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Yeah, in that distance from San Francisco you have Big Sur Monterey/Carmel, Napa & Sonoma, Lake Tahoe.
btw I agree the OP should go Montreal since he's been to SF.
Going by that measure (not to compete, just to do a proper comparison), Montreal is about the same distance from Quebec City, Ottawa, Mont-Tremblant and the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships, Lake Placid and the Adirondacks, Stowe and Vermont, etc.
(Look up images of these places if you aren't familiar with them.)
Going by that measure (not to compete, just to do a proper comparison), Montreal is about the same distance from Quebec City, Ottawa, Mont-Tremblant and the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships, Lake Placid and the Adirondacks, Stowe and Vermont, etc.
(Look up images of these places if you aren't familiar with them.)
And the thousand islands, land of god's own dressing
Yeah, in that distance from San Francisco you have Big Sur Monterey/Carmel, Napa & Sonoma, Lake Tahoe.
btw I agree the OP should go Montreal since he's been to SF.
If the OP was 21, I think the Bay Area/Montreal comparison would be closer. But he's not, he's 20. That means that there's a lot that's off-limits in Bay Area. Wine Country isn't as much fun if you can't drink wine (though it's still a great place to see). Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur is one of my favorite areas on the planet and it's still worth visiting even if you can't drink. However, getting there at age 20 (most rental companies have a 21y/o age limit and charge a premium for drivers under 25) isn't easy. Lake Tahoe isn't within 2.5 hours of San Francisco. it's closer to 3.5/4 hours away by car which would require a rental which the OP can't do anyway.
Montreal is undoubtedly a better a better option for someone under 21 because so much more is accessible. I'd tell the OP to enjoy the crap out of Montreal (and the train ride to/from Quebec City) now and try the Bay Area again when he's 25. Renting a car and taking the scenic route (at least one way) along Coastal 1 from San Francisco to Big Sur is one of my favorite long day/ overnight trips anywhere.
You should read his post where he specifically states that he is going in June/July--at which point, I'd argue Montreal and Toronto both have substantially better weather than San Francisco. Also, Montreal doesn't really just nudge out the other two--not so sure about Toronto, but Montreal definitely gives you much greater options than SF does.
Toronto definitely does not beat out SF in museums and fine arts. If that was actually extremely high on the priorities list, then SF handedly gets that one. Montreal, even though it came up during a time when art and artifact acquisition was less competitive and it was fairly easy for wealthy cities to build up substantial collections (hence why pretty much any city that was a top 10 city in the late 19th or early 20th century in the US have really good museums and often good performing arts companies), does not do great on that front. It has a good active arts community, but not so much a large legacy collection. I wonder why that is.
Museums and fine arts SFO beats Toronto
I'll take your word for it, I'm no expert but imo Toronto holds it's own.
Toronto has ...
The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) ...very impressive (at least I think so)
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) ...again quite impressive.
The Hockey Hall of Fame
The Bata Shoe Museum
Textile Museum of Canada
I googled San Francisco ....I got...
Asian Art Museum
Children's Creativity Museum (??)
Contemporary Jewish Museum
California Academy of Sciences
They sound interesting but lets just say SFO is not Washington, DC in terms of museums
I'll take your word for it, I'm no expert but imo Toronto holds it's own.
Toronto has ...
The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) ...very impressive (at least I think so)
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) ...again quite impressive.
The Hockey Hall of Fame
The Bata Shoe Museum
Textile Museum of Canada
I googled San Francisco ....I got...
Asian Art Museum
Children's Creativity Museum (??)
Contemporary Jewish Museum
California Academy of Sciences
They sound interesting but lets just say SFO is not Washington, DC in terms of museums
You're missing some major museums (SF's largest) on the SF side with de Young, Legion of Honor, and SFMOMA and you filled in Toronto's list with fairly minor and niche museums which SF also has a lot of (Exploratorium, Walt Disney, Musee Mecanique, Cartoon Art, etc.). You also somehow managed to put in the more niche museums for Toronto and left out the more expansive and better known Aga Khan Museum.
SF is not DC--pretty much only NYC is on par with DC within Northern America. SF does have a substantially greater collection of museums and museum collections than Toronto does. Much of that comes from being a wealthy and prominent city during the late 19th and early 20th century when these collections were much "cheaper" to build due to less competition among other museums/collectors, giant robber barron wealth inequalities that can build up an enormous amount of funding, time having not yet appreciated the works of then contemporary artists and operating in a period when wholesale plundering of poorer nations/peoples and their heritage and artifacts was standard operating procedure. SF was very wealthy and prominent during that era--Toronto was a very minor player during that era.
I'll take your word for it, I'm no expert but imo Toronto holds it's own.
Toronto has ...
The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) ...very impressive (at least I think so)
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) ...again quite impressive.
The Hockey Hall of Fame
The Bata Shoe Museum
Textile Museum of Canada
I googled San Francisco ....I got...
Asian Art Museum
Children's Creativity Museum (??)
Contemporary Jewish Museum
California Academy of Sciences
They sound interesting but lets just say SFO is not Washington, DC in terms of museums
Toronto and Montreal are greater cities in some ways. San Francisco is by far the most iconic. Depends what you value. I could spend a happy two weeks in any of them.
Toronto and Montreal are greater cities in some ways. San Francisco is by far the most iconic. Depends what you value. I could spend a happy two weeks in any of them.
Sounds about right. All are terrific, major destinations in their own ways.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I was born in San Francisco, and lived in the Bay Area for 40 years. I have only been to Toronto and Montreal once, but of those I would pick Toronto as the most interesting. If you had given Quebec City as a choice I would have picked that instead.
I really don't care about nightlife or budget, it's the culture and historical that I am looking for in my tourism.
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