Come for the Cottage in ‘Heated Rivalry.’ Stay for Everything Else.
Since it premiered on HBO Max in November, the queer hockey romance “Heated Rivalry” has become a cultural phenomenon. The frenzy around the TV series, produced for the Canadian streaming service Crave and filmed around Ontario on a relatively low budget, has turned its actors into breakout stars. It has also spawned trivia nights, watch parties, costume contests and no fewer than four unauthorized parody musicals.
But the real star of the show may be the secluded cottage where the rivals turned paramours, the characters Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), cozy up after hockey season ends.
The retreat is set in Quebec in the show, but in reality, the cottage sits about 385 miles west, in a Hamptons-like region of Ontario known as Muskoka, on the western shore of the lake of the same name. In the area, everything from humble shacks to multimillion-dollar lake houses is referred to as a “cottage.”
This spring, the “Heated Rivalry” cottage itself made headlines when it became available to rent on Airbnb. International bookings for lodging in the region were on track to be up 34 percent through this June compared with all of 2025, according to Val Hamilton, the executive director of Muskoka Tourism.
In December, the organization rolled out a marketing campaign, called “Come to the Cottage,” after a central question from the show, highlighting Muskoka’s hockey culture on social media and on Toronto billboards. (A similar campaign is in the works for the spring, when a second season of the show is set to arrive.)
As a serious fan of the show, I had to see the area for myself. A weekend in cottage country might sound expensive, but once you arrive, the best experiences — water-skiing shows, stunning hikes, weep-worthy sunsets — are often free.
If, that is, the weather cooperates. For my late-June visit, it was mostly crisp air and sunny skies. By mid-July, though, heavy smoke from wildfires burning in Ontario and Minnesota had choked the skies, as it has several times in recent years.
Cottagecore
Muskoka, with its rocky shores and more than 1,600 sparkling lakes, has long been a moneyed retreat. In the late 1940s and the 1950s, that changed with the rise of the automobile and the expansion of highways, opening the region to middle-class travelers.
Tax law changes in the 1980s and increased interest in nature, though, soon reversed that trend. Rising real estate values eventually pushed the average price of a waterfront home on the three major lakes of Muskoka close to 4 million Canadian dollars (about $2.9 million), according to John Fincham, a broker and a founder of the Ontario-based real estate website Finding Your Muskoka. Martin Short, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Cindy Crawford all own property in the region.
For travelers looking for a short-term cottage rental, listings abound on sites like Airbnb, CottageRental.com and Ontario Cottage Rentals. If you’re splurging, the actual “Heated Rivalry” cottage recently started at 3,040 Canadian dollars, with a three-night minimum.
The home — a two-story, three-bedroom beauty with glass walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and a central granite fireplace — was built in 2020. It sits off a long wooded driveway labeled “PRIVATE,” with nearly 400 feet of waterfront. I didn’t book the cottage myself, so I settled for a glimpse from a distance. But even with a limited view, I saw what the characters in the show must have: a cozy retreat, where they could just be themselves.
For my own stay, I went the hotel route in Gravenhurst, a historic lumber and steamship hub and a popular summer destination, opting for the Residence Inn by Marriott Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf. Rates start at around 308 Canadian dollars per night, and many of the rooms come with a lake view.
The Charm of Lake Life
A scenic lakefront path, the 1.5-mile Peninsula Trail, begins in the parking lot of my hotel and follows the shoreline. It’s a great bird-watching spot, should you want to try your hand at spotting one of the famed loons from the show.
Continuing past the eastern end of the trail, I hit the wharf, where a pair of hulking green-and-white historic steamships sit. Both vessels offer sightseeing cruises (from about 70 Canadian dollars).
Walk about half a mile farther to reach Gull Lake Rotary Park, one of the many spots to swim, canoe and kayak (check out the Music on the Barge concert series on Sunday nights from June through early September). I strolled along the lakeshore for an hour, listening to the frogs croaking and crickets chirping until sunset.
A Wild Berry Haven
Part of Muskoka’s appeal lies in the opportunity to wander outdoors without an agenda. You don’t need a timed-entry ticket to stroll the smorgasbord of shorelines, hike the miles of picturesque trails or browse the farmers’ markets brimming with fresh, local peaches and strawberries (or wild blueberry stands, when the weather warms).
I leisurely dropped by the Muskoka Discovery Center, a regional history museum on the wharf (admission is about 25 Canadian dollars). Nestled alongside exhibitions about Indigenous heritage and boatbuilding is a sizable in-water collection of classic antique wooden boats.
You can also explore the region’s reputation as a wild berry haven. Bala, a small town about 15 miles north of Gravenhurst, is known as Ontario’s cranberry capital and produces hundreds of thousands of pounds of them annually.
I drove half an hour from my hotel to Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery, a 350-acre farm in Bala that offers a guided tour of its cranberry bog, followed by a wine tasting (30 Canadian dollars). You can also take a self-guided tour of the marshland the farm calls the Cranberry Trail, which involves a three-quarters-of-a-mile walk around the fruit beds. It’s part of about six miles of trails on the property; access costs 5 Canadian dollars.
Another route, the Sandsmen Trail, goes past a “Bog Monster” sculpture with an eerie resemblance to the Demogorgon from “Stranger Things,” while the four-and-a-half-mile Superberry Trail combines four of the trails — including an ascent to the scenic overlook atop Blueberry Hill, home to the farm’s blueberry patches — and takes about three hours to complete.
After my farm visit, I drove 10 minutes east to downtown Bala, which is centered on Bala Falls, a popular summer picnic spot. On Mondays, a farmers’ market in nearby Jaspen Park offers local squash, smoked sausage and Belgian chocolates. Just north of the falls, Don’s Bakery, a local favorite dating to 1947, is known for its butter tarts.
A Hiker’s Delight
The region’s prettiest hike? It may be the Huckleberry Rock Lookout Trail in nearby Bracebridge. After climbing for about 20 minutes through forest and then across slabs of pink granite, I reached a large rock perch with an unobstructed view of Lake Muskoka. And, in a bonus for me after swarming black flies made the swampy Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve unhikeable: cool, crisp air, with nary a bug in sight.
I may have been too early for wild blueberry season, but I had perfect timing for the highlight of my trip: the free Tuesday-evening water-skiing show on Lake Muskoka in Bala. The showcases, which have been put on by the family-owned boat rental and marina business Summer Water Sports for more than 50 years, feature barefoot skiing, Jet Ski stunt routines, extreme wakeboarding and water-skiing pyramid formations from late June through early September.
Aside from the tourism campaign’s billboards, the region appears to be, as of yet, deliciously unspoiled by “Heated Rivalry” mania. (Another series, the teen drama “Sterling Point,” is set in Muskoka and recently arrived on Amazon Prime Video.) I didn’t spot any noticeable “Heated Rivalry” tie-ins like cutely named coffee drinks or pastries, branded T-shirts or specific walking tours during my visit. So you can play at being Shane or Ilya, if you like — or just sit back and soak it all in.
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