Highland View Resort

The kids caught fish right off the dock, and the owners were friendly and easy to get along with. We rented several cottages for Thanksgiving weekend and had a great time together. Everything felt warm and inviting, and the cottages and grounds were extremely clean. I'll be back with my family for years to come!

The owner moved quickly when the door on our lakeside cottage wouldn't close or lock. He gave us another place beside the pool, with a great view, and made a sincere effort to help my family feel welcome. That was a much better start after the first impression. The bed was extremely uncomfortable for me, actually painful, and I couldn't wait to get home to my own bed. The cottages are simple and quaint, but some seem to need care and are falling apart. Ours was good enough for the stay. The grounds are beautifully landscaped, with some cottages along the lake and others up the hillside. Rice Lake has a lovely panorama and rolling, green hills, but there's a lot of seaweed, marsh and lily pads. I wouldn't recommend swimming there. Getting on a pontoon to fish for a while, though, was an absolute joy. The clean saltwater pool was nice, but about 75 percent of it was too deep to stand in, at 7.5 feet. We didn't use the sand volleyball or basketball courts, though both were well maintained. The basketball net was too high. Highland View Resort has lakeside cottages, hillside cottages with lake views, and RV spots. I'd highly recommend it as a place to get away from the city and disconnect. It's not luxurious, and doesn't seem meant to be. You can relax and find something to do by the lake, around a fire, or at the pool.

The children could play at the park while we kept an eye on them from the larger firepits, which made the layout especially handy for our family. We rented the resort for Thanksgiving and had a great time. The cottage decks also gave us lots of nice lake views, and canoes came free with the rental for fishing or exploring. The cottages had heat, a welcome bonus that time of year. The people running the place were friendly and quick to deal with any issues. A couple of cottage roofs need work, and we lost water pressure completely twice, but the owners came out and fixed both problems promptly.

Whenever I visit Ontario, I always pop in. I grew up on the trailer side of highlandview, where my grandparents had a seasonal spot. Mike and Art are both amazing people, and the views here are great. Rice lake is a great fishing lake. I'm planning to come back to Ontario in summer 2023 with my young family to show them where I grew up. I'll definitely be looking for a weekend booking.