Calling all Torontonians

[Lawrence]

We are hoping to head to Toronto for about 6 nights this September as a birthday treat for my daughter.  The obvious attractions have already surfaced (Niagara, CN Tower, Casa Loma) but I wondered if we had any Torontonians on here that could give me some tips on getting around and places to see.  Will probably get a car for a couple of days, to do Niagara and a drive into the country, which we can then drop at the airport.  But it will mainly be in and around the city.  We are looking to stay possibly at the Delta on Lower Simcoe or the Omni King Edward.

Would appreciate any thoughts or ideas from you

[cteno4]

Lawrence,

 

Toronto is a nice city to visit. Lots of streetcars to ride!

 

The cn tower is great for dinner. My wife thought it was a splerge, but once there and eating next to the window and having a storm blow thru during the meal (complete with a great lightening show) and then it clearing for a great night view of the city she was totally sold that it was well worth it. Would be a nice bday dinner. Much better experience than the caged observation deck.

 

The music garden is also very well done.

 

Art galley of Toronto is also well done. Gehry addition to the old building is really nicely done. Good collection and an amazing collection of model ships on the lower level. These are world class models and stunningly displayed in a set of curving display cases. Really is the best model display I've ever seen and really worth the visit.

 

Cheers

Jeff

[sedril]

I found the Ontario Science Centre an interesting place to visit.

 

There's the Princess Alexandra Theatre if you're into shows.

They built a new Aquarium a couple years ago.

 

There's the Toronto Exhibition, Fort York, The Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park, Glass blowing at the Harbour Front Centre (Queen's Quay), and the Royal Ontario Museum.

[lurkingknight]

niagra you can do by bus tour, it might save you the aggravation of traffic on the QEW. lol. 

 

CN tower is kinda cool, but the restaurant is a bit overpriced, but then again, it's the experience of being up in the tower.

 

Hockey Hall of Fame... can't come to canada and toronto and not see that.

 

Brewery district is cool, it's a touristy spot now of reclaimed industrial space, lots of cool shops and bars there now, some decent resturants and places furnished with all sorts of old 19th and early 20th century industrial equipment, some of it was reclaimed and retasked material made into new furnishings. I think the st lawrence market is in the same area.

 

Royal ontario museum is always interesting to see, science center. Chinatown spadina isn't what it used to be, a lot of the nicer chinese restaurants and businesses have moved out and scattered into clusters of chinese and asian malls and markets.

 

There are distinct ethnic areas such little italy, greektown, fashion district. There's canada's wonderland up by vaughn, as well as a huge mall up there.

 

I grew up in the kawarthas which is about a 2-3 hour drive east of toronto. It's a bit of a drive to get out of the city into some real country. I think you're looking at that amount of drive to get sufficiently away from civilization. Barrie and Orangeville, just slightly north of toronto and missisauga are sort of out there, but they're turning into suburbs for those cities.

 

The most important subway line runs east to west along danforth then crosses the don valley and then continues under bloor street. There are 2 north/south lines that cross the east/west line in a big U that follow university ave and yonge, they both terminate at the southern most point at union station. The far north terminuses are not so important, there's not much to see out there. downsview for university line and finch for the yonge line. East/West on the bloor/danforth you have kipling and kennedy respectively. The above ground RT line is somewhat interesting... it might as well be as useless as a monorail, so if you're a rail fan it might be worth seeing this weird thing. It goes through scarborough for 6 or 7 stops I believe. And there's a partially built subway line along sheppard ave connects the yonge line to fairview mall. street cars are mainly downtown along queen, king and spadina, there's a few other lines but queen is the longest running from neville park to high park, and farther to some middle of nowhere area called long branch. High park might be worth seeing, it's a pretty big park in the middle of a city.

 

Anything downtown proper and you can generally rely on transit to get you where you're going, start going into the burbs and you'll need a car. Though depending on how willing you are to pay for downtown parking, downtown is drive-able. The streetcars, busses and subway run in an approximate grid in the downtown core, most run every 5-10 minutes. The buses outside the core start going to every 20-40 minutes but still run on a pretty consistent grid. TTC has family day passes that are pretty economical to travel around. South of the 401 and inside Dufferin and Markham road  you can take the TTC, outside the wait times probably start getting crappy the farther from the subway you get and you should probably think about driving. Rush hour is pretty bad but not super terrible unless you're trying to go with the traffic, which is to say, don't leave for niagara falls from downtown at 3pm.

 

Don't bother with the GO train unless you want to ride it for the experience, it's just a commuter train to take you out to the various burbs around the city. The lakeshore line links several cities together from hamilton all the way east to pickering.

[Lawrence]

Thanks all for your replies, really appreciate you taking the time.  We have now secured lodgings at the Delta Hotel which is pretty much right on Union Station :)  and I have already been warned about the driving out there (though I can't think it worse than Dallas surely!) but there is a company that does tours to the falls so that's covered, the CNT is a bout a 5 minute walk as is the old Roundhouse, most other places we can get to via walking or the metro I think, with the exception of the most accessible model shop which is a metro + bus trip to get to, might be worth it though if I can persuade the ladies.

Given we only have the 6 nights we will probably spend the time exploring the city (and the falls obviously), certainly seems there is enough for us to see in that time.  Casa Loma has already been mentioned as has the Eaton Centre for shopping, but I am still open to suggestions.  Still trying to get my head round the most cost effective way for 3 adults to travel around though :icon_scratch:

Thanks again guys

Edited February 10, 2015 by Lawrence

[lurkingknight]

if you're sticking around downtown it will be transit, either day passes or loose tickets which you can buy at the subway station counter or any store that posts the TTC logo. The IC card is not prepay like suica so it's really not worth getting it, and they still haven't ironed out all the kinks.

 

Which hobby store are you looking at going to?

[Nick_Burman]

George's Trains - http://georgestrains.com/ - used to be a pretty good shop when I was there. I noticed they moved away from  their original location, though...

 

Cheers NB

[Lawrence]

 

Which hobby store are you looking at going to?

Johns Photo & Hobby seems to be the easiest to get to, metro out to Woodbine then a short walk

[lurkingknight]

I've been to johns, it's packed pretty full of random hobby stuff. They have a layout in an enclosed case. can't remember the gauge though. Lot of frieght stuff in various scales from what I remember, mostly scenic layout bits. I think they do more r/c and model kits than trains though, but they do have a fair selection of train related stuff. Probably not as good as george's though, but I've never been to georges.