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Toronto, Canada, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
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Top 10 Things To Do in Toronto

Country
Canada
Best months
May · Jun · Sep · Oct
Population
2.79
Language
English
Budget / day
C$180–320
Quick answer

Start at the water. The CN Tower, Ripley's Aquarium and the island ferry sit within ten minutes of each other, and the islands give you the skyline view every photograph is taken from. Day two is museums and markets: the ROM and the AGO, then St. Lawrence Market or Kensington. Keep the third for the neighbourhoods, which is where the city lives. Niagara Falls is a day trip, not an afternoon.

Toronto Travel Guide

▶ Video guideOpen the film page (11:33) →

Toronto is the most immigrant city in North America and it tastes like it. Nearly half its residents were born somewhere else, and the food map runs from Hakka Chinese in Scarborough to Trinidadian doubles in the east end, all of it ordinary weeknight eating. Come between May and October: winter here is real.

The 10 best things to do in Toronto

Open in Maps
1

Go up the CN Tower

Landmark· 290 Bremner Blvd, Downtown

At 553.3 metres it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world from 1975 to 2007, and it is still the thing that orients you: the lake one way, the grid running north the other, the islands below. The LookOut has a glass floor and the SkyPod sits above it. EdgeWalk is a separate booking and a separate nerve.

Time1 to 2 hours
CostTicketed, timed entry
Best atThe hour before sunset
TipBook the time slot online. The queue at the base is the real price of admission.
Map↗ Website
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
2

Spend a morning at the Royal Ontario Museum

Museum· 100 Queens Park, Yorkville

The largest museum in Canada, opened in 1914 and interrupted in 2007 by Daniel Libeskind's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, aluminium and glass prisms driven into the original stone. Inside it is world cultures downstairs and natural history upstairs: dinosaurs, Chinese temple sculpture, Egypt and a bat cave. Two hours covers the highlights.

Time2 to 3 hours
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday morning
TipEnter from Queens Park rather than Bloor Street to arrive in the 1914 rotunda instead of the atrium.
Map↗ Website
Eat your way through St. Lawrence Market, Toronto (Wimup)
3

Eat your way through St. Lawrence Market

Market· 93 Front St E, Old Town

The South Market is the city's oldest food hall and its most reliable lunch: cheesemongers, fishmongers, Portuguese bakeries and the peameal bacon sandwich Toronto counts as its own. The Saturday farmers' market, running since 1803, moved back into the rebuilt North Market in 2026. Go early on a Saturday.

Time1 to 2 hours
CostFree to walk in
Best atSaturday before 9am
TipThe market is closed Mondays. Plan lunch elsewhere that day.
Map↗ Website
Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
4

Take the ferry to the Toronto Islands

Islands· Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, 9 Queens Quay W

Fifteen minutes of water buys a car-free archipelago with the best view of the skyline there is. Three ferry routes run in summer: Ward's Island at the quiet eastern end, Centre Island for the beaches and the amusement park, and Hanlan's Point for the clothing-optional beach. Rent a bike and ride the length in an hour.

TimeHalf a day
CostFerry ticketed
Best atLate afternoon
TipBuy the ferry ticket online before you reach the terminal
Map↗ Website
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
5

See the Canadian collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Gallery· 317 Dundas St W, Grange Park

Frank Gehry grew up a few streets away and came back in 2008 to rebuild the gallery he first visited as a child, wrapping the Dundas Street front in curved glass and Douglas fir. The collection is the reason to stay: the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, the Thomson collection, and strong Indigenous holdings.

Time2 to 3 hours
CostTicketed
Best atWednesday evening
TipThe spiral staircase in the Galleria Italia is worth climbing even if you skip the floor it lands on.
Map↗ Website
Walk the Distillery Historic District, Toronto (Wimup)
6

Walk the Distillery Historic District

Historic district· 55 Mill St, Corktown

Gooderham and Worts was the largest distillery in the British Empire in the 1860s, and the Victorian industrial buildings it left are the best preserved of their kind in North America. Cars are banned, the streets are cobbled, and the tenants are galleries and roasters. From mid-November it becomes the Winter Village.

