Peterborough orients itself on water before it orients on highways. Little Lake sits in the downtown basin with the Peterborough Marina on the shore, and the Otonabee River carries boaters toward the Trent-Severn Waterway. Just upstream, Lock 21 is the Peterborough Lift Lock, the hydraulic lift locals still point out as the engineering marvel on the route. City marina copy calls the place a gateway to cottage country without needing a tourism slogan to finish the thought. Summer concert series and park picnics share the same lakefront, so downtown and the water feel like one circuit.
North on Water Street, Riverview Park and Zoo is the free-admission City zoo people actually take guests to, CAZA-accredited and paid for in part through water rates. Rogers Cove and Beavermead Beach handle the swim calendar, complete with the occasional bacteria closure notice that names one beach closed while the other stays open. Ashburnham Memorial Park sits near the Museum and Archives and the Lift Lock visitor area. The Art Gallery of Peterborough and Bonnerworth Park skateboard park fill out the recreation map for days that are not about locks or lakes.
Examiner fronts mix city briefs with wider Kawarthas coverage, so Television Road load limits and landfill tire piles land beside regional court stories. On the OpenStats City Score for 2026, Peterborough sits at rank 94 of 125. Rankings aside, the hometown read is Little Lake in the middle, the Lift Lock upstream, and Riverview when someone asks what there is to do with kids.