TL;DR

Toronto is a fantastic city, with plenty to keep us entertained over our 6 night stay.

Why Toronto?

We’d originally talked about returning to Halifax Nova Scotia, which we last visited in 2000; and then $wife announced that she’d like to go somewhere new.

Getting there

We picked flights with Air Canada on their A330, choosing the extra legroom seats in 34 H&K, which is a nice setup for couples travelling together. The flight was entirely unremarkable other than having a decent IPA on offer in the shape of Hop Valley Bubble Stash.

Hotel

We picked the Riu Plaza Toronto because it seemed to be the only hotel offering inclusive breakfast (and also well reviewed). It was a fantastic base for the trip with a spacious and comfy room. The reception area was lively, but not too busy, and we always got a friendly welcome on our way through to the lifts.

Breakfast was busy each day, but we only had to wait in line for a table for more than a moment once. The buffet selection offered plenty of variety, and got our days off to a good start.

Despite taking my gym clothes I didn’t use the gym apart from as a source of water for my hydroflask.

I’d definitely choose the hotel again, and for a brand I’d not seen before Riu is on my radar as an operator that’s getting things right.

Activities

Walking around

Our first day started with a huge trek around the city, taking in many of the spots that had been recommended to us by friends who’d visited ahead of us, and local colleagues. Our route took in the lakeside, St. Lawrence Market, The Distillery, and The Well.

Other days included Graffiti Alley, exploring Chinatown and the shoreline parks to the East of the Entertainment District.

Meeting the team

A bunch of Atsign folk are based in Toronto, and our head of sales was in town for some meetings; which provided the perfect excuse for a get together. It was wonderful to meet folk in person who are normally talking heads on a Zoom (and apparently I’m taller in real life!).

Art Gallery of Ontario

One of the local tips was to visit, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on ‘First Wednesday Night Free‘, which was perfect timing as it coincided with our first full evening in town. I’d booked tickets earlier in the week, which might have been a good thing, as it seemed popular.

Niagra Falls

Niagra Falls should be a 2h20 train ride from Toronto Union station, but it turned out that the lines were blocked due to a derailment, meaning we had to switch to a bus at Burlington, which is around half way there. The journey was thus less comfortable than it might have been, but we still got there in good time.

The walk from the railway/bus station is very straightforward, as it follows the path of a disused railway line.

After wandering along the promenade by the falls we had lunch in the Skylon Tower, which provided a fantastic view.

Islands

We had a lucky break with the weather for our day visiting the Toronto Islands, as it was sunny and warm(er) (after being near freezing on the days before and after). The ferry took us to Ward’s Island, and we walked to Gibraltar Point Lighthouse before turning back.

It’s easy to see why it’s a popular spot in the summer.

Comedy

‘Consumption-friendly’ was a new turn of phrase for me, but we didn’t pick the club describing itself that way. Instead we headed to the Backroom Comedy Club for a set featuring Tyler Horvath. It was a fun, intimate venue; and Tyler was great, along with the line up of local acts who warmed up for him.

Monet Expo

Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience is a similar setup to the Van Gough Immersive Experience we went to in Singapore a few years ago; though it was a lot less busy, and a bit more of a schlep to get there. Being less busy meant it felt much less pressured in terms of moving along to make space for the next wave of people, which made for a relaxing trip :)

Food and drink

I’d got a bunch of craft ale recommendations from a friend visiting Toronto a few weeks previously, some of which I followed up, some we didn’t find time for. It felt like everywhere had good beer and good food. Bar Hop got our poutine fix sorted on our arrival evening. After meeting the team at Blessing in Disguise we returned for some excellent charcuterie, and more great service from Daryl. There was a bit of a line to get into Amsterdam Brewhouse after our islands trip, but it was worth the wait for the brisket (and beer). I think they were caught out a little by the nice weather, as the line was even longer as we left.

Maybe the best meal of the week was at Koh Lipe, which had been recommended by a colleague. But we also both really enjoyed Byblos.

There were of course donuts from Tim Hortons, including some of their Easter specials; though the really special ones were the maple butter…

One thing I wasn’t expecting was so much (good) local wine, and if we’d had more time a winery tour might have been fun.

Getting around

Toronto has great public transport, with an integrated payments system called Presto that works across trains, subway, trams and buses. After being initially pointed at the Presto app, I figured out we could just use contactless (inc Apple Pay).

Maps bother

Unfortunately Google Maps, Citymapper etc. don’t seem very savvy about getting around using that integrated system. We had to figure out for ourselves that we could connect from subway to tram and save on the walking a little[1].

The maps apps were also terrible at dealing with closures and interruptions. There might even be a notification in the app, but the data hadn’t been factored into the picture being presented. It’s a good job we left early for the comedy club, as it turned out the 1 subway was suspended on exactly the segment we needed for the start of the journey :(

After spending time in cities where the apps correctly (re)route this was a bit jarring :/

Note

[1] This would have been handy to know on arrival, and saved us on getting a (ripoff?) taxi from Union Station to the hotel.