Toronto – It’s Not As Bad As People Say

That title seems a bit harsh. My friend and I recently went to Toronto. Growing up I’d heard a lot of negative things about Toronto. Nothing specific, just that “it sucks” in a vague and general sense. Being from western Canada there’s an us versus them attitude about Toronto. Perhaps other areas of the country cam relate to this general dislike of Toronto. People would make many quips about Canada’s largest city, or ask why I’d want to go there – as if told them I was packing my bags for hell. Toronto was never a city I dreamt of visiting. But there was also a point where I said I’d never want to go to Las Vegas, but I did and had a great time. I know better than to judge somewhere I haven’t been.

My trip was very short, only a few days. Working for a hotel chain has its benefits, which included staying at a very nice hotel on Front Street for $68 a night – in a room that normally costs $400. For the four days we were this seemed like a great deal. There were some great things and some not so great things about this trip, like all trips. Like most of my travelling I got the sense I only saw a fraction of this city. Here are some of my general impressions on Toronto.

• The subway system isn’t very tourist friendly. I liked the Tube in London, there were pocket maps you could pick up, a large maps of all the lines in the stations. Toronto’s subway only has four lines, so I never felt hopelessly lost, but I didn’t feel like I really knew it the way I did for other cities. It would’ve been nice to have an official pocket map of the subway line – the only one I had been printed from Wikitravel. I bought a week metropass from a machine at Union Station for $36. But my friend and I didn’t realize the metropass is for the following week. We had to go down to the Davisville station to get it exchanged for one that was valid during our trip. It would have been nice to have the option to buy the pass online before the trip.

• The City Pass is good way to see the tourist sites. I bought mine at a CAA office for $52 (you must be a member). You can also buy it online for $59. It gets you into 5 different attractions; The CN Tower, The Royal Ontario Museum, The Ontario Science Centre, Casa Loma and The Toronto Zoo (we didn’t have time for the zoo). It gets validated after your first visit and then you have nine days to use the pass.

• The CN Tower is pretty high up. My friend got a bit dizzy, even just on the observation level. I felt fine until I stepped on the glass floor… then my knees began to shake. The Skypod is an extra $9 and gets you to the very top. I decided I didn’t need to spend the extra money to go to the very top.

   



CN Tower from a distance.

 

• The bus ride to the Ontario Science Centre will take about 20 minutes (at least when we went). Make sure to give yourself some time to get their if you’re taking the bus. We had to be back downtown right away so our visit was really short.

• There’s a TO Tix booth on Dundas Square. They sell tickets for upcoming shows at discounted rates. But it’s also a good idea to check with the theatre that’s playing the show as well. We went down to see Rent. The one day the TO Tix booth only had back of the theatre tickets for $87. But when we went to the real theatre they had rush tickets available for $30.

• Casa Loma is quite beautiful, and going when it first opens means you’ll avoid big crowds. When we went there were only about six people. Having the city pass meant we got an audio guide. There’s a “secret” tunnel that leads out to the stables. I went down and it was pitch black, but I kept walking (with the help of my cellphone screen) thinking ‘this really must be a secret.’ I got to the end and opened a door and an alarm went off. Turns out the door was still locked (it should have been opened) and the lights should have been on. Know if you’re walking down a tunnel in darkness turn back, and ask the staff to turn on the light and unlock the door.

• If you decide to get free tickets for CBC’s The Hour, or any taped TV show, make sure you can get access to your email. My phone would let me check every site except my Hotmail account. We had tickets for a Thursday taping of The Hour, but there was no one in line when we arrived. We waited and after an hour (ha ha) decided to leave. Turns out the show was cancelled due to a Haiti Telethon. An email had been sent, but I couldn’t access until I got home. I should have splurged at an internet café or got wi-fi from the hotel. It wasn’t a huge deal though. We were able to go to The CBC Museum (which is free). For any Canadian it’s a nice stroll down memory lane. They’ve got Mr. Dressup’s tickle trunk, The Friendly Giant’s Castle, puppets from Sesame Park and more.

• I’d heard about winters with wet colds before, but living in a landlocked province I had never experienced them. Toronto is just off of Lake Ontario, one of the great lakes. It has that wet cold that goes right to your bones. If you’ve never experienced a Canadian winter make sure to bring a good coat and mittens along – we went in January. My jacket has a fleece liner that I can unzip, which I did for the first couple days. It probably didn’t get any colder than about -8 Celsius, but it felt colder. I didn’t have a scarf or toque, I wished I kept the hood on my jacket (it was detached and left at home).

In the end my trip was great. I enjoyed the city and if I would definitely go back. Toronto really wasn’t as bad as people said it would be.

Have you been to Toronto? Were you surprised at what a nice city it was?

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