Time2 hours
CostFree to walk in
Best atWeekday afternoon
TipCome by streetcar. Parking here is a fee for the privilege of circling.
Map↗ Website
Kensington Market, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
7

Browse Kensington Market

Neighbourhood· Augusta Ave & Baldwin St, Kensington

A National Historic Site since 2006, and the least polished part of central Toronto by choice. Four narrow streets of Victorian houses turned into fruit stalls, Latin American grocers, vintage shops and taco windows, with Chinatown starting where the market ends. On Pedestrian Sundays the cars are cleared out.

Time2 hours
CostFree to walk in
Best atSaturday late morning
TipEat standing up. The good things here come in paper, not on plates.
Map↗ Website
Casa Loma, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
8

Tour Casa Loma

Historic house· 1 Austin Terrace, Casa Loma

Sir Henry Pellatt made a fortune electrifying Ontario and spent it between 1911 and 1914 on a 98-room Gothic Revival castle above the escarpment. He lost it inside a decade. What remains is an oak room, a conservatory, two towers with a view down the city, and a tunnel under the road to the stables.

Time2 hours
CostTicketed
Best atOpening hour
TipWalk down the Baldwin Steps afterwards and carry on to Spadina Museum next door.
Map↗ Website
Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
9

Stand over the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame

Museum· 30 Yonge St, Financial District

The Cup sits in the Great Hall, under the stained glass dome of the 1885 Bank of Montreal building at Front and Yonge, and you are allowed to touch it. Around it are the sticks, masks and sweaters of the sport's history, plus shooting simulators. Non-believers get through it in an hour. Believers do not.

Time1 to 2 hours
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday afternoon
TipIt is inside a shopping concourse below street level
Map↗ Website
Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, Toronto, Canada (Wimup)
10

Walk the shark tunnel at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada

Aquarium· 288 Bremner Blvd, Downtown

Opened in 2013 at the foot of the CN Tower and built around Dangerous Lagoon, a moving walkway carrying you under sand tiger sharks and a sawfish. The Canadian Waters galleries at the start are the quieter half and the better one, with lobsters, wolf eels and a Pacific kelp forest.

Time2 hours
CostTicketed
Best atFirst slot of the day
TipWeekends fill with school-holiday crowds. A weekday evening is a different building.
Map↗ Website

9 of the 10, mapped

Toronto · 9 spots

Toronto travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Toronto?+
Three. One for the waterfront, the CN Tower and the islands, one for the ROM, the AGO and the markets, and one for the neighbourhoods and a long dinner. A fourth day buys you Niagara Falls or Hamilton without rushing either.
What is the best way to get around Toronto?+
The TTC. Three subway lines cover the spine of the city and the streetcars handle everything east to west, and one fare covers two hours of transfers. Tap a contactless card or buy a PRESTO card. Driving downtown is slower than the streetcar and parking is priced accordingly.
When is the best time to visit Toronto?+
May, June, September and October. The patios are open, the humidity of high summer has not arrived or has passed, and the festival calendar is at its densest in September. January and February are genuinely cold, which is what the underground PATH network is for.
Can you visit Niagara Falls as a day trip from Toronto?+
Yes. The falls are about 130 km southwest, and GO Transit runs a train and bus connection from Union Station that takes roughly two hours each way. Leave early, see the Canadian Horseshoe Falls and the boat below it, and add Niagara-on-the-Lake if you have a car.
Where should you stay in Toronto?+
Downtown between Queen and Front streets puts you inside walking distance of the tower, the market and the ferry. Queen West and Ossington are better if you are here for the eating and drinking, and Yorkville is the expensive, quiet option near the museums.
Where Toronto eats out

Best restaurants in Toronto

Ten kitchens worth planning a night around, from two Michelin stars on Avenue Road to a Thai counter under Duncan Street.
Tasting menu
Queen West

Alo

Restaurant · 163 Spadina Ave

Patrick Kriss's French tasting menu above Spadina Avenue, top of the Canada's 100 Best list for five straight years. Reservations open in a batch and go quickly.

