No Boat? No Problem – 6 Affordable Ways to Cruise Ontario’s Lakes & Canals

Story by Steven Bull Jul. 08, 2025

People get out of boating and hesitate to get back in for the same two reasons: it’s too expensive or it seems too complicated. Yet you don’t need a six-figure boat, a slip or a winter yard plan to make waves. In 2025 Ontario offers three standout “no-ownership” paths: club memberships, bare-boat canal cruisers and cottage-style houseboats, plus countless local rentals and guided tours if you want to mix it up. Each option trades sticker shock for simple pricing, zero maintenance and on-water freedom.

Read on for the clubs that keep the GTA cruising, the Le Boat cruises that turn canals into slow-travel adventures and the houseboats that float your cottage dreams.

Option 1: Boat Clubs / Boat Share

If you crave spontaneous after-work runs to the Toronto Islands or lazy putt-putts around Lake Simcoe, a membership boat club is the cleanest hack in 2025. Three operators now cover every major water hub in Ontario, and each one works on the same friction-free principle: pay a flat fee, reserve a time-slot in the app, show up to a spotless, fuelled boat—then hand back the keys and drive home dry-shod.

Freedom Boat Club

Freedom Boat Club’s Ontario footprint now stretches well beyond the GTA, giving members seven launch points across the province. In addition to the original Toronto bases at Yonge Street Basin, Outer Harbour Marina and Port Credit, the network includes Friday Harbour Resort on Lake Simcoe and a Kingston fleet slated for Collins Bay in 2025. Most significant for eastern Ontario is the new Ottawa franchise, split between Rockcliffe Yacht Club on the Ottawa River and a seasonal dock at Dow’s Lake on the Rideau Canal. A one-time membership/initiation fee (between $2500-4000 roughly) and monthly dues ($200-400) gives you access to local fleet and reciprocal access to more than 400 Freedom locations worldwide. After a free, mandatory on-water training session, members simply book online, arrive to a fuelled, cleaned Sea Ray or centre console, and pay only for the fuel they burn; slip fees, winter storage and maintenance stay with Freedom’s valet-style crew.

Carefree Boat Club

Carefree Boat Club isn’t a single-marina perk; it now runs six Ontario bases, from the western fruit belt to cottage country’s inland sea. Members can slip out of the Ashbridges Bay dock on Lake Ontario, point a bowrider into the open fetch of Lake Simcoe from Lefroy, navigate Georgian Bay’s granite maze out of Honey Harbour, drift past vineyards from the Jordan Harbour (Niagara) site, hop across to Hamilton’s revitalized waterfront, or grab a quick evening cruise from the club’s Scarborough station. Like Freedom, it’s a one-time fee of a few thousand plus a monthly membership, but this unlocks every boat at every harbour and still carries full reciprocity at 140-plus Carefree locations worldwide. Each vessel is run through a 50-point checklist before your booking, fuelled, and waiting at the dock; your only job is to step aboard, tap the fob, and go.

Skipperi – The “Bike-Share” Of Starter Boats

Expanding in 2025, Skipperi plants its Finnish smart-boat concept right in Toronto’s core: slips at Queens Quay East & Yonge, Queens Quay West & Rees, and a pocket fleet in the Outer Harbour. For a flat $399 a month, May through October, members unlock 18- to 21-foot fiberglass runabouts equipped with GPS-tracked kill-switches, digital checklists and auto-bilge text alerts. Every reservation begins with an in-app tutorial and ends when you re-snap a photo of the returned dock lines. Fuel is DIY—there’s a Shell dock across the channel—but maintenance, insurance and slip fees remain Skipperi’s headache, not yours. The brand’s target is first-time boaters who view a bowrider the way urbanites view a Bike Share cruiser: an easy, commitment-free way to sample the shoreline.

Bottom line: For less than the monthly payment on a pickup truck, each of these clubs hands you a choice of fully fuelled vessels, professional training, and zero winter bills. Decide how often you want to cast off, pick the geography that suits—Toronto skyline, Lake Simcoe sunsets, or Eastern Gap tranquillity—and let the club sweat the ownership details.

Option 2: Le Boat

Ask a Brit or a Belgian about a “boating holiday” and they’ll picture a self-drive cruiser gliding past stone villages on the Canal du Midi. Le Boat spent 50 years perfecting that model in Europe, then sailed it straight to Ontario in 2018. Today the company bases 32- to 44-ft Horizon cruisers at Smiths Falls on the Rideau Canal and Severn Township on the Trent–Severn Waterway, giving travellers a floating cottage that moves – lock after limestone lock, bridge after swing bridge.

