Sibbald Point Camping Review: The Pros & Cons While Tent Camping There

Sibbald Point Provincial Park is a provincial park that is located in Ontario, Canada on the southern shores of Lake Simcoe, It is 70 km north of Toronto. It takes approximately an hour to an hour and half to reach there from Toronto if traffic is moving at a normal pace.

Pros of Camping at Sibbald Point

No music area - Was really nice to be camping in an area that is considered a no radio zone. This ensures there are no crazy parties happening and you can concentrate, relax, and just enjoy nature. If however you enjoy the louder side and you want play music, be sure to keep it respectful as they have increased the rate of patrolling.

Decent showers – The showers were pretty decent near our site. First off who showers while camping anyway? Considering it’s camping, and the chance for outside dirt to get in they were pretty good. For those people who need to shower every day while camping, then no worries as you will be ok.

Beach is nice – The beaches we went too where nice and long and seemed to be plenty of space to find a spot near the water. Even during the weekend when there are more people we still had no problem finding a spot.

Power and No Power – There are power and no power sites for those who like to camp but still need electricity for cooking or if you have a trailer. Or use it if you’re new to camping and you don’t want too many changes too quickly.

Treed Lots – Although the camp sites or lots where small, I have to admit they where nicely treed. I’ve been to places where there were very few trees in and around the lots. It was the first thing I noticed when we arrived and I was impressed.

Kids activities - Hats off to Sibbald Point for trying to make it more family friendly in the last few years. I noticed there was a lot more kids things to do during the week days then the weekend, however still lots to do. Some activities for people to do besides swimming or trail hikes are educational workshops. plays or you can go see the museum. There is a lot to do just look into the activities and plan ahead before you arrive by visiting the website.

Cons of Camping at Sibbald Point

Camp site washrooms - The Washrooms could use more work or be cleaned more often. It was surprising to me the washrooms on the beach area where cleaner than those shared by my site.

Size of many sites – We got luckily and as the family needed to rent two sites to accommodate our numbers since multiple parents and kids where going. We got the sites side by side and good thing we did. If just my family went I would have found the other site way too close.

Overly shaded Lots – Although this can be a good thing when it is 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it feels like 24 under the shade of the trees, it’s a bad thing when the temperature is 25 out and feels like 19. Also so many lots had a lot of cold grassless ground because of the lack of sunlight. It might have just been in the 900’s I checked out. I think a mix of sun and shade is important.

Overall a good family experience and ended up being better than I had first though considering how close it is to Toronto and so I figured there would be ton of people and not very good. It passed my expectations. I would recommend if you like quite camping that you stick to the non radio zones, and definitely book early in the season so you can be sure you are going to get a camp site that has sun and shade. Lastly if you can, try to not camp on a long weekend or holiday weekend if it is your first time camping in this manner if you are not use to it. So get outside and enjoy camping and reconnect with nature again.