Map↗ Website
One star
Niagara

Edulis

Restaurant · 169 Niagara St

Tobey Nemeth and Michael Caballo cook a menu that changes weekly around whatever is in season, which in autumn means mushrooms and truffles. Small room, long dinners.

Map↗ Website
Two stars
Yorkville

Sushi Masaki Saito

Sushi · 88 Avenue Rd

The only two-star restaurant in the Toronto guide. A six-seat edomae counter with fish flown from Japan: one omakase, one sitting, no substitutions.

Map↗ Website
One star
Old Town

Restaurant 20 Victoria

Restaurant · 20 Victoria St

Twenty seats behind a coffee bar off Yonge Street, where Rafa Covarrubias cooks Ontario produce with Mexican influences. One Michelin star.

Map
One star
Harbourfront

Don Alfonso 1890

Italian · 1 Harbour Sq

The Iaccarino family's Amalfi Coast cooking on the 38th floor of the Westin Harbour Castle. One Michelin star, and the view does none of the work.

Map↗ Website
Skyline view
Financial District

Canoe

Canadian · 66 Wellington St W

On the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower, with the lake filling the window and a menu of Canadian ingredients. Lunch is the easier reservation.

Map↗ Website
Open late
Little Italy

Bar Isabel

Spanish · 797 College St

Grant van Gameren's Spanish room, open late, dark, tiled, and known for a whole grilled octopus that has been on the menu since 2013. The bar seats are the ones to want.

Map↗ Website
Chef Nick Liu
Little Italy

DaiLo

Chinese · 503 College St

Nick Liu cooks what he calls new Asian: Chinese technique and Cantonese memory pushed through French training. It has anchored this stretch of College for a decade.

Map↗ Website
Bistro
Financial District

Richmond Station

Bistro · 1 Richmond St W

A basement dining room under Yonge Street from Carl Heinrich, doing what Toronto is short of: a proper mid-price bistro at volume. The burger is the lunch order.

Map↗ Website
Northern Thai
Entertainment District

Pai Northern Thai Kitchen

Thai · 18 Duncan St

Down a staircase off Adelaide, and the reason a queue forms most evenings. Nuit Regular cooks Chiang Mai food: khao soi, sai oua sausage, jungle curry.

Map↗ Website
After dark

Best bars in Toronto

Ten rooms for a drink, from a Basque pintxos bar on College Street to a brewery taproom in Leslieville.
No reservations
Little Italy

Bar Raval

Cocktail & pintxos bar · 505 College St

All standing room, all mahogany, a Gaudí-inspired interior carved by Partisans, and a counter of Basque pintxos from open to close.

Map↗ Website
Bartender's choice
Bloorcourt

Civil Liberties

Cocktail bar · 878 Bloor St W

There is no menu. You describe what you like and the bartender builds it, which is a gimmick everywhere else and a discipline here.

Map↗ Website
Long-form cocktails
Queen West

BarChef

Cocktail bar · 472 Queen St W

Candlelight, apothecary bottles and drinks that arrive under cloches of smoke. The most theatrical bar in the city, and doing it long enough to read as craft.

Map↗ Website
Wild ales
Little Italy

Birreria Volo

Beer bar · 612 College St

An Italian beer hall in a laneway off College, pouring wild ales, natural wine and cider you will not find on another list. The patio is the summer version.

Map↗ Website
Patio
Ossington

Bellwoods Brewery

Brewpub · 124 Ossington Ave

The brewery that set the tone for Toronto beer, in a converted garage across from Trinity Bellwoods. Fruited sours, hazy IPAs, and a patio that fills fast.

