As someone from BC, I have always heard my friends from Toronto talk about this amazingly beautiful place called “Muskoka”. After managing to coerce persuade a few of my friends to take a long weekend to drive me visit, I then had to see where we would be staying. As a larger party of 4, I was, for once, trying to actually find a larger space. Enter in the Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf: as an all suite hotel, it was a perfect base while we explored the Muskoka.

Overview

As alluded to earlier, the Residence Inn is one of Marriott’s longer stay brands, and distinguishes itself by being an all suite (or all studio) residence with free breakfast. I do think Marriott tries to make the Residence Inn a tad more upscale than its Courtyard or Fairfield brands while maintaining a cost effective image. I had booked a 1 Bedroom Suite, 1 King, Sofa bed, No view, Fireplace, Balcony and tried to finagle an upgrade to a 2 Bedroom, but unfortunately the hotel was fully booked. That’s right, a room at the Residence Inn going for more than $500 a night. Madness during the summer travel season of 2022.

Location

For that price, the Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf has an unbeatable location right at the base of Muskoka Bay. It was steps away from an “amazing” Boston Pizza (which I thought was average), the actual Muskoka Wharf and Muskoka steamships. Which came in useful when we had to sprint to our steamship sailing because Alex got the location wrong.

Other close amenities include a Sobeys, an LCBO with local wines and the statue of Norman Bethune, a complete legend who managed to single handily save thousands of lives in Spain and China.

But the best thing was the actual lake itself, which provided for a fantastic sunset (and I am sure sunrise, if we didn’t sleep in every day).

Check In

Check in a quick affair, especially since we were rushing to go see the Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery. We were told by a kind, but stressed out hotel associate that the hotel was indeed fully booked, so no upgrade was forthcoming. We were not told that guests needed to request housekeeping the day beforehand, but we did manage to get a bunch of toothbrushes, toothpaste, along with salt and pepper (more on that later). That being said, the toothbrush was of the flimsy one time use variety.

The lobby, and indeed the entire hotel, gave off the feeling of a quaint cottage vibes, which made sense given the location. One exception to this was a computer station tucked in the corner of the hotel, just in case you had to take Friday calls from the lakefront.

And in case you have actual meetings, conferences or even wedding receptions, the hotel did have a few large meeting rooms that remained unused for the duration of our stay.

There was also someone selling boat /watersports rentals in the foyer, but being basically unemployed I had to politely decline.

After getting 4 keys, we headed up to our rooms on the 4th floor, room 410. Sadly not 420, which was actually just a few doors down.

The Room

Our 1 Bedroom Suite, 1 King, Sofa bed, No view, Fireplace, Balcony was just over 550 sqft, and contained a separate dining / living area and bedroom. This meant it was a real suite, and not once of those fake “suites” (cough One King West claiming it has suites). Entering the room, I saw my Elite Welcome Gift, which was a Hershey chocolate bar wrapped in a Muskoka wrapper. They’re really vying with Alex to be the world’s worst gift giver.

The first notable item in the room is this kitchen island, which was quite sturdy. Also, notice there is a door to the adjourning room - this can be useful for a larger group, but a bit scary if you’re not. Fortunately, the walls were thick enough that we never heard the other occupants.

Panning right, there was a table that was not suitable for work, a sofa that doubled as a sofa bed, and another chair that faced an even smaller table. There was a strong air conditioning (see the white box on the left), which was greatly appreciated in the sweltering Ontario summer.

We booked a no-view room, and while there was a view, there were trees blocking it.

To make up for that, our group spent a few hours each day gossiping building our network with wine at this table.

That, and sitting by the fake fireplace, soaking in the proverbial flames. I unfortunately did not take a picture of the fireplace, so please see below for a picture from the hotel’s website.

On a side note, this Muskoka Lakes Cranberry Blueberry Wine was quite good chilled; however, note that with 61g of sugar per liter you’re basically drinking sugar water.

