Toronto Tourism - Travel to Toronto
Toronto is the largest city in Canada. It is located in (and is the capital city of) the province of Ontario, which is Canada's largest province.
The Toronto Skydome and Tower, as seen from the harbor.
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Understand Toronto Tourism
In the late 1990s the city of Toronto was amalgamated with several surrounding cities and boroughs - Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke, York, and East York - to form a new city of Toronto. This is also known as Metropolitan Toronto or "the 416" after its area code (although now there are some new minor area codes, the overwhelming number of phone numbers in the new City are "1-416...") and has a population of 2.4 million people. Fully half of these were born in some country other than Canada - a fact obvious to any visitor immediately, as the city has many vibrant bustling neighborhoods with street signs in several languages.There are also several suburbs surrounding Toronto, such as Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill, Markham, and Pickering. Collectively, these suburbs are called the Greater Toronto Area (or GTA). They are also known as "the 905" after their area code, although technically this code is also used in both Hamilton and the Niagara Region, stretching to the border in Niagara Falls. The entire area including Toronto is known as the "Golden Horseshoe" and has a population of 6.7 million people.
Toronto is often referred to as the New York of the north, particularly by Torontonians. While many, particularly New Yorkers, will rightly laugh at this comparison, there is a grain of truth to it. New York exists on a decidedly different level from Toronto. However, if one were to imagine that Toronto was built as a prototype for New York, before they built the real thing, then that should give a proper understanding of the comparison and similarities between the two cities, although trips to both will be required before it properly sinks in.
Get into Toronto
Toronto can be easily reached by rail, road or air. Pearson International Airport is situated about 45min. by car from the downtown core and is serviced by most major international carriers. There is a daily train from Chicago in the USA (a short trip but with a very long customs delay built in at the border), and if you prefer to fly you can be there in less than an hour. Clearing customs however often takes just as long as the flight.
Get around in Toronto
Toronto has a good system of public transportation, and you can get pretty well anywhere you want in the main part of the city with the subway / streetcars / buses. Public transport is clean, safe and cheap. Taxis are plentiful and safe, but not cheap. As with most big cities, driving a car downtown can be annoying; parking is often hard to find and expensive. Take the subway or a streetcar instead. If you need to get out of the city, the GO Trains (commuter trains) go out to the outlying areas.See Toronto
- Skydome (sports stadium)
- Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame
- Toronto Islands
- Toronto Zoo (hard to get to by bus and subway from the downtown area)
- The CN Tower (tallest free standing structure in the world!)
- The neighborhoods - Queen Street West, Yorkville, Cabbagetown, The Danforth, Chinatown, Yonge Street, Church Street. These are the soul of Toronto, and a must-see for tourists.
- Royal Ontario Museum. 100 Queen's Park (Tel: 416-586-8000) You are bound to learn a lot about natural and human history. The third floor is dedicated to the history of human civilization and the second floor is more or less about natural history (with a section on dinosaurs and good exhibits on insects and on bats.) Sneak a peak with free admission to the regular exhibits on Friday evenings when the museum is open late.
- Ontario Science Center. Excellent science museum.
Toronto has several major league sports teams:
- The Toronto Blue Jays, Major League Baseball
- The Toronto Maple Leafs, National Hockey League
- The Toronto Raptors, National Basketball Association
Toronto has a great theater scene for every taste and budget. Check out the big theaters on King Street for the big splashy (and pricey) shows like Chicago, The Lion King, Les Miz, Cats, etc. Small theaters in the Annex and elsewhere offer smaller productions that range from original Canadian works, avant-garde, experimental theater, and small budget musicals to British murder mysteries.
Buy
Yonge Street is the longest continuous street in the world. It runs from the edge of the Lake right to the edge of the province! The in town end is a touristy-shopping district with many restaurants, souvenir and gift shops etc.
- The Eaton Center. Situated near the lake end of Yonge Street, the Eaton Center is the largest shopping complex in downtown Toronto. Located just across the street from the famous The Bay department store, the Eaton Center is full of shops. Located within its walls are two well provided food courts and a mix of expensive high class stores mixed with smaller family run businesses.
Located a short walk west of the Eaton Centre is the city's fashion district along Queen St. West, an area usually bustling with local hipsters looking for the latest looks in a variety of trendy stores.
