Ottawa residents love a good day trip, and a recent Instagram reel from local account @ottawaisnotboring is giving people a new reason to make the drive to Sandbanks Provincial Park, about three hours southwest of the city.
Waves you wouldn't expect from a lake
In the reel, the creator captures Lake Ontario on a windy day at Sandbanks, with waves rolling in that look far more like ocean surf than typical lake chop. As the caption puts it, "It will always be Lake Ontario" (@ottawaisnotboring), a nod to just how convincing the scene looks on camera.
The creator, who grew up in Lima, Peru along the Pacific coast, says the wind and horizon at Sandbanks triggered genuine flashbacks to home, right down to conditions strong enough to make surfing culture make sense on a completely different coastline.
Why Sandbanks keeps pulling in Ottawa visitors
Sandbanks Provincial Park, located near Picton in Prince Edward County, is best known for its towering sand dunes and freshwater beaches, but it's this ocean-like unpredictability that seems to be catching people off guard. Lake Ontario is large enough that wind can whip up genuine swell, and the park's open shoreline puts visitors right in the middle of it. For anyone used to calmer inland lakes closer to Ottawa, seeing whitecaps roll in at this scale is a bit of a surprise.
It's also a reminder of how varied a single day trip from Ottawa can be. The drive down through Highway 7 and into Prince Edward County trades the city's urban core for wineries, beaches and, apparently, waves dramatic enough to make a Pacific-coast native feel at home.
Planning your own trip
Sandbanks is a popular enough destination that summer weekends can mean packed parking lots, so an early start or a weekday visit is worth considering for anyone heading down from Ottawa. Wind conditions can change quickly on the open lake, so the same waves that make for a stunning reel are also a real safety consideration for swimmers.
Whether or not the comparison to Peru's coastline holds up in person, the reel is doing exactly what a good travel post should: making Ottawans reconsider a spot just a few hours from home.
Source: Instagram reel by @ottawaisnotboring, posted August 27, 2026.
