A traveler's guide to Toronto
Use the subway. Toronto opens up when you stop treating downtown as the whole city.
Toronto is a polite megacity that eats in a hundred languages and keeps its best streets a few subway stops from the tower. The waterfront is improving. The neighborhoods were already the point. Come for the food and stay for a city that is easy to like.
When to go
Late spring and early fall are the sweet spots. Summer is festival season and humid. Winter is cold, bright, and serious about coats. The shoulder seasons are when the patios and the museums are both pleasant.
Neighborhoods
Kensington and Chinatown for grazing. The West End and Ossington for dinner. Distillery District once, early. The islands for a reset. Downtown hotels are handy for the train and a little generic at night.
Eating
This is the reason to come. Chinese, Caribbean, Italian, Ethiopian, a bagel that starts an argument, and whatever the room down the street is cooking. Follow a line of locals, not a billboard.
If you only remember this
- Presto covers the subway, streetcar, and bus.
- Streetcars look slow and often are. Still useful.
- Sales tax is added at the register.
- Winter wind off the lake is colder than the forecast.