Eat - Travel to Toronto
Toronto is generally considered to be one of North America's top food cities. It has the same variety as New York or San Francisco, many places are open much later, and the compact and relatively safe downtown keeps them closer together. The immigrants make them authentic, and the Canadian dollar makes them cheaper. If you eat out in Toronto and have anything less than a superb meal for cheap, it's your own damn fault:
Budget
Queen Street West
- Several places serving superb polyglot East-West Indian "roti" curry wraps scattered between Palmerston and Spadina, on the North side of the street. Get it hot, don't miss the point.
- A bunch of great sushi places that are pretty reasonably priced (to say the least): Sushi Time, Sushi On Bloor, and a few more that you can spot by strolling between University and Spadina on Queen. Try The Swan for scrambled eggs with oysters for brunch.
Spadina Chinatown
- King's Noodle, Spadina and Dundas, an authentic Chinese noodle joint, great selection of congees, chow mein, fried noodle in generous portions. Sit at a big round table with a bunch of other patrons happily slurping and chewing. Open to 2AM
- The Swatow, east side of Spadina north of Dundas, more upscale noodle joint, smaller better portions, same round tables, more crammed-in ambiance. Cantonese cuisine, rather than Szechuan, so not as spicy. Open to 3AM
- Peter's Chun King, south side of College just west of Spadina, best for lunch, great peanut chicken and ginger shrimp lunch for under C$6. Also famous for their orange beef (very spicy) and garlic eggplant (scary looking, but delicious).
East End
- Dozens of souvlaki and other Greek specialty joints on The Danforth. Great coffee. Great dips. Great soups. Great salads. Infinite quantities of bread and water restocked and refilled with no complaint (Greek tradition).
- More Chinese restaurants on Gerrard Street just east of Broadview. Best: the Pearl Court, more of a midrange price, but well worth it, especially for the many vegetarian dishes, oyster and scallop appetizers on the shell, hot noodle.
- Literally any of the Indian Buffet joints on Gerrard Street near Hiawatha (the rumor that Indians were deliberately settled near here is still just a rumor)
"The Annex"
- Future Bakery near Bloor and Brunswick, amazing bread selection, and they don't mind if you buy two big fat loaves of bread to dump them into your one bowl of soup. True cheap move: Ask if you can get the bread for the "day old" price. When the cashier protests that it's fresh, say "yeah, but, THIS IS THE FUTURE." Sometimes if Communists are working the cash (all clerks are Russian immigrants it seems), you might get some free coffee they were about to throw out. Of the coffees, the Macadamia is the best. Also serves a complete cheap breakfast all day and until closing around 2am.
- El Basha Falafel, Sarah's Falafel and Aida Falafel on the south side of Bloor Street west of Spadina; Grilled vegetables and chicken are also good choices here.
- Swiss Chalet on Bloor Street at Markham, technically fast food, but sometimes you get tired of authentic, get it take out and eat it in the park, with lots of the great spiced gravy. This is a chain, so be careful where and when you go; service has been known to be slow and food bad. It's generally all right, though.
- Excellent vegetarian and falafel in tiny joint right beside Bloor Cinema, called Gazzele, in which conveniently you can patronize while standing in line just outside.
- By The Way Cafe across from Futures at Bloor and Brunswick has a very popular patio in clement weather, as well as good food with daily specials at decent pricing. The weekend brunch specials are especially good and you can stuff yourself on a specialty omelette with all the sides for under $10.
- Aunties and Uncles at the extreme south end of the Annex neighborhood, at 74 Lipincott Street where it meets College St, is a jam-packed little cafe very popular with the young local crowd for it's simple yet sophisticated, and cheap, eats. Also a very popular weekend brunch spot with patio. Only serves until 4pm, closed for dinner.
- Sushi! If you like sushi and can live with cheap sushi, than the Annex is the neighborhood for you. The Bloor St West strip in the few blocks between Spadina and Bathurst plays host to no less than four, sometimes five, sushi restaurants. All are quite popular and have their own devotees.
- Juice for Life on Bloor St just west of Brunswick is considered one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the city. This means that vegetarians LOVE the place, while non-vegetarians sometimes find the food barely edible. Reactions vary widely between these two poles. Although very successful, the restaurant is currently undergoing a re-branding and may change it's name in the near future.
- Kensington Kitchen just south of Bloor on Harbord Street, just west of Spadina, is another popular destination for vegetarians. They offer a delicious Mediterranean influenced menu that also caters well to meat-eaters. Pricing is reasonable.
