was open for the winter; they also have a great gym which we made good use of.
Other than a slight hick-up (someone forgot their swimsuit — me) we had an amazing time. I would surely recommend this Mariott no matter what time of year, but particularly in winter for it’s gorgeous scenery and cosy fireplace rooms. I will caution you that the small store has a few swimsuits but they are not great nor are they cheap. We ended up heading into Bracebridge the closest large town and I picked up a bathing suit bottom (for $5) and used my workout top as my swimsuit top. Not perfect, but not bad either. I just didn’t want to spend money on something I already had several off.
Overall rating of The JW Marriott, Lake Rosseau (in my opinion): Decor 4.5/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 3/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet) the noise was rated on Saturday night.
Disclaimer: We purchased our stay and meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.
