Tee Off in South Georgian Bay: A Golf, Food and Long Weekend Guide to Collingwood and Blue Mountain
By Dave at Back Nine Living.
If you golf and you live within a couple of hours of Toronto, South Georgian Bay is the trip you keep meaning to take and never quite book. Here is the case for finally booking it.
The very short version of where to play and where to eat, because the list is almost endless, is this: Collingwood and Blue Mountain give you four very different courses, four tables worth a reservation, and so many short term rentals that nobody has to fight over the last hotel room.
This is not a bucket list pilgrimage. It is a Thursday to Sunday escape for the player who still wants a test on Saturday and a cart with a cooler on Sunday. Let me walk you through the golf, the food, and where to put your head down between rounds.
How do you get there, and when should you go?
About two hours northwest of Toronto, which makes a long weekend easy and a day trip a bit silly. Drive up Thursday evening and you have three full mornings of golf before you head back to the city.
The golf season runs roughly May through mid October. One date to circle: Monterra closes for aeration around mid September, and I would recommend checking their website directly for exact dates. If your trip lands that week, book your Blue Mountain round on either side of it. Everything else in the area stays open.
Which golf courses should you play around Collingwood and Blue Mountain?
Four, if you have the legs for it, and they are deliberately different from one another. One easy resort round, one playable round in town, one scenic local favourite, and one championship card for the day you feel ambitious. Here they are in the order most groups play them.
Monterra Golf, right at Blue Mountain Village
This is the round most visitors play, mostly because it sits steps from the Village and your lodging. Monterra has rolling bent grass fairways, 86 bunkers, ravines, creeks and elevated tee shots, with GPS on every cart.
It is public, you book through the resort, and the public tee sheet opens 30 days out. For 2026, green fees run from $99 midweek to $145 on a summer weekend, with the cart included. Worth knowing: memberships are sold out and the waitlist is full, so this plays as a true visitor course now. You will not be squeezed off the Saturday tee sheet by members.
Cranberry Golf Course, in town in Collingwood
If Monterra is the resort round, Cranberry is the friendly one you can walk to from your room. It is a par 71 of about 6,600 yards, recently refreshed with new holes, tee decks and bunkers, threading past Georgian Bay views right in town beside the Living Stone Golf Resort.
The selling point for our crowd is that it is playable rather than punishing. You can post a respectable number and still make your dinner reservation. And no, despite what one careless listing online claims, it is not a 19 hole, par 17 course. Somebody had a long day at the keyboard.
Duntroon Highlands, up on the Escarpment
Duntroon bills itself as Ontario's highest golf course, and it says it has been voted the number one public course near Collingwood and Blue Mountain three years running. Those are the course's own claims, but the par 71 parkland layout through mature forest on the Niagara Escarpment earns the attention either way.
The view from up here is the whole point, and the elevated tee shots photograph better than your swing probably does. There is a grill on site for a post round plate, so you do not have to drive far to settle the bets.
Raven Golf Club at Lora Bay, west in Thornbury
This is the championship card of the group and the reason to point the car west to Thornbury. It was co designed by PGA Tour winner Tom Lehman and Canadian architect Thomas McBroom, stretches past 7,000 yards from the back tees at par 72, and runs past old barns and orchards on the way around.
Before anyone panics, there are five sets of tees, so the friend who hits it 210 off the deck is not stranded back with the long hitters. It pairs perfectly with lunch on the harbour, which brings us neatly to the food.
If you have a fifth round in you, two more earn a look. Blue Mountain Golf and Country Club is the area's established semi private club against the Escarpment, more of an if you can get on. Batteaux Creek in Nottawa is a roomy par 72 with five tee options for the group that wants one more crack at it.
Where should you eat in Collingwood after golf?
You eat as well as you play here, which is not always true of golf country. The plan that works: downtown Collingwood for the special dinner, the waterfront for the view, and Thornbury for the post round lunch.
The Tremont Cafe, downtown Collingwood
This is the special dinner pick. The Tremont was named to OpenTable's Top 100 Restaurants in Canada for 2025, which is the sort of line that ends the argument about where to book Saturday night.
Expect refined, Mediterranean leaning cooking and tasting menus in an intimate downtown room. Reserve well ahead. A Top 100 room does not have a quiet Saturday.