- Free Times Cafe on College St, two blocks west of Spadina, offers a fabulously traditional Jewish Sunday brunch at the south end of the Annex. From 11-3 every Sunday, the owner welcomes guests for an all-you-can-eat buffet of traditional Jewish dishes (bagels, assorted fish dishes, French toast, croquets, blintzes, danish, pickled salads, etc). Very popular, currently costs $16.95 per person. Arrive early in you don't want to wait, reservations essential for groups larger than 4. Don't eat the night before and wear loose pants.
- Pizza! The Annex is home to what are widely regarded as many of the best pizza joints in the city, most specializing in take-out slices, though they will deliver as well. All are open quite late, well into the early morning. These include Cora's and Papa Ceo's on Spadina at Harbord, just south of Bloor. Debate rages as to which of these two offers the better slice, though Cora's is the original. Pizza Gigi on Harbord St, east of Bathurst, south of Bloor, is very good and quite popular despite somewhat disconcerting open kitchen facilities. Amato Pizza on College St, west of Brunswick, offers a very wide selection of slices and is open every night until 4am.
- 24 Hour Groceries - The Annex also offers two of the downtown's only 24-hour grocery stores (rather than the more common but higher priced 24-hour mini-marts). There is a Dominion supermarket on Bloor St just west of Spadina, and the Bloor Super-Save is only one block west of that. Dominion is frankly a mediocre grocery store, despite being a major chain, and the independent Super-Save survives only a block away by offering an often better selection at better prices, particularly in fresh fruits and vegetables which are notoriously poor at Dominion, no matter how perfect they appear on the shelf.
Downtown Core
This area is generally considered a culinary wasteland. However, new places with good food are constantly opening and closing. Some good old standards:
- George's Chicken, Dundas east of Sherbourne, open to 2AM, whole barbecued chicken and fries with gravy. No seating. No whacking people ahead in line.
- Pickle Barrel, 312 Yonge Street N. of Dundas. A large menu of North-American cuisine. It also has a selection of dishes from further afield, their take on traditional English fish and chips is a nice surprise using halibut instead of Cod or Haddock. Reasonable prices, decent food but nothing fancy. Nowhere near as much fun as any of the above places.
- Reb Lobster, 20 Dundas Street W, inside the Atrium On Bay center. A large and friendly restaurant serving mainly seafood but cooking up many other dishes as well. Good service and food makes this restaurant a pleasant eating experience. Moderately priced. A word of warning though their margareta cocktails are considerably larger than the pictures on the menu would have you believe.
- C'est What, Front Street at Church. Affordable, eclectic menu and an amazing selection of microbrews, including the house specialties Coffee Porter and Hemp Ale.
Boy Town
The gay district centering on Church and Wellesley is one of Toronto's biggest tourist attractions. The restaurants often suffer in tourist districts, this is no exception. If you have to eat here, the take-out often beats sit-down, and you get to walk. Several good "sub" joints north of Wellesley on Church.
- Garage Sandwich Co at 509 Church St, north of Wellesley, is one of these. Offering excellent and eclectic home made sandwiches, they aren't cheap, but they aren't unreasonable either, for the quality.
With what you save on lunch, spend a bit more and eat dinner at Pimblett's, a charming fixture on Gerrard just west of Parliament (number 263). Beer is great, menus are pasted into old copies of Punch, and in the basement pub, you can see a portrait of the owner, Geoffrey Pimblett, dressed up luvly as Queen Victoria.
North Toronto
- Thai House, Eglinton and Dufferin. Lousy decor. Astonishing Tom Som Gai.
- Granite Brewery, Mount Pleasant just south of Eglinton - beer brewed in house.
Splurge
- Gio on Yonge south of Eglinton - the sign is a great big nose. Lovely.
- Movënpick Marche, at the downtown end of Yonge Street. This is a French marketplace-style eatery. Enter the main building, and look for a large open terrace with tables. Food is cooked fresh at stations and charged on a meal ticket (paid at the end of the meal). It's not cheap, but it's delicious! This is the sort of place where you can sit for several hours nibbling and chatting, but be prepared for a sizeable bill at the end. $5-$10 (per dish)
- Latitude, 89 Harbord St. (Tel: 416-928-0926). Open daily for lunch (brunch on the weekends) and for dinner Mon-Sat. A nice little restaurant whose young cook has novel ideas and wonderful desserts. The intimate atmosphere, first class service and freshly prepared food are well worth the $17-$25 for a main course.
Drink
Downtown
- The Madison is just north of Bloor West in the Annex, on Madison St. A very popular meeting place and singles bar populated by young single professionals, frat boys, and preppy university and college students. They also serve food but do not expect to find a table if you do not arrive early, despite several floors and an extensive patio.