No licence? No problem. Le Boat’s staff walk every crew through bow-thruster tricks, lock etiquette, and a hands-on trial run before handing over the keys. Max speed is 10 knots; steering feels more like parking an RV than piloting a yacht. The only paperwork you’ll sign is a rental contract and Parks Canada’s mooring-pass form.

Cost snapshot, 2025: a seven-night hire is between $4-6000 generally depending on time of year and size of vessel, but when you divide it by night and couple it’s remarkably reasonable. It’s not as luxurious as a fancy hotel, but many steps up from camping or even glamping. The boats in the Canadian fleet are the Luxury or “Horizon” line, and have bow and stern thrusters for easy operations in the locks and at the docks.

What you actually do: A true choose your own adventure. The only “must” is returning to the base by the end of your vacation, otherwise the world is your oyster. You can run long full days – you’re not allowed to operate Le Boats at night – and go as far as you can, or spend all 7 nights in the same spot. It’s up to you. On the Rideau you can head south towards Kingston or North and end up in the heart of Ottawa. On the Trent-Severn Waterway, you can’t go into Lake Simcoe but still, from the Peterborough base you can experience the two hydraulic lift lock sand hotspots like Bobcaygeon, Peterborough and the Kawartha Lakes.

Bottom line: Le Boat turns Canada’s heritage canals into a European-style slow cruise. No licence, no tide tables, no stress. If your cottage dream includes coffee on the fly-bridge, village bakeries at noon, and sunset swims off the stern ladder, this is the way to float it.

BONUS: Water Ways TV viewers can use promo code WATERTV to get a discount for your 2025 or 2026 booking!

Option 3: Houseboat Rentals

There are many options here, and many of them are on the Trent-Severn Waterway including Egan Houseboats. Egan Houseboats turns the Kawartha Lakes into a floating cottage grid. The fleet of 27 houseboats (the largest in Ontario) – 32′ to 56′ cedar-trimmed houseboats that sleep four to fifteen – comes with solar-boosted battery banks, BBQs, and GPS-linked safety tracking. Weekly rates start around $799 in May or October and run to $6899 mid-July; cookware, fire tables and pump-out are included, fuel is extra. A refundable damage deposit ($250–$1000) and a 60-minute checkout lesson are the only paperwork; no licence is required, per Transport Canada requirements. Launch from the south end of Pigeon Lake in Omemee, aim for Trent-Severn’s limestone locks, and moor wherever the loon calls.

There’s also a wide range of houseboats out there, with the newest kid on the block being one of the fanciest – from tech to trim. H2O Getaways is a passion project from two theatre folks who have a long history of boating including being liveaboards in Bluffers Park. They refurbished old houesboats with new motors, added the Ontario-made SideShift bow thrusters, and made custom helms including channel marker reminder lights. Rates are based on boat and time of year, but range from $2300 – $4500 per week. Based at Lock 1 near Trenton the “Gateway to the Trent” is often a stretch that transiters breeze right through but they miss out. Exploring this lesser-trafficked eastern reaches of the Trent means fewer crowds but the best of it all. Want seclusion? You have stretches of natural beauty for a quiet BBQ. Want to have a delicious restaurant meal and walk to the local pub? You have that as well. And without the crowds that other stretches of the Trent experience. (Sorry to the locals for sharing the secret!)

Temagami is another area ideal for houseboat renting. You can check out either Leisure Island Houseboats or Three Buoys Houseboats to book your cottage-on-the-water adventure. Lake Temagami is well worth exploring and a great place to spend a few days on your rental houseboat…just be sure to bring a fishing rod to catch some walleye or lake trout for dinner.

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Option 4 – Through 44 – Everything Else

To be honest, there’s too many variations and options to list. But if you’re heading to any waterfront community Google “boat rental” and you’d be surprised what you can find. From small fishing boats with 9.9’s hanging off the back to charter sailboats or powerboats. And there are also boat tours in the larger cities. From Windsor Premiere Cruises plying the waters of the Detroit River, the tall ships in Toronto Harbour, or seeing sunsets that rival – if not beat – Santorini and Key West aboard the Chief Commanda II on Lake Nipissing.