Map↗ Website
Bocce
Little Italy

Track and Field

Bar · 582 College St

A basement bar with indoor bocce courts and lawn bowling lanes, which sounds like a novelty until you have lost three hours to it. Book ahead.

Map↗ Website
Agave list
Ossington

Reposado

Tequila bar · Ossington Ave

The bar that opened Ossington Avenue as a drinking street, and still the best tequila and mezcal list on it. Live jazz some nights, a long back patio in summer.

Map↗ Website
Late
Parkdale

Pretty Ugly

Cocktail bar · 1237 Queen St W

A Parkdale room that takes drinks seriously and itself lightly: classics done properly, a frozen something on the board, and a crowd that arrives after eleven.

Map↗ Website
Classics
Dundas West

Cocktail Bar

Cocktail bar · Dundas St W

Small, brass-topped and named with no ambition whatsoever. It is a Grant van Gameren room, which means the classics are exact and the seats at the counter go first.

Map
Taproom
Leslieville

Left Field Brewery

Brewery · Wagstaff Dr

A baseball-obsessed brewery in a former dye factory in the east end, and one of the few genuinely family-friendly drinking rooms in the city.

Map↗ Website
Beyond the ROM and the AGO

Best museums & galleries in Toronto

Ten collections past the two big ones, from Islamic art in Don Mills to a garrison that predates the city.
Aga Khan Museum
Islamic art
Don Mills

Aga Khan Museum

Museum · 77 Wynford Dr

Fumihiko Maki's white granite building in a formal garden off the Don Valley Parkway, holding the best collection of Islamic art in North America.

Map↗ Website
Gardiner Museum
Ceramics
Yorkville

Gardiner Museum

Museum · 111 Queens Park

Ceramics only, across the road from the ROM and small enough to see properly in an hour. Ancient American pottery below, Italian maiolica above.

Map↗ Website
Bata Shoe Museum
One subject
The Annex

Bata Shoe Museum

Museum · 327 Bloor St W

Raymond Moriyama designed the building to look like a shoebox with the lid ajar, and the collection runs from 4,500-year-old sandals to Elton John's platforms.

Map↗ Website
Contemporary
Junction Triangle

Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto

Gallery · 158 Sterling Rd

Five floors of a 1919 aluminium factory in the Junction Triangle, now the city's main contemporary art space. The building alone justifies the trip.

Map↗ Website
Waterfront
Harbourfront

The Power Plant

Gallery · 231 Queens Quay W

A former power station on the waterfront showing contemporary art with no permanent collection, so every visit is different. Near the ferry terminal.

Map↗ Website
Textile Museum of Canada
Textiles
Downtown

Textile Museum of Canada

Museum · 55 Centre Ave

Twelve thousand objects from more than two hundred regions, shown a few hundred at a time: batik, Andean weaving, quilts and contemporary fibre art.

Map↗ Website
1793
Fort York

Fort York National Historic Site

Historic site · 250 Fort York Blvd

The garrison the town of York was built to protect, founded in 1793 and burned in 1812. Eight original buildings survive under the Gardiner Expressway.

Map
Spadina Museum
1920s
Casa Loma

Spadina Museum

Historic house · 285 Spadina Rd

The 1866 house next door to Casa Loma, restored to the 1920s. Quieter, cheaper and more convincing as a home than the castle over the fence.

Map
Roundhouse
Roundhouse Park

Toronto Railway Museum

Museum · 255 Bremner Blvd

A 32-bay roundhouse from 1929 in the shadow of the CN Tower, with steam locomotives and a working turntable.

Map↗ Website
Art Museum at the University of Toronto
On campus
University

Art Museum at the University of Toronto

Gallery · 7 Hart House Cir

Two spaces, the Barnicke Gallery in Hart House and the U of T Art Centre, programmed together and free. Strong on Canadian and Indigenous work.

