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Greetings! My wife and I are considering the possibility of living and working in Toronto someday, and would like to make an exploratory visit over a weekend in late July or early August (if some opportunities we're researching pan out we'd definitely make additional, longer trips in the future, just consider this one "hasty advance recon"). If it helps to know, if we did move we'd be based mostly around the University of Toronto area.
We would love to hear what locals have to say about essential Toronto experiences to have on a summer weekend, foods one absolutely has to try, views one has to see, places one has to visit, these sorts of things. We're not as interested in "touristy" stuff like the CN Tower but more intrigued by what people who live in the area love to do (for example, we'll be driving our car up from Pittsburgh but intend to park at a hotel and use public transit as much as possible while in town). We love parks, libraries, museums, all kinds of food, we're fans of microbrews, we love film and music, but we're not so much into "nightlife" like dance clubs and stuff.
We're interested in cheap, basic places to stay with proximity to downtown. We don't need anything fancy as we plan to spend very little time sleeping! So far I've located The Downtowner Inn and a couple of hostels, more suggestions would be very appreciated (our needs are simply a room, Internet access, and someplace to park a compact car).
Thanks very much in advance for your thoughts and advice!
My son and his wife live in Toronto and my family is from Pennsylvania, so written as an outsider (Not a native of Toronto) here are my suggestions:
-First thing, get a 3-day ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus (torontotours.net). For $37.64 you can ride the loop and hear about the different neighborhoods, history, food suggestions, funny stories.. It's great. then stay on the bus to go back to whatever sounds/looks good. There are two loops. When we did it we did one loop one day, one loop the second day and on the third day we just used it to get around to things we didn't have time for earlier. Toronto has LOTS to see so you get your bearings this way.
- Second, if you're coming by car and you're on a budget, I highly recommend the Super 8 Downtown at 222 Spadina. The hotel is situated on the top 3 floors of a Chinatown shopping mall. (Pretty strange at first.) There is underground parking there for your car (and you get a price break if you park it and leave it vs. taking it in and out daily). Parking is from the alley behind the hotel, a little tricky. Spadina is a major street. You can leave the car in the garage because directly in front of the hotel is a trolley(streetcar) stop on the Spadina line.
The Super 8 comes with FREE breakfast off the lobby and is VERY clean. The rooms have microwaves and mini fridges! This is great if you go out to eat and bring home a doggie bag. Besides, at night I poop out, so making a cup a soup or some popcorn in my room before bed is so convenient.
The street in this neighborhood is VIBRANT, plus you are only a little south of the University of Toronto area. Take the street car. Be sure to explore Kensington market on the way, if you like bohemian (also budget friendly), also Little Italy just blocks away, has fabulous food and is kinda upscale. Really so much to see. In Chinatown I loved the buns that are stuffed with meat or veggies or sweets. Fresh and inexpensive and yummy.
-First thing, get a 3-day ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus (torontotours.net). For $37.64 you can ride the loop and hear about the different neighborhoods, history, food suggestions, funny stories.. It's great. then stay on the bus to go back to whatever sounds/looks good. There are two loops. When we did it we did one loop one day, one loop the second day and on the third day we just used it to get around to things we didn't have time for earlier. Toronto has LOTS to see so you get your bearings this way.
- Second, if you're coming by car and you're on a budget, I highly recommend the Super 8 Downtown at 222 Spadina. The hotel is situated on the top 3 floors of a Chinatown shopping mall. (Pretty strange at first.) There is underground parking there for your car (and you get a price break if you park it and leave it vs. taking it in and out daily). Parking is from the alley behind the hotel, a little tricky. Spadina is a major street. You can leave the car in the garage because directly in front of the hotel is a trolley(streetcar) stop on the Spadina line.
The Super 8 comes with FREE breakfast off the lobby and is VERY clean. The rooms have microwaves and mini fridges! This is great if you go out to eat and bring home a doggie bag. Besides, at night I poop out, so making a cup a soup or some popcorn in my room before bed is so convenient.
The street in this neighborhood is VIBRANT, plus you are only a little south of the University of Toronto area. Take the street car. Be sure to explore Kensington market on the way, if you like bohemian (also budget friendly), also Little Italy just blocks away, has fabulous food and is kinda upscale. Really so much to see. In Chinatown I loved the buns that are stuffed with meat or veggies or sweets. Fresh and inexpensive and yummy.
AWESOME suggestions, thanks! It looks like the Super 8 is all booked up, but I'll check back with them in case anyone cancels. Regardless, the bus sounds like a blast and Chinatown will be a must for at least a few of our meals while we're in town. You wouldn't happen to have a favorite dim sum place would you?
Also the TTC offers all day passes for subway and buses for getting around so you could find a hotel a bit out near a subway line and use that to get around when going downtown. http://www3.ttc.ca/Fares_and_passes/...Pass/index.jsp
-take ferry to Toronto Island and walk along trails, beaches
-Beer at Beer Bistro, Queen and Beaver Pub
-St Lawrence Market (pick up food to bring to Toronto Island for picnic)
-Harbourfront Centre for art/ music performances etc
East of Yonge:
-Distillery District (coffee at Balzac's, beer at Mill Street, chocolate at Soma)
-take streetcar east on Queen Street to the Beaches neighbourhood, stroll along boardwalk, ice cream from Ed's Real Scoop
...if you're coming by car and you're on a budget, I highly recommend the Super 8 Downtown at 222 Spadina. The hotel is situated on the top 3 floors of a Chinatown shopping mall. (Pretty strange at first.) There is underground parking there for your car (and you get a price break if you park it and leave it vs. taking it in and out daily). Parking is from the alley behind the hotel, a little tricky. Spadina is a major street. You can leave the car in the garage because directly in front of the hotel is a trolley(streetcar) stop on the Spadina line.
The Super 8 comes with FREE breakfast off the lobby and is VERY clean. The rooms have microwaves and mini fridges! This is great if you go out to eat and bring home a doggie bag. Besides, at night I poop out, so making a cup a soup or some popcorn in my room before bed is so convenient.
AWESOME news, we were able to score a room at the Super 8 after all and got a great price to boot...all hail Priceline! Hey, isn't William Shatner a Canadian?
AWESOME news, we were able to score a room at the Super 8 after all and got a great price to boot...all hail Priceline! Hey, isn't William Shatner a Canadian?
Oh ho that's good news. You will think you are in China. LOL. Take the Queen car east to the end and take a walk through the beaches neighbourhood. That's were I was raised and I wouldn't live anywhere else in Toronto. If you were going to be renting I would get an apartment above a store right on Queen. The rents are still reasonable. High but doable.
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What a wonderful city!
