Toronto is the city other Canadians love to find dull, and they are wrong. It is the largest city in the country, the financial and cultural engine, and one of the most genuinely multicultural cities anywhere — more than half its residents were born outside Canada, and it shows in the best possible way, in the food, the neighbourhoods, and the easy plurality of the place. It does not have the postcard prettiness of Québec City or the mountain backdrop of Vancouver, and it knows it. What it has instead is substance: world-class museums, a serious restaurant scene, a lakefront that has finally been put to good use, and the cheerful confidence of a city that no longer feels the need to prove anything.
We know this city well. We have family here and have visited many times, sometimes remaining within the Toronto area, sometimes taking trips beyond (Ottawa, Montreal, Niagra falls)
A Little Background
The land around Toronto has been inhabited for some eleven thousand years. The Huron-Wendat established agricultural villages in the region from around 600 AD, growing corn, beans, and squash; by the time Europeans arrived, the area was home to the Mississaugas, an Anishinaabe people of the wider Ojibwe nation, who had moved south from the upper Great Lakes. The very name descends from the Mohawk Tkaronto. Long before any city existed, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail — an Indigenous portage route linking Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe and the northern lakes beyond — made this a place of passage and trade, and it was precisely that strategic value that later drew European fur traders.
In 1787 the British acquired the land from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe founded a town here in 1793, naming it York. It was a muddy, modest settlement — “Muddy York” was the affectionate insult — and it was burned by American forces during the War of 1812. It was incorporated as the City of Toronto, reverting to the older name, in 1834. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries turned it from a colonial outpost into an industrial and financial centre, and successive waves of immigration — Irish, Italian, Caribbean, Chinese, South Asian, and many more — built the layered, polyglot city of today.
What to See and Do
The CN Tower is the obvious starting point and, for once, the obvious choice is the right one. For decades the tallest free-standing structure in the world, it remains the best way to grasp the geography of the city and the immensity of Lake Ontario beyond it. The main observation level sits at 346 metres; one level down, the glass floor lets you stand over a sheer drop to the streets below, which is either thrilling or appalling depending on temperament. Book online ahead of time to skip the worst of the queues, and go on a clear day — the view is the entire point.
The Royal Ontario Museum, universally known as the ROM, is Canada’s largest museum and one of its finest, with some thirteen million objects spanning natural history, world cultures, and art across forty galleries. The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal — the jagged glass-and-aluminium extension that erupts out of the original heritage building onto Bloor Street — is divisive, but the collections inside are not. If you can time it, the museum opens free of charge on the third Tuesday evening of each month from 4pm; otherwise standard admission applies and a Toronto CityPASS bundles it with the CN Tower and other sights at a worthwhile saving.
The St Lawrence Market is the city’s great food hall and one of the best in North America — a sprawl of vendors selling cheese, charcuterie, fresh produce, and the peameal bacon sandwich that is Toronto’s signature contribution to the world’s breakfasts. It is busiest and best on Saturday mornings. From there it is a short walk to the Distillery District, a pedestrianised quarter of restored Victorian industrial buildings now given over to galleries, bars, and restaurants — handsome, and pleasant to wander.
Beyond the headline sights, Toronto rewards neighbourhood-wandering more than most cities. Kensington Market is a scruffy, bohemian tangle of vintage shops and cafés; Chinatown runs alongside it; Little Italy, Greektown, and the rest are each worth an afternoon and a meal. A short ferry ride from the downtown waterfront takes you to the Toronto Islands, a car-free string of parkland and beaches that gives the best skyline view in the city and a genuine sense of escape ten minutes from downtown. And Niagara Falls is an easy day trip — about ninety minutes by road or rail — and, for all its commercial tackiness, the falls themselves remain a properly overwhelming sight.
If you’re a sports fan there’s different options. Our favourite has always been baseball and watching the Blue Jays at the Rogers’ stadium downtown.
Getting There
Toronto Pearson International Airport is the busiest in Canada and the main gateway for international flights. The UP Express train runs from the airport to downtown Union Station in around 25 minutes — fast, frequent, and far less stressful than the road. The smaller Billy Bishop airport, on the islands at the edge of downtown, handles regional and some US flights and is extraordinarily convenient. Within the city, the TTC network of subway, streetcars, and buses covers most of what a visitor needs; downtown itself is walkable.
Weather
Toronto has a full four-season continental climate. Summers (June–August) are warm and often humid, with temperatures in the high twenties and the lakefront at its best. Autumn is crisp and beautiful. Winters are cold, grey, and snowy, with January temperatures regularly below freezing — manageable, but not the season for casual sightseeing. Late spring through autumn is the comfortable window.
The Bottom Line
Mid-range hotels run roughly CAD$200–350 a night, more in peak summer and during major events. Two to three days is enough to take in the main sights and a couple of neighbourhoods; add a fourth if you want the Niagara day trip without rushing. Toronto is not a city that announces itself, but it is one that grows on you the longer you stay — a place that does the unglamorous work of being genuinely liveable, and turns out to be a fine place to visit precisely because of it.