Map↗ Website
Where the city lives

Best neighbourhoods in Toronto

Ten neighbourhoods worth an afternoon each, and the streetcar lines that connect them.
Galleries
Queen West

West Queen West

Neighbourhood · Queen St W

Bathurst west to Gladstone: galleries, independent shops, Trinity Bellwoods on one side and Graffiti Alley behind it. Walk it, do not ride through.

Map
Ossington Avenue
Eat and drink
Ossington

Ossington Avenue

Neighbourhood · Ossington Ave

Six blocks between Queen and Dundas that hold more bars and restaurants per metre than anywhere else in Toronto. It changes tenants often and rarely drops in quality.

Map
Little Italy
College Street
Little Italy

Little Italy

Neighbourhood · College St

College Street between Bathurst and Ossington, still Italian in its cafes and now Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese in its kitchens.

Map
Spadina
Chinatown

Chinatown

Neighbourhood · Spadina Ave & Dundas St W

One of several Chinatowns in the region and the oldest downtown: herbalists, barbecue windows, produce spilling onto Spadina, and a dense Vietnamese layer along Dundas.

Map
Yorkville
Bloor Street
Yorkville

Yorkville

Neighbourhood · Bloor St W

A hippie village in the 1960s and the luxury end of the city ever since, with the ROM at one end and the film-festival crowd every autumn.

Map
The Danforth
Greektown
Greektown

The Danforth

Neighbourhood · Danforth Ave

Greektown east of the viaduct, where souvlaki shops and Greek bakeries share the street with wine bars and the Danforth Music Hall.

Map
Leslieville
East end
Leslieville

Leslieville

Neighbourhood · Queen St E

Queen Street East past the Don River: brunch rooms, antique shops, breweries and a residential calm that the west end lost. Ten minutes on the 501 from downtown.

Map
Roncesvalles
Polish
Roncesvalles

Roncesvalles

Neighbourhood · Roncesvalles Ave

The Polish street, still selling pierogi and sausage alongside third-wave coffee, running south from High Park to the lake. The most walkable single avenue in the city.

Map
West end
The Junction

The Junction

Neighbourhood · Dundas St W

Dry until 1998, and consequently late to gentrify. Now furniture makers, breweries and a strong restaurant row along Dundas West.

Map
The Beaches
Lakefront
The Beaches

The Beaches

Neighbourhood · Queen St E

Sand, a boardwalk and a three-kilometre lakefront at the eastern end of the 501 streetcar line. It feels like a lake town the city grew around.

Map
Tickets worth buying

Best live music & sport in Toronto

Six venues that run most nights of the year, from an 1894 concert hall to the stadium that hosted the World Cup.
Massey Hall
1894
Downtown

Massey Hall

Concert hall · 178 Victoria St

Opened in 1894, acoustically the best room in the country, and reopened in 2021 after a restoration that uncovered stained glass bricked over for decades.

Map↗ Website
The Horseshoe Tavern
Since 1947
Queen West

The Horseshoe Tavern

Live music · 370 Queen St W

A country bar since 1947 that turned punk in the 1970s and never looked back. The Rolling Stones played it under a false name.

Map↗ Website
Nightly jazz
Queen West

The Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar

Live music · 194 Queen St W

Live jazz every night of the week, often twice, in a room that has resisted every attempt to smarten it up. The early sets are the ones to catch if you have dinner plans.

Map↗ Website
Scotiabank Arena
Leafs & Raptors
Financial District

Scotiabank Arena

Arena · 40 Bay St

The Maple Leafs and the Raptors share it, so something is on most nights from October to April, and it is attached to Union Station.

Map↗ Website
Rogers Centre
Blue Jays
Downtown

Rogers Centre

Stadium · 1 Blue Jays Way

The first stadium in the world with a fully retractable roof, opened in 1989. The Blue Jays play here April to September, with the CN Tower over the outfield.