Next up let’s move onto the kitchenette: this was relatively well stocked, with pots, pans, services dishes, silverware, stovetop, fridge and a dishwasher.

My friend took the opportunity to whip up a pasta dish with chicken, along with a special tomato salad. As a single guy who obviously can’t cook, I thought this was basically like watching magic being performed.

You could request additional cooking materials from the front desk, or even use the barbeques int the lobby.

The living room took up about half of the space, with the rest being dedicated to a sleeping area with a King Bed and a bathroom.

It was a bit average in terms of comfortable, but it did manage to fit 3 people. The hotel did provide us with 3 additional set of blankets, which was greatly appreciated.

In case you’re curious, see below for the sofa bed: it wasn’t that comfortable, but this is expected for a sofa bed. At least I got my own bed lol.

To the left of the bed, there was some storage room, although like a bunch of true adults we were my friends and I just scattered out belongings across the room. This was a lot smaller than the full length closet at the Hotel Saskatchewan.

The washroom consisted on a simple sink, soap and towels, and was quickly crowded by my friends who didn’t just repurpose amenity kits from their air travels.

The washroom was split into its own little section with a separate door: whilst this obviously helped with overall ambiance, this also meant that the washroom could get quite humid after a few showers.

The toiletries were of the reusable variety, and were fairly standard for a hotel of this caliber.

Overall, the room tried to blend the best elements of a hotel and a condo, and I would say quite successfully did it: one of my friends accidently kept called it a home (although her standards are pretty low).

Amenities

Besides the greatest amenity of location, the Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf had several notable amenities. First, there was the outdoor patio and BBQ, which was surprisingly not crowded when we were there.

The front desk turned on the BBQ, and we grilled some $10 kabobs from the local Sobeys. Given that we haven’t died of food poisoning, I would say the grill is quite powerful.

The hotel was thankfully quite chill about alcohol, Europe style: as long as people didn’t cause any issues, we were free to drink and chill in the cool summer air. There was also a fireplace that provide warmth, and kept away the mosquitos.

For those of us inclined to do a bit of work, the hotel has a small gym that to be honest, was not that impressive. Thankfully there’s plenty of watersports nearby, including parasailing, to keep oneself active.

There was also a heated pool and hot tub: the pool was a bit short (I am guessing like 15 meters), but the hot tub’s heat more than made up for it.

Finally, I would like to note that the hotel actually offers complementary on-site parking, along with trailer / boat parking a couple hundred meters away. Take that Seattle Bellevue Marriott with your bloody $59 parking scam fee.

Finally, I wanted to highlight that the free breakfast at the Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf was actually quite good. Most hotels at this level, such as the Fairfield Toronto Mississauga, tend to just give cold breakfasts or maybe 1-2 hot items. Thankfully, this hotel’s hot items include pancakes, waffles, breakfast sandwiches. As a sucker for breakfast sandwiches, I actually ate breakfast for the first time in a while.

There was also a cold section that included fruits, muffins, cereals, eggs, creams, spreads and oatmeal.

The Service

One of the toughest things about staffing expensive vacation destinations is that staff need to be paid well in order to well live there. Fortunately, the hotel didn’t seem to have any issue attracting talented staff. The front desk employees were very helpful in processing our requests, including salt and pepper and extra blankets. During breakfast, staff were proactive in ensuring everything was topped up and cleaned. The one thing I am still miffed by is the lack of housekeeping, although this is understandable given the sheer popularity of travel this summer.

The Point

I thought the Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf carried itself remarkably well, especially given the remoteness and popularity of the location. One of the partners at work actually lived here for a while, and I can see why: the hotel has all the trappings of home, such as kitchenette and separate sleeping area, along with the benefits of a hotel, such as occasional housekeeping and free breakfast. I saw at least 2 wedding parties there, which also explains why the hotel was sold out. That being said, it’s unbeatable location and friendly staff mean that I would recommend the hotel to anyone journeying to Muskoka during the summer. After all, look at the sunset!