If your search for a campsite at an Ontario Provincial Park has ended in disappointment these past two years, you aren’t alone. Due to high demand in 2021, Ontario Parks has now introduced several new features to make booking your campsite easier, including a new availability notification system.
Should your desired park and dates become available within the five-month booking window, you will receive an email alert that will allow you to book within this time slot. This feature is a simpler solution for campers to stay up-to-date with cancellations, and current availability.
“Cancellations are made up to the day before someone is set to arrive,” explained Zachary Tucker, management advisor with Ontario Parks. “If you’re looking for something in August, you could keep looking from now until August. You never know what’s going to come up.”
Popular destinations like Bon Echo, Sandbanks, Pinery, Killbear, and Algonquin Provincial Parks tend to fill up more quickly than others, but other parks, such as Inverhuron and Restoule, have also been flooded with a large amount of booking reservations.
“This year the volumes are still quite high. The reservations are going well and we’re still seeing some consistency with how things were going last year,” Tucker said. “Last year was actually our record year, so we’re just behind that by approximately 9 per cent this year.”
There are a few other features available to campers who are keeping an eye on campsite openings this year, such as the new similar experiences feature. This allows campers to find the best possible alternative to their park of choice.