Kenora sits on the north shore of Lake of the Woods, a vast freshwater lake straddling the Ontario-Manitoba border with over 14,000 islands and some of the best fishing in central Canada. The town is small — around 15,000 people — but it punches above its weight as a summer destination, drawing cottagers and anglers from Winnipeg (two hours west) and Thunder Bay.
The waterfront along the lake is Kenora's best feature: the Harbourfront with its boardwalk and shops, a beach at Norman Park, and the dock for the M.S. Kenora cruise boat. Husky the Muskie, a giant fibreglass fish statue, is the town's beloved landmark and the obligatory photo stop. In summer the lake is the point — fishing for walleye, muskie, and lake trout, canoeing between islands, or just swimming off a dock at Coney Island. In winter the lake freezes solid enough for ice fishing and snowmobiling.
The town itself is unpretentious: a few blocks of Main Street shops, decent restaurants for a place this size, and the kind of relaxed pace that comes from being genuinely remote. Kenora is the only Ontario town in the Central time zone, a geographic oddity that underlines just how far west you are.