Mattawa River Resort and Cardinal Restaurant

We took our entire family, including my sisters and cousins, and everybody in went and stayed at the resort for a week. We had from ages one and a half to 75! This is the most beautiful place in Ontario! The views are spectacular the amount of things to do for the kids and just hang out steps away from your cottage is absolutely brilliant! Dave is great for bookings and the owner of Nicole is an absolute gem! I love this place in my family will continue to return for years to come! You can’t beat the spot for families. Everything you need is included for fun, your 10 minutes from town if you need some supplies. The cabins are rustic, but charming. The river is beautiful for swimming in and the fishing so much fun. Thank you for keeping the dream of Mattawa river resort alive! Sarah

We're having a wonderful stay! The resort features about a dozen cabins, a lodge with a restaurant, and a delightful waterfront which draws kids like a magnet.||We're here with extended family, so we're in 2 separate cabins. The cabins are rustic but clean and all have a working kitchen which we used to prepare home cooked meals. ||On our first night, we all ate at the restaurant. The service and food were very good.||The resort is on the Mattawa River. The setting is very natural and quiet. My partner and I took a canoe and headed upriver (west) - at some point the river split into 2 arms, and we took the left one which goes under a metal bridge. it was a quiet morning when we were there, and the water was clear (as always) and mirror smooth. As we paddled along the steep-banked and rocky south shore, the reflected scenery was impossible to distinguish from its reflection - except that the reflection ws upside down. There was also a pretty little waterfall tumbling down the steep slope into the lake.||The waterfront features a shallow sandy beach, a dock, and a bouncy trampoline. There is a fire pit ringed with wooden benches nearby which was used for evening campfires, and several communal sitting areas to hang out in.||One thing to note is that this resort could be challenging for people with mobility issues. It wasn't an issue for us (people ranging in age from their 20s to 60s) but could be for some.

We spent a lovely week here. We stayed Sunday to Friday, so can’t comment on what it is like on a busy weekend. It’s a great place to unplug for a while. No TV. Some 5G so you can catch up on news and stream music. It was so nice to have peace to reconnect with our kids and their partners. The scenery is wonderful, and the river is good for swimming. The kids went kayaking a couple of times. The service we got from Dave, by text was really good and friendly. We are low maintenance people, but he helped us quickly when we needed it. Everything worked and the back deck was brand new. Mattawa is a lovely town with the best poutine I’ve ever had. |I can’t comment on the restaurant, because we didn’t try it. |So why not five stars? Well, overall the resort needs some work. It hasn’t fully recovered from COVID yet, but they seem to be doing their best. If they work on it, it’ll be five stars in the future.