Georgian Bay Surf Club, downtown Collingwood
The fun room with the younger energy, on Hurontario Street. The theme is global surf, which sounds like a stretch in a town two hours from any ocean, and somehow works.
Octopus and bone marrow tacos, poke bowls, an East Coast lobster roll, plus a bar and a surf shop under one roof. Good for the night the group wants noise and a long menu rather than a hushed tasting menu.
Lakeside Seafood and Grill, on the water
Collingwood's waterfront spot, on the marina at the Living Water Resort. Seafood, steaks and a patio with a view of the boats, plus live music at weekend brunch.
This is the view pick, the one you book when somebody in the group announces they want to look at the water while they eat. Sunset over the marina does most of the work for you.
The Port Tavern, on the harbour in Thornbury
Part of Mark McEwan's group, right on Thornbury Harbour, with a big patio over the water and Georgian Bay in front of you. The menu is elevated tavern: a double smash burger, BBQ spiced pickerel, and the kind of plates that pair well with a round at Raven a few minutes away.
We shared the Tuna Sashimi Bomb to start and I the Baja Club sandwich as my main. Both were delicious and I must say that the French fries were perfect. I paired it all with a cold Cowbell Smooth Sailing Light Lager and my meal was complete.
One honourable mention: the Village at Blue Mountain
Not a single restaurant but a cluster of them within an easy walk of each other and most Village lodging. Here is the angle that earns its spot. If dinner involves a couple of glasses of something, the Village lets you walk back to your bed instead of drawing straws over who stays sober to drive. Every golf trip has that negotiation. The Village quietly settles it.
Where should you stay?
Short answer: wherever is closest to the course you care about most, because short term rentals blanket this area and you are not short on options.
A few recognized anchors. At Blue Mountain Village, the Westin Trillium House and the Village Suites at the Grand Georgian put you steps from Monterra and the Village restaurants. In Collingwood, the Living Water Resort and Spa and the Living Stone Golf Resort sit on or beside Cranberry. In Thornbury, the Royal Harbour Resort is the closest base for Raven at Lora Bay.
If none of those fit the group or the budget, VRBO and Airbnb list everything from in town condos to chalets near the hills. With a foursome or two, a rented chalet often beats separate hotel rooms on both price and the quality of the post round arguing.
Common questions
How far is Collingwood from Toronto? About two hours northwest by car, which makes a Thursday to Sunday golf trip very doable.
When is the best time to golf in Collingwood and Blue Mountain? Roughly May through mid October. Just note that Monterra closes for aeration around mid September, September 14 to 16 in 2026, so plan that round around it.
Which course is best if we are not all big hitters? Cranberry in town is the most playable, and Raven at Lora Bay has five sets of tees so shorter hitters are not stuck back with the bombers. Both keep the round fun rather than punishing.
Do we need a cart at Monterra? Yes. All Monterra rounds include a motorized cart, and you need a valid G licence to drive one because of the road crossings.
Where should we book the one nice dinner? The Tremont Cafe downtown, named to OpenTable's Top 100 Restaurants in Canada for 2025. Reserve well ahead.
The bottom line
That is the weekend. Four courses for four moods, four tables worth the drive, and a Village that will happily settle the designated driver debate for you. Book the trip you keep putting off.
More from Back Nine Living: whether golf is good exercise in retirement, why a push cart might be the best gear upgrade you have not made yet, and how golf quietly helps with the loneliness that can sneak up in later life.
See you on the back nine.
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Dave is the founder of Back Nine Living, a golf and lifestyle site for players over 50. A lifelong golfer, he writes about golf, fitness, gear, travel, and the second half of life from his home base in Ontario, Canada.
Sources, verified in March 2026: Monterra Golf 2026 rates and aeration dates, bluemountain.ca/things-to-do/activities/monterra-golf. Cranberry Golf, livingwaterresorts.com/golf. Duntroon Highlands, duntroongolf.ca. Raven Golf Club at Lora Bay, lorabaygolf.com. The Tremont Cafe and OpenTable Top 100 Restaurants in Canada 2025. Georgian Bay Surf Club, georgianbaysurfclub.com. Lakeside Seafood and Grill, lakesidegrill.ca. The Port Tavern, mcewangroup.ca/the-port-tavern.