Ask someone who has lived in Peterborough their whole life what makes this place special, and they probably will not start with the touristy spots. They will tell you about the spot down by the water where they learned to skip stones, the pub where everyone seems to know their name or their order, or the trail they walk their dog on every single morning. That is the real Peterborough!
We spend a lot of our working hours driving buyers around the Kawarthas, and one of our favourite parts of the job is watching someone fall for this city. It’s all about the small stuff that only makes sense once you live here. So this is our insider’s guide to Peterborough’s best landmarks: the well-known ones and the local favorites.
These are the landmarks locals still love!
Every town has a few icons, and Peterborough is lucky enough to have some genuinely world-class ones. Most people who live here just never stop appreciating them. These are the places we take out-of-town family when they visit, and they still make us proud.
Searching for a new place to call home, with gorgeous surroundings, a supportive community, and a ton of fun activities to enjoy all year long? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Living in Peterborough!
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
The Peterborough Lift Lock
If you only see one thing in Peterborough, make it Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway. The Peterborough Lift Lock is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world, raising boats almost 20 metres in a pair of enormous water-filled chambers. It opened back in 1904 and still runs on the same basic principle it did over a century ago, using the weight of the water itself to do the lifting.
Tip: you do not need a boat to enjoy it. Grab an ice cream, sit on the grassy hill beside the lock on a summer evening, and watch the whole thing happen. It is free, it is oddly mesmerizing, and it is one of the best cheap date nights in the city. The Lift Lock Visitor Centre fills in the engineering story if you want the details.
What else is Peterborough known for? Learn even more in the posts below:
- Free Things to Do in Peterborough, Ontario
- Is Peterborough Dog Friendly?
- Our Favourite Places to Skate in Peterborough and the Kawarthas
The Canadian Canoe Museum
The canoe is about as Canadian as it gets, and Peterborough is home to the largest collection of canoes and kayaks anywhere. It holds more than 600 watercraft along with hundreds of paddles and artifacts, and the new lakefront campus lets you get out on the water with rentals and paddling programs in the warmer months.
What surprises a lot of people is how much of the collection is about story, not just boats. Each canoe carries a piece of history about the people who built and used it. It is the kind of place you expect to spend an hour in and end up staying half the day.
Riverview Park and Zoo
This one is a genuine Peterborough treasure, and we are always a little smug when we tell newcomers about it. Riverview Park and Zoo has been welcoming families since 1933, and it is the only free-admission accredited zoo in Canada. Free entry, free parking, and a real zoo with everything from otters and wallabies to a miniature train that runs in the summer.
For young families thinking about moving to the area, this is often the moment the decision clicks. A zoo you can visit any random Tuesday afternoon without spending a cent is the kind of small luxury that makes day-to-day life here feel richer than the price of a house would suggest.
Peterborough Museum and Archives
Perched up on Armour Hill, the Peterborough Museum and Archives is easy to overlook, which is a shame because the view alone is worth the short drive. You get one of the best lookouts over the city and the lake, and the museum itself does a lovely job of telling the story of how this community came to be. It is a great rainy-day option and a good reminder that the place you are house-hunting in has deep roots.
While you are up there, take a few minutes for the Armour Hill viewpoint itself. It is a quiet local favourite for a look out over the city, and it is at its best in the evening when the lights come on below. Not many visitors know to make the climb, which is exactly why locals love it.
Incredible Parks and Green Spaces
Ask us what really sells this city and it is not any single building, it is how much water and green space you are never far from. Peterborough packs a lot of outdoors into a small footprint, and knowing the good spots is half the fun of living here.
Beavermead Park and Beach
Beavermead is the local summer headquarters, and it does not get nearly enough credit outside the city. It sits right on Little Lake with a proper sandy beach, a swimming area, picnic spots, a boat launch, and a campground that puts you minutes from downtown while feeling a world away.
Jackson Park
Jackson Park is a Peterborough institution, the kind of place families have been walking for generations. Its centrepiece is the Pagoda Bridge, a pretty covered bridge that has crossed Jackson Creek since the 1890s, and it just feels a world away from the road even though it sits right in the middle of the city.
Millennium Park
Down along the Otonabee River, Millennium Park is a lovely stretch of landscaped riverbank with a walking path, sculptures, flower beds, and even a butterfly garden. It is a popular gathering spot through the warmer months and an easy place to grab a bit of water and green right at the edge of downtown.
Trails and nature areas for every pace
If there is one thing Peterborough does not run short on, it is places to walk, run, and ride. You can string together a surprising amount of green space without ever getting in the car.
The Rotary Greenway Trail
The Rotary Greenway Trail is the backbone of the city’s trail network. Built on a former rail line, this paved path follows the east bank of the Otonabee River from Ashburnham Drive all the way up to Trent University, then carries on as a screenings trail toward Lakefield. It is flat, scenic, and endlessly beautiful.
The Trans-Canada Trail
Peterborough sits right on the Trans-Canada Trail, the coast-to-coast network that is the longest recreational trail in the world. Around here it runs through some of the prettiest parts of the city, linking up with the Rotary Greenway and the Jackson Creek trails. It feels very special knowing the path at the end of your street connects, eventually, to the other side of the country.
Trent University nature areas
Up at the north end of the city, Trent University’s campus is wrapped in nature areas and trails along the Otonabee River. These quiet paths through woods, wetlands, and drumlin ridges are open to everyone, not just students, and they are one of the best-kept walking secrets in town. It is a favourite for birdwatching and a peaceful trail in any season.
If you have guessed by now, Peterborough is incredibly scenic! Get even more details on our top parks and trails in All About Peterborough’s Stunning Green Spaces.