- The Brunswick House, on Bloor St west of Spadina, is the closest thing to a campus beer hall in Toronto. Famous for its long weekend line-ups (no matter what the weather), watered down beer, live bar-rock, and very impatient bouncers. Caters to frat boys, college football players, party girls who like cheap beer, and associated hangers-on. Not recommended for people outside those groups except as a social observation experience. Warning! Do not so much as stand up unexpectedly if you wish to avoid instant expulsion by the bouncers, who are famously proactive in dealing with theoretical trouble-makers. Recently renovated after decades of neglect.
- College and University student pubs, it should be noted, are largely non-existent in Toronto. Due to the location in the active downtown of most colleges and the University of Toronto, students have traditionally gravitated to the multitude of bars nearby rather than school-hosted pubs. Certain faculties and student residences may have local favorites, but these often change from year to year. One of the few longstanding pubs is called Suds--basically a Friday-night pre-pub-pub run by the University of Toronto's Engineering Student Society. Expect zero ambiance, but plenty of cheap beer -- located at the basement of the Sandford Fleming Building, 10 King's College Road.
- Lee's Palace and the Dance Cave on Bloor St west of Brunsick in the Annex. Lee's is one of the premier performance venues for current live music, catering to a wide range of tastes. Bands play almost every night of the week and ticket prices at the door range from $2-$25 generally, depending on who's playing. The Dance Cave, upstairs from Lee's, is a dance club that runs almost every night of the week, leaning towards house/goth/industrial music. Of note is that the age range in the Cave is unusually broad, so if you are 19 or approaching 40 and like to dress up in black and go dancing, you won't be entirely out of place.
- The Bovine Sex Club is a Queen St. institution at 542 Queen west of Spadina. It has no sign or visible window, but can be recognized on the north side of the street by the large selection of metallic junk welded together as what passes for their sign. It caters to an extremely eclectic crowd of people - some with mohawks, some who wear their mohawks inside their head - and plays an eclectic range of music. If you are not scared by the term 'punk' then you should be right at home. Note that the 'Sex' in the bar's name is purely provocative - this is not a strip club or swingers bar.
- The Horseshoe Tavern is another Queen St. W. institution just east of Spadina, which specializes in quality modern live music. Assorted bands and artists perform almost every night of the week, at a range of ticket prices. Although the name suggests country and western, the entertainment rarely has any relation to that genre, falling instead into the broad category of Alternative Music.
- Grossman's Tavern on Spadina, 3 blocks south of College St, on the east side, is a very unassuming hole-in-the-wall that hides it's truth as one of the most respected blues joints in Canada. Many legends have played this room. Live musicians play most nights of the week. Very casual, almost rustic, if an urban dive bar can be such.
- The Rex Hotel and Bar on Queen St West of University Ave is the foremost jazz and blues venue in the city. Live music plays most nights and afternoons. Although it had somewhat of a makeover not too long ago, it is also somewhat of a dive, being a hotel in the 'shared washroom' sense. Although the owners are dedicated, the money just isn't there for jazz and blues the way it used to be.
- The Silver Dollar Room, on Spadina Ave just north of College St, is last but not least amongst bars catering to jazz and blues in downtown Toronto. The musical acts tend to range wider here, into folk and rock as well as the aforementioned. Live music most nights of the week. Note that this NW corner of the Spadina/College intersection can be somewhat off-putting due to the large contingent of homeless people congregating near the adjacent Scott Mission. Do not fear unnecessarily beyond normal caution, the homeless are almost invariably harmless. Instead, keep an eye on the patrons of the nearby Comfort Room bar, who can be sometimes initially mistaken for homeless and can be dangerously rowdy.
Contact
Toronto has two area codes: 416 and 647. These area codes overlap. That is, they are both associated with the same geographic area. The suburban areas outside of the city also have two overlapping area codes, 905 and 289. As a result, Toronto has 10-digit local dialing. You must always dial the area code as part of the number you are trying to reach.
Toronto is a city with many internet cafés, especially on Yonge Street. It's not hard to find a place to call home and the costs are relatively low, from $3 for 30 minutes. However, currently internet cafés are opening and closing in T.O. at an astounding rate so on repeat visits to the city you may find that the one you used last time has disappeared.
Get out
Toronto is a great starting point for exploring southern Ontario. The Niagara Region, including Niagara Falls and Niagara on the Lake, is less than an hour's drive from Toronto towards the United States border at the Falls. The Waterloo region to the west has colleges and culture, and Muskoka, north of Toronto, is cottage country, with country inns, lakes, and parks.
