We have been fortunate to call Toronto home for a combined 30 years. Toronto is an amazingly cosmopolitan, multicultural world city. It is also a city of neighbourhoods, and many of the city’s greatest joys only reveal themselves after years of exploration. Unfortunately it can be quite daunting to new visitors, being so spread out. We’d like to share with you some of our favourite places in the city. Check back again – we will keep adding to this page as our wedding date approaches.
For Visitors to Toronto
If this is your first time in Toronto, and if you’re only going to be in town for a few days, here are a few ideas of destinations and attractions you can visit to get a taste of what Toronto can offer.
Parks
A distinctive feature of Toronto is its extensive park system, including a large network of connected ravines, lush urban oases, and destination parks like High Park, the Toronto Islands and the Rouge River.
High Park is the city’s gem. It is easily accessible from the High Park subway station on the Bloor line. Grenadier Pond in the centre of the park is home to ducks and swans, and is surrounded by everything from cherry trees and landscaped gardens to productive marshland. A small train carries seniors and young families through the park. Tucked away in the centre of the park is even a small zoo (featuring fun creatures like peacocks, yaks, llamas and other assorted ruminants).
The Toronto Islands are another fun park complex. Most of the city’s distinctive skyline shots are taken here, including ours above! It is accessible by a short 15 minute ferry ride from the terminal located just south of the Westin hotel (a short walk south of Union subway station). Stepping away from the bustling crowds at the Centreville childrens’ amusement park, the rest of the islands are peaceful and quiet. Since there are no cars on the island, the best way to get around is by rental bicycle or quadricycle. The islands have plenty of lush parkland, a neighbourhood of quaint cottages, a number of great beaches (including a world-famous nude beach on the west side – you’ve been warned!) and even a Frolf course!
Culture
The Gardiner Museum is a small and elaborate ceramics and pottery museum with some fascinating small pieces, and can be seen in 1-2 hours. Nearby is the Bata Shoe Museum, a small and fun museum about … shoes!
The recently expanded Art Gallery of Ontario near University Ave and Dundas St has a good collection of Canadian art, as well as the Thomson collection, a truly incredible assortment of miniatures, religious relics, model ships and other oddities.
Neighbourhoods
Chinatown and Kensington Market are immediately adjacent to each other at Spadina Ave and Dundas St. As the oldest of Toronto’s three (!) Chinatowns, Spadina Avenue is the home of a huge variety of grocery stores, import shops, housewares vendors, and an assortment of other neat retailers. Where else would you find not one but two flag shops? The smell of fresh mushrooms and dried fish is always in the air here. A short walk north-east is the bustling Kensingon Market area, home of busy (and affordable) delis, bakeries, coffee and spice shops, a dizzying variety of ethnic food stores, and numerous reasonably priced restaurants. It is fun to just walk around and take in the sights here. Check out the fabulous vintage shops on Kensington Avenue, grab a coffee at Moonbean and a hot double (a tasty Trinidadian snack) at Patty King, sit down for some Mexican food at El Trompo or have some delicious pie at Wanda’s Pie In The Sky.
Queen Street West is a long but varied and rewarding stretch of city. Starting at the outdoor-shopping-mall area around Spadina, the street undergoes through numerous transformations as it continue west to High Park. Always busy with foot traffic, there is a little bit for everyone, from interesting independent art galleries, chic (and expensive) shops, trendy bars and cafes, and quite a few good restaurants too. Once a dingy and downtrodden street with shuttered stores and beggars, over the last twenty years it has been an endless source of amusement to see the steady westward wave of gentrification. These days, to catch a glimpse of the traditional Toronto hipster try the Queen and Ossington area by day, and Queen and Brock further west by night. Just a little further west are a few remnants of the old Queen Street, with used appliance vendors, fruit and vegetable merchants, dollar stores and fabric shops, although they might not be there by this time next year.
The Annex neighbourhood is located along Bloor Street from University Avenue in the east to Bathurst Avenue to the west. Always busy with lively street traffic, it is a popular hangout spot for students from the University of Toronto. We both spent many hours in the various restaurants and cafes in the area. Future Bakery at the corner of Bloor and Brunswick is virtually the unofficial dining hall of UofT, with good honest food (especially the pierogies and schnitzel), good beers on tap, and a nice selection of pastries and desserts. Mt Everest restaurant is our favourite Indian restaurant in the city, specializing in Himalayan cuisine. The Green Beanery cafe at Bathurst sells green and a huge variety of roast coffee (including some exotic and quite expensive varieties), coffee and espresso machine, all kinds of fun coffee-related doodads and coffee pots, and they also make some fine and reasonably priced coffee in the in-store cafe. Try the Yemeni Mocha or the regular coffee. The beautiful Victorian red sandstone houses in the Annex are also a highlight. Take a walk along the streets north of Bloor, like Walmer Rd, Bernard Ave, or St Albans Square.
The notorious Green Room is now thankfully closed – the cheap beer and Pad Thai were great attractions as a student, but not so much the scurrying rats and health violations.
For the Locals
Even if you’ve grown up in Toronto, there are dozens of little spots in the city you might never have visited. We’re still discovering new places too! Here’s a list of some of our favourite lesser-known spots. If this is your first time in the city you might want to check out the attractions listed above instead, since some of these are not easy to access.
The Toronto Zoo, the world’s second largest zoo, is a great spot to spend half a day. Located in the north-east corner of the city, it is not easily accessible by transit. Near the zoo is the enormous Rouge River park, a massive and nature park that functions as a protected channel for migratory birds travelling through Ontario. It even has a real beaver pond! There are several great trails through the park, and the view from the hill (a rehabilitated garbage dump) is outstanding. Also nearby is the Guildwood park, a former grand hotel and artists’ colony and now the final resting place for Toronto’s old architectural elements. The park sits on the Scarborough bluffs, and the view over Lake Ontario is breathtaking.
The Toronto Dominion Centre is the cluster of black office buildings on both sides of Wellington St west of Bay St. Together the buildings are considered the crowning achievement of the renowned Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, although surprisingly few Torontonians are aware of the significance of the buildings. A great way to take in the complex is by taking a tour during Doors Open Toronto in May; this is the only way to visit the top-floor executive boardroom, which affords incredible views of the city. The former Toronto Stock Exchange building, a dramatic art deco masterpiece, was included in one of the buildings in the complex. Today the stock exchange is part of the Design Exchange, a small but dense little gem of a museum. Ask the DX staff if you can visit the stock exchange floor, and marvel at the sleek aerodynamic design, the progress-and-industry murals (including such hits as “Smelting,” “Refining,” “Pulp and Paper” and “Agriculture” – O Canada indeed!), and the fluorescent lighting – the world’s first! Or you could wander through the subterranean PATH complex linking the TD towers to the rest of the downtown core and marvel at how the TD buildings got so right what the other newer complexes (dark, labyrinthine and mall-like) got so dreadfully wrong.
In the far north-west corner of the city sits the BAPS Sri Swaminarayan Mandir, a classical Hindu temple. This impressive complex has two star attractions – a central open area in the main temple building decorated in elaborately carved teak, and a stunning white marble mandir built in the last few years with the effort of the local community. Check on the website for visiting hours.