Map↗ Website
BMO Field
World Cup venue
Exhibition Place

BMO Field

Stadium · 170 Princes' Blvd

Home of Toronto FC, expanded to host six matches at the 2026 World Cup including Canada's opener on 12 June. The 509 streetcar reaches it.

Map↗ Website
Green space

Best parks & islands in Toronto

Six places to walk off a museum, including a quarry turned park and a headland made entirely of construction rubble.
High Park
Cherry blossoms
High Park

High Park

Park · 1873 Bloor St W

Four hundred acres with a lake, a small free zoo, rare oak savannah, and the cherry trees that draw the whole city for ten days each spring.

Map
Trinity Bellwoods Park
Picnics
Queen West

Trinity Bellwoods Park

Park · 790 Queen St W

The west end's back garden: a former estate on a buried creek, with a dog bowl in the old ravine and the busiest picnic lawn in Toronto on any warm Saturday.

Map
Farmers market
Don Valley

Evergreen Brick Works

Park · 550 Bayview Ave

The quarry and brickworks that built Victorian Toronto, now a park, a Saturday market and trails through the Don Valley. A free shuttle runs from Broadview.

Map↗ Website
Lake view
Scarborough

Scarborough Bluffs

Cliffs · Brimley Rd S

Sixty-five metres of layered clay cliff running for kilometres along the lake, with a marina and beach below. The view from the top looks like a coastline.

Map
Tommy Thompson Park
Birding
Port Lands

Tommy Thompson Park

Park · 1 Leslie St

A five-kilometre headland built out of construction rubble since the 1950s, colonised by cormorants and terns. Walk or cycle it; there are no cars.

Map↗ Website
Rouge National Urban Park
Parks Canada
Scarborough

Rouge National Urban Park

National park · Scarborough

The first national urban park in Canada: 79 square kilometres of river valley, working farms, forest and a Lake Ontario beach, reachable by GO train.

Map↗ Website
Out of the city

Best day trips in Toronto

Six trips inside two hours of Union Station, from the falls to a Shakespeare festival town.
Niagara Falls
By GO train
Niagara

Niagara Falls

Day trip · 130 km southwest

The obvious trip, and it earns it: Horseshoe Falls is the wide one on the Canadian side, and the boat below it is the point. Two hours each way by GO.

Map↗ Website
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Wine country
Niagara

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Day trip · 130 km southeast

A preserved 19th-century main street at the mouth of the Niagara River, surrounded by the vineyards that make Ontario icewine. The Shaw Festival runs here.

Map↗ Website
Hamilton
Waterfalls
Hamilton

Hamilton

Day trip · 70 km southwest

More than a hundred waterfalls fall off the Niagara Escarpment inside the city limits, with Dundurn Castle and the Royal Botanical Gardens too. An hour by GO.

Map↗ Website
Theatre
Stratford

Stratford

Day trip · 150 km west

A rail town on the Avon River that has run a Shakespeare festival since 1953, in four theatres, from April to October. Book the play first and build the day around it.

Map↗ Website
Elora
Gorge
Elora

Elora

Day trip · 120 km northwest

A limestone village on a gorge, with a 22-metre-deep canyon cut by the Grand River, a restored 1832 mill and a swimming quarry ten minutes away. Best in early autumn.

Map↗ Website
Wineries
The County

Prince Edward County

Day trip · 200 km east

Ontario wine country on a peninsula in Lake Ontario: forty-odd wineries, the dunes at Sandbanks, and a food scene that pulled chefs out of the city.

Map↗ Website
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Toronto (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
January

Winterlicious

Two weeks of prix-fixe menus at around 200 restaurants, run by the city in the deadest stretch of the year.

April

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

The largest documentary festival in North America, centred on the Ted Rogers Cinema on Bloor Street each spring.

