Last week my husband and I spent a couple of nights in this lovely cabin, which belongs to the hospitable and generous Joy and Scott Sutyla. If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to read this whole review, we loved it, recommend it and would go back. Click on the picture to go to their website and book your own getaway.
We left Winnipeg on Wednesday afternoon, and after a quick drive on Highway 15, we arrived in Elma to find this adorable surprise waiting for us. 
We definitely had to chuckle at the “Great Escape” – this was our first childless foray in nearly two decades, and we enjoyed every minute of it.
The cabin was built by Scott over the past winter, using a prefabricated package from Estonia, of all places. It looks like it was made from wooden Lego, and it is beautiful, airy and very clean. There is a lovely screened gazebo by the Whitemouth River, with canoes, kayaks, fire pits, and anything active people would want. Check out the photo gallery on the website for pictures.
The cabin is fully equipped with linens, towels and a full kitchen, but we went out for lunch and dinner. For our first evening, we went to the nearby service station, which had a restaurant called “Big Al’s”. The food was fresh, yummy and made from scratch, with gorgeous sweet potato fries. We were lucky to get in as it is now closed for renovations.
The next day we spent in Whiteshell Provincial Park, driving around, hiking and enjoying excellent food in various places.
We ended up having dinner at Sophie’s Restaurant in Hadashville. I still feel that somebody made a serious typo in naming this town. If you are going to name a town after me, please have the decency to spell it properly. Luckily the food at Sophie’s, also fresh and mostly made from scratch, made up for the aggravation.
Because nothing is ever perfect, I do have to mention that the trains going by on the nearby line were a little distracting, especially when the drivers felt a need to lean on their horns at 5 am. However, there weren’t that many of them, and they were certainly not a deal breaker.
The rates are very reasonable for the value. There was also an opportunity to use the hot tub for $120 (which includes a completely emptied and refilled tub, with two days of chlorination before you arrive), but we chose not to explore it this time around.
In conclusion, we will definitely be going back there, probably dragging our children along this time, if we can get them to look up from their screens. Check out the website and be sure to book soon, because they are quite full up over the summer. However, they are planning to stay open over the winter, so there will always be a chance to enjoy the charms of winter on the Canadian Shield.