A relaxing cottage country view from Port Carling's Delta Sherwood Inn.

Muskoka's most famous summer playground, looks more like a movie set. Manicured lawns, vast expanses of picture windows -- and those are just the boat houses! Behind, often screened by evergreens, are huge, sumptuous homes laughingly called cottages.

Hockey's Eric Lindros owns one. So do comic Martin Short and business moguls Ted Rogers and Frank Stronach.

Ordinary folk can admire all this from the deck of Wenonah II or RMS Segwun on a two-day cruise that includes an overnight stay at one of Muskoka's storied resorts.

It's a smooth operation, thanks to an efficient and personable crew at the Muskoka Lakes Navigation and Hotel Company, which owns the vessels. Passengers are met at the dock in Gravenhurst, where there's free parking. Luggage is tagged and transported by van to the resort. Your licence plate is noted so that when you finish the cruise your bags will be waiting beside your vehicle.

The vessels leave at 2:30 p.m. and glide up Lake Muskoka to the locks at Port Carling. Passengers hang over the railings to watch the boat squeeze through and be lifted less than a metre to the level of Lake Rosseau.

The afternoon is spent relaxing in the lounge, strolling on deck, visiting the wheelhouse, and listening to live commentary.

If you're on the Segwun, North America's oldest operating steamship, there's an open engine room, all gleaming brass and pumping pistons.

Cottagers familiar with the vessels' schedules stand on their verandahs and docks and wave, and the captain sounds the horn in acknowledgment.

On my last overnighter, the crew came round several times with trays of nibblers -- spinach and cream cheese in phylo pastry, veggies and dip, water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. Someone should have reminded me that a sit-down dinner was waiting at the resort.

After a night at the resort, you reboard the next morning following a buffet breakfast. Lunch is served on board, and you disembark, back in Gravenhurst, at 5 p.m.

Six overnight cruises are scheduled this year, two in June, three in September and one in October, using Delta Sherwood Inn, on Lake Joseph, and Clevelands House and Windermere House, both on Lake Rosseau. Per-person rates range from $265 to $290.

Segwun and Wenonah II share the cruise work. Their design is similar; so is the paint job -- gleaming white with green trim -- and both sport a single red and black smokestack emblazoned with a silver M. But Segwun was built in 1887 and burns coal to fire boilers for steam. Wenonah II, launched just a few years ago, is powered by quiet diesel engines and boasts such modern amenities as air-conditioning and an elevator.

Besides the overnighters, both vessels do day trips ranging from an hour to four hours, plus brunch, lunch and dinner cruises. Most begin in Gravenhurst, but a few go from Port Carling. This year, the season runs June 4-Oct. 16.

---

The Segwun sails in Muskoka waters. The cruise boat is said to be North America's oldest operating steam ship.

BOTTOM LINE

- MORE INFORMATION: Call 705-687-6667 or visit muskokafleet.com.