1. CTV News Cottage Traffic App
This personalized, real-time traffic reporting system is great for anyone who cottages in Simcoe County, the Muskokas, Georgian Bay, Parry Sound or Southern Ontario. To keep you safe on the road, the app provides hands-free visual and audio alerts advising you on traffic conditions along your route. It uses anonymously collected data gathered from various users to ensure you’re aware of any traffic congestion, accidents, or construction, so you can get off at the nearest exit and start traveling back roads.
2. Booze Locator (Ontario Edition)
Heading into unfamiliar territory and forgot to pack refreshments for the weekend? As long as there’s still service to download the Booze Locator app, you’ll be on the dock with a beer in hand in no time. The Ontario Edition will locate and map the nearest 20 LCBO and Beer Stores to you, and tell you which ones are open.
3. SCRABBLE Free
This one’s for all those unfortunate rainy days at the cottage. A classic cottage board game, the app comes in handy if no one else is interested in challenging your vast vocabulary, for the drive, or if your SCRABBLE board is a few letters short of the alphabet. The app lets you challenge Facebook friends, a random opponent, or someone in the same room. With a built-in official SCRABBLE dictionary, this app can also settle any word spats pretty quickly.
4. Coleman Campfire Tales
The Coleman Campfire Tales app is a collection of scary stories to be read around the campfire. Telling a good campfire story can take a lot of practice and to do it right, you have to set the mood. Luckily, some of Coleman’s stories include sound effects to make things even creepier. And while kids stories are available, there are also tales specifically for an older crowd!
5. Cottage Life
Do I need a permit to replace my cottage dock? What’s the most environmentally friendly way to deal with weeds? How can I reduce the smell coming from the septic bed? The Cottage Life app is able to answer all of these questions and more. This compilation of the most intriguing questions from Cottage Life magazine readers is packed with tons of practical, expert advice to help you cottage smarter.
6. Knots Free
How many knots do you know? While many people only need to know how to tie their laces, that’s not the case for cottagers. Whether you have to tie your boat to the dock or strap an extra load to the roof of your vehicle, this app will give you the know-how to do it. Just click on the type of knot you want to learn and Knots Free will provide you with step-by-step instructions and photos to get there.
7. Grill Guide ($0.99)
So, you’ve picked out the perfect cut of meat to enjoy at the end of a long day spent in the sun. What next? Choose your food on dadoo’s Grill Guide app and all of your cooking questions will be answered. The app will not only help you determine how long to grill your goods, but will also tell you at what temperature, and whether you should be using direct or indirect heat. The app is able to do this by measuring the thickness of your meat using the phone’s camera. This app may not be free like the others, but can you really put a price on a perfectly cooked piece of meat?