Harold Town Conservation Area
For anyone who likes their nature with a bit more of a workout, Harold Town Conservation Area has about 10 kilometres of trails winding over a drumlin on the east side of the city. It is best known among mountain bikers, but hikers, trail runners, and dog walkers love it just as much. The mix of open double-track and twisting single-track means you can make it as easy or as challenging as you like.
The lakes that make this the Kawarthas
You cannot really “get” Peterborough without understanding all the lakes all around! The city is the gateway to the Kawartha Lakes, and for a lot of people that connection to the lakes is the whole reason they move here, or never leave.
Running right through the region is the Trent-Severn Waterway, a historic chain of lakes, rivers, and canals stretching close to 400 kilometres from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. Just north and west of the city it opens up into the big Kawartha lakes. Chemong Lake is a local favourite for its easy access and long summer days on the water. Pigeon Lake stretches toward Bobcaygeon and the heart of cottage country. Stoney Lake, with its rocky islands and clear water, is where a lot of families have spent their summers for generations.
Are you ready to pack up and move to Peterborough? The posts below can help:
- Is a Freehold Better Than a Condo?
- Whatever Happened to the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive in Canada?
- Why Now Is the Time to Buy a Home in Peterborough
Where the Locals Eat and Drink
Peterborough’s food scene punches above its weight, and the best of it is not always the places with the biggest, brightest signs. Here are a few we send people to again and again.
One Fine Food
One Fine Food is a lovely little shop for gourmet ingredients, prepared meals, and the sort of treats you take to a dinner party to look like you have your life together! Lol. It is also a family favourite of ours. When we go out to eat, this is usually where we end up. You can never go wrong with the food, and the prices always match the quality. If you want a taste of how well Peterborough eats, this is a great place to start.
Sam’s Place
Sam’s Place is a beloved local diner, exactly the kind of unpretentious, generous-portion spot that regulars LOVE. It is an office favourite for us too. On the days we do not bring lunch, our team just walks over for sandwiches, since it sits conveniently right across from our office. We are always ordering something different, and they never miss.
East City Coffee Shop
The best breakfast-and-lunch spot locals are fiercely loyal to. Think vintage booths, bottomless coffee, and delicious home fries. Need I say more?
Agave by Imperial
For something a little more special, Agave by Imperial has brought genuinely elevated Mexican cooking to downtown George Street. The tacos and house margaritas are a 10 out of 10, and it has become a go-to for local date nights and celebrations.
The Speakeasy
For a night out with a bit more atmosphere, The Speakeasy is a downtown favourite. It has the kind of tucked-away, in-the-know feel the name promises, and it is a fun spot to introduce visitors to when you want to show off that Peterborough has more going on after dark than people expect.
Worth the Short Drive: Day Trips Around Peterborough County
One of the perks of living here is how much sits within a half-hour or so of the city. When people ask what there is to do on a weekend, these are the places we love:
Lang Pioneer Village
Just outside the city in Keene, Lang Pioneer Village is a living history museum with more than 30 restored buildings from the 1800s, staffed by costumed interpreters going about 19th-century daily life. It feels like stepping straight into the past!
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
The Petroglyphs Provincial Park protects the largest known concentration of Indigenous rock carvings in Canada, often called the Teaching Rocks. The carvings are sheltered inside a building to preserve them, and the whole park is a quiet, respectful place to connect with a piece of history that stretches back centuries.
Warsaw Caves Conservation Area
This conservation area is a favourite for families who like a bit of adventure. You can actually climb down into a series of limestone caves, then spend the rest of the day on more than 13 kilometres of trails, at the sandy beach, or paddling the Indian River. Tip: Bring good shoes and a flashlight for the caves.
Canada’s Dinosaur Park
Just east of the city in Indian River, Canada’s Dinosaur Park pairs more than 100 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs with a real reptile sanctuary of alligators, snakes, turtles, and more. It started life as the Indian River Reptile Zoo and has grown into a genuinely fun family outing, especially for kids going through a dinosaur phase.
Wutai Shan Buddhist Garden
The Wutai Shan Buddhist Garden is one of the most unexpected sights in the whole region. It is a large Chinese Buddhist temple complex inspired by Tang dynasty architecture, set across hundreds of acres with ornate halls, a towering Buddha statue, and gardens of peonies, roses, and lavender.
Kawartha Settlers’ Village and the Bobcaygeon Farmers’ Market
The town of Bobcaygeon is a lovely reason to point the car north. Kawartha Settlers’ Village is a collection of more than 20 historic homes and buildings that bring the area’s pioneer past to life through the summer months. Time your visit for a Saturday and you can pair it with the Bobcaygeon Farmers’ Market at the fairgrounds, running May through October, for local produce, baking, and that small-town weekend feel the Kawarthas do so well.
Heritage Blooms U-Pick Flower Farm
Over in the Norwood area, Heritage Blooms is a pick-your-own flower farm where you can wander rows of hundreds of varieties of flowers and build your own bouquet. It is a newer addition to the county’s growing list of agritourism stops, and a genuinely lovely way to spend a summer morning. Well worth following their social channels, since the picking season goes with the blooms.
The real reason these places matter:
Landmarks are what draw people to a city. The everyday version of those landmarks is what makes them stay.
When we show homes around here, we are really showing a way of life. A house is a house, but a neighbourhood with a free zoo, a world-record lock, a lakefront beach, and a diner worth being loyal to is something you cannot get anywhere else in Ontario. That is the Peterborough we love, and it is the one we would be glad to introduce you to in person!
Curious about what life in Peterborough could look like for you? Our Peterborough real estate agents know these neighbourhoods inside and out and would love to help you find your place in the community. Reach out to team@jeffandkatie.ca or call 705-243-9797 to start the conversation today.
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