Canada’s largest city in terms of population and area, Toronto is built on the banks of Lake Ontario. 1 among the 5 great lakes of North America, Lake Ontario is so huge that you really can’t see the other side of the lake. It feels like a sea. Also it’s so big and deep that it doesn’t freeze even in Canadian winters. Naturally, Toronto’s downtown is set on harbor-front.
We visited Toronto as part of our South East Canada trip. It was always on our agenda of any North American travel, as much as Seattle. After all, we associated Toronto more with my dear Aunt & family than anything else. Understandably our main agenda was to spend time with family. But we also wanted cover the major tourist attractions. We knew that though it was our first, it wasn’t the last of our trips so we could afford to go slow, and take it easy.
As we prefer to do, we used the local metro and LRT extensively. Our verdict was that it wasn’t as good as in Vancouver or Singapore, forget London. But the metro is quite good within Toronto city limits and partly GTA (greater Toronto area).
Some of the local attractions we visited were:
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| CN Tower observation deck's glass floor |
CN Tower: Once upon a time this was the tallest free standing structure in the world. When you think of Toronto sky-line CN tower stands tall and strong in the picture. This is a communications and a 360° observation tower and 1 of the main tourist attractions of Toronto. The view from the famous CN Tower over looking the harbor is delightful but one has to hope for a clear day for this. The observation deck also has a glass floor. Taking a picture of the ground far below while standing on it is a must-do.
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| Harbour Front |
Harbor-front: The water front has been utilized to the fullest for the pleasure of visitors and citizens of Toronto. Shops, bars and restaurants are anyway a given in such a picturesque setting but harbor-front also boasts of a music garden (reflection in landscape of Bach’s music), boardwalks, skating rink and being epicenter of Toronto’s art & culture.
Old York: Also known as the old town flanks current downtown Toronto. It is home to a lot of landmarks such as St. Lawrence Market, St. James Cathedral, Oldest post office, etc.
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| Swaminarayan Temple |
Swaminarayan Temple: This Hindu temple is worth a visit mainly due to the elaborate and intense architecture. People from as far as India were brought in for the sculpting work.
St. Lawrence Market: This market is in the heart of old York. A very vibrant place with lots of different types of shops (delis, bakeries, meat, food, knick-knacks, etc), it also hosts weekly farmers’ market and antiques market.
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| St. James Cathedral |
St. James Cathedral Church: Part of downtown and close to St. Lawrence Market, this church is a good example of gothic revival architecture. Built in the 18th century, this church stands handsome adjacent to a beautiful park where pigeons and orchids are aplenty… in summer.
Toronto’s first post office: Apart from being a full-service post office, this is also a museum of Canadian postal history. As a tourist attraction, one can write a letter with a quail pen and seal them with wax just like the old times. Unfortunately this place was closed when we visited.
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| ROM |
Steam Whistle Company: Situated bang opposite the CN tower in downtown Toronto, Steam Whistle is a microbrewery with an attitude! An environmentally conscious brewing company, Steam Whistle has indeed one of the best pilsners in Canada. This place has a brewery tour, samplers and great take away options, including a briefcase of beer – now beat that!
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM): Museum lovers should set aside AT LEAST a day for this. It is the largest museum in Canada and 1 of the largest in North America. It is a museum of anthropology. We spent an entire day and covered probably only half of the museum.
Though we couldn’t make it the following local attractions due to lack of time, it sure is on our TO-DO list for our next visit:
Toronto Islands: These islands are on Lake Ontario and in front of Toronto’s harbor. These numerous small islands has the city airport on 1 of the islands, a host of beaches, a children’s amusement park, a yatch club and is home to art, culture, flora & fauna.
Bata Shoe Museum: Yes, this is a shoe museum and which Indian would’ve imagined Bata to be a Canadian company! But of course, Bata is own by a Czech. This museum is situated very close to ROM.
Kensington Market: Is one of Canada’s national historic sites and is also a multicultural neighborhood of Toronto. It has variety of good restaurants, shops, galleries, discount stores, etc.
Some of the day trips or short trips one can take from Toronto are Niagara Falls, 1000 islands, Kingston and Ottawa – All are within 4-5 hours of driving. We could visit only Niagara Falls in this trip though. We also visited Québec City and Montréal.
I am certain that there are lots more to explore in and around Toronto which we may not be aware of as well. Also, though we did go to a couple of bars with my cousin, we didn’t get a chance to go on proper gourmet trips we so like to take. All in all, we thought we had fabulous family trip but we didn’t spend enough time in Toronto to feel its soul. So we’ll definitely be back.
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