Kids' activities
Midland with kids: a longhouse village, a boardwalk marsh, a working harbour
The family day here has three sure forms: a reconstructed Wendat village in a leafy park, a boardwalk over a marsh full of swans and turtles, and a harbour where real ships tie up. Here are the three, with their conditions stated.
Family outings, verified
Little Lake Park is Midland's inland green, a short walk south of the downtown core: a treed park on Little Lake with the Huronia Museum at 549 Little Lake Park Road inside it. The museum -- Midland's own, founded in 1947 and housed since 1967 in the town's Canada Centennial building -- holds the town's history and art collections and stands beside its reconstructed Wendat (Huron/Ouendat) village, a palisaded village with a full-size longhouse that reconstructs Wendat life before European contact. The museum describes itself as open year-round; its hours and admission live on huroniamuseum.com, never frozen here, because the listings reached disagree on the current price.
Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, 16164 Highway 12 East, is Ontario's first European community, recreated on its original site by Huronia Historical Parks: the French Jesuit mission headquarters of 1639-1649, abandoned and burned in 1649, now rebuilt as a palisaded living-history village of some twenty-five reconstructed buildings -- barracks, a church, workshops, residences and Indigenous visitor shelters -- staffed by costumed interpreters, with an interpretive museum, a restaurant and a gift shop on its surfaces. Place records seat the site in Tay Township, east of the town line, with a Midland postal address; it is attributed to Huronia Historical Parks on every mention here, never to the Town. Its published season runs from early May to Thanksgiving, daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the listings reached, with admission varying by date in a published range and children five and under free; the season's grid and rates live on saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca. For children, Sainte-Marie's farm animals in the stables, its costumed interpreters and its blacksmith's nail-making (on visitor accounts) are the draw; for parents, the conditions: a May-to-Thanksgiving season and admission read with Huronia Historical Parks.
The forms of the outing
The village day
Little Lake Park in brief: the town's inland park -- Huronia Museum (549 Little Lake Park Road, est. 1947) and its reconstructed Wendat village with a full-size longhouse; hours and admission with the museum. A palisaded village with a full-size longhouse, lookout tower and wigwam on the museum's surfaces -- Wendat life before European contact, at a child's walking scale.
The marsh day
the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, 16160 Highway 12 East, is a 3,000-acre provincially significant wetland and forest in Tay Township, run by the Wildlife Centre at a Midland postal address: some 25 kilometres of trails, a floating boardwalk over the marsh, an observation tower, a birds-of-prey area and an interpretive hall, famous for its trumpeter swans and for guided canoe and kayak tours through the marsh channels in season. The Centre's own contact page gives the working facts this guide prints: open seven days a week, 362 days a year (closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day), visitor centre 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., adult admission $12 and seniors/youth $9 on that page, guided canoe tours $8 and kayak tours $10 per person, and winter rentals (skis $18, snowshoes $5-$10). Prices carry HST and live on wyemarsh.com -- confirm there before you set out.
The festival day
Ontario's Best Butter Tart Festival is Midland's signature day: a free, one-day June festival that fills the downtown core and the waterfront parks (David Onley Park and Harbourside Park) with 230-plus vendors and food trucks. The Town's own festival pages give the scale: some 60,000 visitors, up to 300,000 butter tarts for sale in 2026, an entertainment stage all day, a Kids Zone in Harbourside Park, free shuttles and a free bike valet, and the Egg Farmers of Ontario Butter Tart Contest -- traditional and wild-style categories -- judged in Rotary Hall at the Cultural Centre. The festival has sat on Festivals and Events Ontario's Top 100 list since 2019, and the Town publishes the next edition as June 12, 2027, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on midland.ca. The Town's FAQ puts the Kids Zone in Harbourside Park, with fees for some of its activities -- the one paid corner of a free festival day.
The harbour for small sailors
the waterfront is Midland's front room: the Town Dock and harbour at the foot of King Street, where the sightseeing ship Georgian Spirit sails in season and Great Lakes cruise ships tie up on their call days, backed by Harbourside Park and David Onley Park along Bayshore Drive -- the same parks the Butter Tart Festival fills each June. Marinas and charter docks line the harbour, and the shore looks north across Midland Bay to the islands. Harbour rules, dockage and event closures live with the Town on midland.ca. A cruise-call day at the Town Dock -- a 200-passenger ship tied up below King Street -- is the harbour's free spectacle for children, watched from the public shore. The Georgian Spirit's own sailings are ticketed with the operator.
The safety paragraph, for families
Two water rules run through every family page of this guide: Georgian Bay swimming belongs to signed shores in season, with the Town's postings read for the day; and the marsh boardwalk is walked, not climbed -- it crosses protected wetland, and the Centre's own guidance governs. Awenda's beaches, as a day trip, are unguarded on Ontario Parks' accounts.
Common questions
What is the best kids' outing in Midland?
The Huronia Museum's Wendat village in Little Lake Park for hands-on history, paired with the park itself. Add the Wye Marsh boardwalk -- swans, turtles, birds of prey -- for the full nature-and-history day.
Is the Butter Tart Festival good for kids?
It is built for them: a Kids Zone in Harbourside Park (some activities carry fees, on the Town's FAQ), an all-day entertainment stage, and 300,000 butter tarts. It is also 60,000 people -- the Town publishes free shuttles and a bike valet, and early arrival is the family's friend.
Can kids paddle at the Wye Marsh?
On the Centre's guided canoe and kayak tours in season, under its own rules -- $8 canoe / $10 kayak per person including equipment on its contact page, booked with the Centre.
More to explore in Midland
The header images on this page are illustrations drawn for Dayfari, not photographs. No verified photograph of the Midland places named here (licence and subject checked) could be attested for this version, so those places are illustrated or described in text only, rather than borrowed from another town.
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