Canada – Toronto

Toronto, Canada

Toronto is probably my favourite city in Canada – it is such an eclectic mix of modern and older buildings, languages, city look but small town feel and public transport is so easy to use. From world class museums, to quayside restaurants, to some of the tallest skyscrapers around – it actually feels like New York in some areas – to indoor food markets, to underground shopping Malls, to waterfront lake trips, it is such a diverse community that mingles and bonds together seamlessly.   

This trip was part of a Canadian 5 city tour of Toronto, Niagara, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec before I flew to a friends wedding in Chicago.

Toronto is probably my favourite city in Canada – it is such an eclectic mix of modern and older buildings, languages, city feel but also small town and island feel and public transport is so easy to use.

Where I stayed in Toronto.

I decided to stay out at the airport as central city hotels were coming up at over double the price of an airport hotel and the airport has a very quick and easy train into the centre. My airport hotelalso had a very good discounted rate at the time so it was more than worth it for the extra time it takes to travel.

Do the maths on a central hotel versus airport and add on the daily return train fare (about $24) to see if it adds up.

UP Express train into Toronto.

I stayed at the Carlingview Hotel near the airport, which had a free frequent shuttle bus to the airport, from where I could take the UP (Union Pearson) express train into Union Station right in the centre of the city. At the airport look for the sign “Train to city” and you can buy tickets by cash or card at the station for single or return. You can buy online and get the ticket as an email print-off or put on your mobile. It becomes valid from when you use it first, so if you are worried about flight delays ,this works well.

Great modern trains with free wifi too. Journey takes 25 mins and they are about every 15 mins from very early to very late.

Hop-on hop-off citysightseeing bus.

It has a really good onboard tour person on speakers (or you use headphones) telling you what you are passing by. Remember that you can get on on/off wherever you like and includes  a wonderful, free harbour and islands cruise (Summer only).  This I thought was incredible, as you get to see island life in the harbour and have an amazing opportunity to take photos of the Toronto skyline from the water.

While on the water, it also goes past the small Billy Bishop airport on an island in the harbour and you see little turbo prop planes fly in and out overhead – and I was to take one of them from this airport, later in my long Canadian trip. I used the hop=on=hop=off bus to get to every one of my sites, so I thoruoghly reccomend it.

Toronto Citypass

Another consideration is the Toronto Citypass – click here for details. It gives you free access to 5 sites for 9 days so check if it works for you. I knew I would visit only 3 of the 5 sites so it would not have saved me more money than if I paid separately but if all 5 are on your list then it saves you 34%. It gets you in faster too as you jump the queue. However, it doesn’t give you transport use, as many other city passes do around the world .

I guess, do the maths and see if it works for you.

My first call was on my hop on- off bus from near Union Station all the way up to Casa Loma. The bus stops down the road and the walk up is like walking through a leafy residential area – which it actually is.

I, however, remember the place as a setting for the TV series X-men ! Many of the rooms are quite Baronial and castle sized with high ceilings and many are overly ornate and opulent.

Several rooms have been turned into galleries with various displays and particularly lots of paintings and photos to give you an idea of the use of the house over time and its uses. Others feel more like the libraries of old universities and public buildings, but all are fascinating. My favourite was the grand, conservatory style room. with a huge glass dome with coloured glass.

If you are a fan of the series “The Hand Maiden’s Tale” (which is filmed in Toronto, although set in the USA) you may recognise this conservatory. It was used for a grand reception of visiting dignitaries in the serries.

The gardens are still used for events and when I was there were being prepared for an outside evening presentation. The views from the terrace however not only overlook the gardens but gives you a wonderful view down to the panorama of the Toronto skyline in the distance.

He was clearly extremely wealthy and built Casa Loma in a huge castle style as his home. He also gave lots to charity, but, due mainly to WW1, he ended up bankrupt and sold the house on. It is now owned by Toronto city.

My hop on-off bus took me next to one of the two big museums in Toronto.

It is such an eclectic mix of history, geography, artefacts in superb settings. They had coloured crystals taller than me! You will need at least a few hours to see all in this great museum. Inside the permanent and temporary collections are big so do check out what is on in the temporary gallery when you plan to visit. The older part has decorated, vaulted ceilings which were an art form in themselves.

I found the Chinese section really interesting with figurines, pottery , even furniture and carts hundreds of years old and intricately displayed.

The views back to the harbourside skyline of the Rogers Stadium, CN Tower and the skyscrapers were wonderful.

The commentary on the boat told us about how people live here and commute by boat to the city and how the wait to buy a property here is many years. There are small quaysides with masses of sailing boats and small houses with the internal rivers in their back gardens.

The area was so peaceful and when the skyline is out of view and you go into a tree lined river, you would never know you were only a few miles from the skyscrapers of Toronto.

My trip to Toronto was now finished and it was a fantastic first time in Canada and enthralled me to want to explore more of this huge country. That was exactly what I was about to do on my 5 city journey along the St Lawrence River.

Next up was my train journey onwards to Ottawa the next day.

Sept 2016.