I am an international tourist and it was my first time to the world acclaimed National Park. Well, we did not make it into the park. It was just two of us in a rental car and we drove more than 3 hours hoping to spend a stress free time in the outdoors. While searching Parks online I saw Bruce Peninsula and decided on a trip on Mother’s day weekend 10-11 May 2025.
Firstly, we were targeted by the police while driving [because we were] black. Imagine this officer was heading in the opposite direction and he turns around after seeing us and came up behind us and stopped us. That police officer targeted us and he knew exactly what he was doing ticketing the driver, especially since trucks and large SUVs and other cars were definitely not going at 80km/hr, and we were just reading the road with other motorists as we travelled in single lane traffic hoping not to go too slow and be a nuisance on the road.
Even while the officer stood there taking our information other motorists were speeding over 80km/hr along on the stretch of road and he seemed to not care about that. He did not care that we were tourists and it was our first time there either.
Secondly, we were told at the entrance that the fee was $30.00 to visit the National Park. There was no signage with pricing so we did not know better. We were just visiting for a couple hours and not a whole day. We said we were not there to camp just to see the natural beauty and de-stress for a couple hours. Clearly the [staff providing customer] service was uncomfortable and it felt strange to get the stares and uncomfortable silence at times.
Even in the shops the exchange was passive aggressive towards us.
I plan to give my review of the visit to Bruce Peninsula to other tourists. It was certainly a stressful weekend since we never got into the Park and all the racist undertones were glaring.
Bruce Peninsula served poor customer service and an even worst tourist experience.
Thank you to the guy at the Waterview on the Bay Resort – with his excellent customer service, he saved the day on our weekend trip to Bruce Peninsula.
Lesley-Ann Tull-Waldron
