Travel

Little beach resorts on the prairie

Soak up the summer sun and nostalgic vibes at one of these seven Saskatchewan beach resorts. (Yes, you read that right!)

Published Jun 11, 2025
Updated Jun 13
1,069 words
5 minutes

By Lola Augustine Brown

Located just 40 minutes from the provincial capital, Regina Beach has been a popular summer hangout since the 1880s. (Photo: Tourism Saskatchewan/Paul Austring)

For those yet to visit Saskatchewan, the notion of this inland province having beach resorts may come as a surprise. However, there are 43 municipalities in the south of the province designated as resort villages, set on the shores of the many lakes — some 94,000, in fact — that dot Saskatchewan. These destinations offer white and golden sand beaches, and recreation facilities run from the most basic to full-on resorts with spas, drive-in movie theatres, beach bars, and summer rodeos.

Vacationers have been visiting some of these resort villages for more than a century, and there’s an old-school feel and friendliness in these communities that draws people back year after year — and in some cases is causing the year-round population to grow. Each destination has its own special charms, but here’s a primer on some of the more intriguing resort villages in the province.

Regina Beach

Located just 40 minutes from downtown Regina, this resort village was incorporated in 1920 but has been a recreation spot since the 1880s. The BlueBird Cafe opened in Regina Beach in 1928 and has a fabulous vintage neon sign that lends a retro vibe to Centre Street, the main drag that leads right onto the beach. Shane Czako bought the BlueBird with his brother Chad in 2021 and says visitors can’t get enough of their fish and chips. “It’s a gong show in July and August, with line-ups down the street to get in,” he says, adding it’s been that way since he started working there as a teenager.

There are several other places to eat, including a beach bar and take-out spots (Sundae Times is the spot for ice cream, hot dogs, and tacos), and recreation facilities include a yacht club, golf club, beach volleyball courts, and an inflatable park on the lake.

Candle Lake

Located in the provincial park of the same name, Candle Lake is a gorgeous spot for camping and enjoying lake activities. In the summer, food trucks are set up at two of the white sand beaches, and you can rent boats. It’s an especially great fishing spot; Candle Lake is known for walleye, pike, perch, burbot and whitefish. This is a year-round recreational destination with eateries and a market serving a growing local population — according to the most recent census, it jumped from 840 in 2016 to 1,160 in 2021. The impressive Candle Lake Golf Resort is open year-round and rents snowshoes and ice fishing shacks in the winter.

Cochin

Nestled between Murray Lake and Jackfish Lake, the resort village of Cochin has a thriving summer population with cottages all along the shores and plenty of white sand beaches. There aren’t tons of services save the Dairy Shoppe for scoops and burgers, but Cochin does have Saskatchewan’s only working lighthouse.

Back in 1988, the town council was looking at ways to draw more tourists to Cochin. The town’s first mayor, Tom Archdekin, came up with the idea of building a fully functioning lighthouse. More than 40 years later, the 11.5-metre high lighthouse with views over both lakes and the surrounding farmland still “attracts a fair few day-trippers,” says current deputy mayor Greg Brown, who has been coming to Cochin since he was a preschooler and has now retired there. Brown says the village truly comes alive in the summer: “Our place is on the shore of the creek that connects the two lakes, and on a warm summer’s day your arm gets tired from waving at people boating by.”

Elbow

On the shore of Lake Diefenbaker, Saskatchewan’s largest body of water — a reservoir created in 1967 when the South Saskatchewan and Qu’Appelle Rivers were dammed — Elbow is a swinging summer spot with RV parks and campsites, motels, rodeo grounds, a golf club, and a marina. It’s also home to the Elbow Museum and Sod Shack, where you’ll find artifacts that tell the story of the area going back thousands of years, and a replica of a sod shack home typical of early homesteaders, who used sod to build their homes because wood was in such scarce supply.

Manitou Beach

This resort built around Little Manitou Lake — billed as “Canada’s Dead Sea” due to its rich mineral content and high levels of buoyancy — is the most happening of Saskatchewan’s resort villages. You can take the waters serenely inside the Manitou Springs Resort and Mineral Spa or splash about in the lake alongside billions of brine shrimp and joyful children. Manitou Beach is home to the legendary Danceland dance hall (built in 1928) and the Salty Cinema Drive-In (constructed in 1955), which hosts a busy flea market on Sundays, with vintage finds and grandmotherly types selling bags of frozen perogies out of coolers.

Two seasons ago, the village council took over the drive-in as a not-for-profit. Council member Lane Manson says if they hadn’t stepped in, it would have disappeared forever. They invested in a state-of-the-art projector and now the drive-in is buzzing on most summer weekends. “It reminds me of when I was a kid,” says Manson, who grew up in the area and moved home to raise his family there. “People are awestruck the first time they come to Manitou. It’s so chill, and everyone knows everyone,” he adds. “It’s a great community.”

Tobin Lake is renowned for its fishing — think monster walleye and northern pike. (Photo: Tourism Saskatchewan/Greg Huszar Photography)

Coteau Beach

Another resort village on the shore of Lake Diefenbaker just across the water from Elbow, but with a much smaller population (170 to be precise), this is somewhere to chill by the lake, and maybe swing a round of golf at the Coteau Beach Golf Course.

Tobin Lake

This is the spot for battling it out with monster walleye and northern pike. It’s a quiet spot for camping, or renting a houseboat, and great for those who want a rustic vacation. Tobin Lake sits on the border of the 121-hectare Nipawin Regional Park, which has facilities such as mini golf, a splash pad, a stocked trout pond, and a barnyard zoo, as well as gorgeous trails and glamping options.

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