June

Pride Toronto

One of the largest Pride festivals in the world, with the parade down Yonge Street on the last Sunday in June.

August

Toronto Caribbean Carnival

Six weeks of mas camps, calypso and steelpan, ending in the Grand Parade along Lake Shore Boulevard in August.

August

Canadian National Exhibition

The CNE has closed the summer at Exhibition Place since 1879: midway rides, an air show over the lake and the food building.

September

Toronto International Film Festival

Eleven days that fill King Street West with premieres and the Yorkville hotels with juries, in the middle of September.

October

Nuit Blanche Toronto

Contemporary art installed across the city from sunset to sunrise, free to walk through, on one night in October.

November

Distillery Winter Village

The Distillery District turns into a Christmas market with a tree lit in the central courtyard, from mid-November.

Getting around

Toronto transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
YYZ

Toronto Pearson (YYZ)

The busiest airport in Canada, 22 km northwest of downtown. The UP Express leaves Terminal 1 every 15 minutes for Union Station and takes under half an hour.

↗ Website↗ Website
YTZ

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ)

On the Toronto Islands at the foot of Bathurst Street, handling regional flights within Canada and the northeastern US. A pedestrian tunnel or a 90-second ferry gets you there.

↗ Website
TTC

TTC subway and streetcars

Three subway lines and a streetcar network carrying the downtown east to west. Tap a PRESTO card or a contactless bank card, and one fare covers two hours of transfers.

↗ Website
GO

GO Transit and Union Station

Regional trains and coaches radiating from Union Station, which is also the VIA Rail terminus. GO is how you reach Hamilton and Niagara Falls, on the same PRESTO card.

↗ Website
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Toronto, Canada

The classics to order before you leave.
Poutine, Toronto (Wimup travel guide)

Poutine

Fries, cheese curds and gravy. A Quebec dish that Toronto serves everywhere, and the curds should squeak.

Peameal bacon sandwich

Cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal, griddled on a soft bun with mustard. Eat it at St. Lawrence Market.

Jamaican beef patty

A turmeric-yellow pastry filled with spiced beef. Order it inside folded coco bread for the local version.

Sushi pizza

A crisp fried rice patty topped with salmon, avocado and spicy mayo. Invented in Toronto in the 1990s.

Hakka chilli chicken

Chinese-Indian cooking brought from Kolkata to Scarborough: battered chicken in chilli, ginger and soy.

Doubles

Trinidadian street food: two soft bara flatbreads around curried chickpeas with tamarind and pepper sauce.

Portuguese charcoal chicken

Split and grilled over coals with piri-piri, from the churrasqueiras along Dundas West.

Butter tart

Ontario's own pastry: shortcrust filled with butter, sugar and egg, baked until the centre stays liquid.

Toronto fact sheet

Toronto at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Canada
Region
Ontario · Greater Toronto Area
Population
2.79M in the city, 6.20M in the metro area (2021 census)
Founded
1793 as the Town of York · renamed and incorporated as Toronto in 1834
Nickname
The Six · Hogtown
Language
English
Currency
Canadian dollar (CAD)
Time zone
UTC-5 · UTC-4 from March to November
Calling code
+1 416 · 647 · 437
Airports
YYZ · YTZ
Power
120V · Type A & B
Emergency
911 police, ambulance and fire
Ideal length
3 days
Getting around
Subway, streetcars & walking
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • The CN Tower stands 553.3 metres tall and was the tallest free-standing structure in the world from 1975 until 2007.
  • The 2021 census counted 1,286,145 Toronto residents born outside Canada, 46.6 percent of the city.
  • The PATH is a Guinness record holder: over 30 kilometres of underground walkway linking more than 70 buildings and 1,200 shops.
  • The Toronto Islands were a peninsula until a storm in 1858 cut a channel through the sandbar.
  • Kensington Market became a National Historic Site in 2006, for the immigrant communities that have run its stalls since the 1920s.

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