Sleepless in Toronto

With only two full days, we were limited to some fairly obvious things, so this list may sound a bit predictable. Anyway, first is the CN Tower. It's fairly expensive, at about for the ascent to the observation deck, but you can't and shouldn't not do it. The panoramas and the startlingly rapid elevator ride are two things that literally take your breath away.

Second, the city itself and the interesting and varied neighbourhoods that are best walked to be appreciated. I've given some details about the neighbourhoods we were able to get round in its own journal.

Third, the harbourfront is very nice for the views of the lake and island and some good eating and drinking. Nice and relaxing and less stuffy than the city's interior when humidity levels are high.

There must be numerous other highlights, but the final notable thing we did was the cheap ferry ride to Centre Island just off the shore of the Lake. At it's the best value half day excursion the city offers.

Quick Tips:

There's so much going on in Toronto that it pays to view some city guide web-sites in advance of your trip and see what's coming up. At the right time of year you may be able to catch events like literary fairs, film festivals, musical events etc.

As is the custom everywhere else in North America the Canadians employ the same infuriating-to-Europeans system of advertising most prices minus various taxes. So the prices advertised will always be significantly short of what you'll be asked to part with. Also the sub-way system has it's own system - once used it's easy. When you access it (either bus, streetcar or subway), you pay .50. If you get on a bus you get a ticket, which you need to hang on to, however if you take the subway, you just drop .50 in a box next to the attendant. If you plan a connecting trip you must then remember to take a transfer ticket from a little machine generally sitting just behind the attendant - this will serve as your proof of payment throughout your onward journey. Don't expect to be reminded to take one by the attendant.

Best Way To Get Around:

Once you're in the city, walking is best, but on arrival at Pearson Airport, the best route into town is by the public bus commonly known as the "Airport Rocket" that departs from outside the terminals about every half-hour. A .50 ticket will get you a bus ride to the edge of the subway system (Kipling Station) and wherever you want to go thereafter - so hang onto it. Be aware that you need the right amount--the typically surly and tourist-intolerant bus drivers (wherever you are in the world, they're the same - why is that?) don't give change. From Kipling head east to St. George Station, then change lines (up the escalator) and head south to Union Station. This'll take you about 40 minutes and save you at least over a cab ride which, incidentally, will be no quicker. Our initial orientation was helped to no end by the exceptionally helpful advice given to us on the airport rocket by a pilot called Randy, a name not common in Britain due to its occasional use as an adjective. Thanks, Randy.

We like central city locations. Though the rates can be a bit more expensive, we believe there's an economy in that strategy through the money and time saved travelling in and out. We also have a fondness for waterfront locations. These preferences meant that we were playing Internet Ping-Pong for a few weeks, monitoring the rates at the Harbour Castle and the Radisson Harbourview. Harbour Castle rates dipped 2 weeks before our trip, and we took a rate of C$149 per night (excluding fees and taxes, which add about $15 per night). The best rate was to be found online from hotel group's own website on a nonrefundable basis.

Initially we were a bit nervous. The reviews were not as uniformly good as those of the Radisson, but I suspect that we may have detected the main reason for this during our stay. It's a relatively up-market establishment and attracts some "high-maintenance guests". Click here to see what I mean.

Room: It was spacious and clean, and had lots of TV channels and a fairly spectacular partial lake view from one window and similarly spectacular city view from the other. The bravely named Heavenly Bed stood magnificently up to its billing. There were tea/coffeemaking facilities and a moderately expensive minibar that we steered well clear of.

Bathroom: It was solid, clean, and functional, but less spacious. Frankly, we could not see what was so heavenly about the "Heavenly" bath. That said, it did what it was supposed to well enough.

Services: We only really used the check-in and express check-out, but these were rapid, friendly, and efficient. The restaurant menus seemed very expensive, with breakfasts for about $20 that could be purchased for less than half that if you were prepared to walk for 5 minutes in any direction.

Location: As it's name suggests, it's right on the harbour front, just behind the departure point for the ferries to Central Island and handily placed for some very pleasant strolls along the harbour front. A walk to Union Station will take you less than 10 minutes, CN Tower, about 15.

"Free Extras": These were pared back to the bare wood, with little that you'd not get in a room half the price. The Heavenly Robes in the wardrobe were very comfy indeed. The ticket on their hanger noted that they could be purchased for US$90 each. US$90!!! - for a cotton bathrobe. I suspect that this was a deterrent to theft rather than a realistic invitation to buy. If you register on the Starwood website as a "preferred guest" when you book, you'll get a free newspaper and bottle of water each day.

5th Floor Leisure Club: There was a smallish but nice pool; tame Jacuzzi in the pool area; small, unspectacular single-sex sauna; and small, inefficient steam room in the changing rooms. There was access from the indoor pool area out onto a balcony with a harbour view, or onto a terrace containing an outdoor tennis/basket-ball area.

We ate here on our first night, tired, jetlagged, hungry, and not wanting to venture too far in a new city in our bewildered state. So, after checking into the Westin, taking a shower, working out what was free in the hotel and what would be charged, bouncing on the bed, etc., we went out looking for some nourishment.

A nice gentle walk along the harbourfront took us to a small, smartish mall called the Harbour Centre. With a few tourist-orientated clothing shops, souvenir outlets, a coffee shop, and a couple of restaurants, it looked like we needed to go no farther that night. We perused the menus of the three or four restaurants on the ground floor and elected for the Boathouse Bar & Grill, tempted by its unfussy atmosphere, lake view, and promise of sticky ribs, which just aren't the same in England.

We were seated and served up with a couple of drinks quickly enough while we pondered our order, which turned out to be two orders of ribs, fries, and garlic bread to start. The food arrived after a comfortably short time via the young and polite servers. The food did its job gamely enough without being spectacular. I could not say it was the best ribs I've tasted, but they were okay and the portion size quite generous.

That said, I'd certainly eat here again on account of the palatable and reasonably priced food, friendly atmosphere, and nice lakeside views. Our bill (the food plus a couple of Pepsis) came to $48, inclusive of taxes.

One thing that you do get in Toronto, in common with a lot of North American cities, that you don't get in Europe anywhere are super-size hot dogs. These come in Italian, German, and Polish varieties, and invariably come with the offer of a fairly impressive array of optional pickled adornments. All this for about $2.75, which, frankly, between the hours of noon and 2pm, I find irresistible, despite the fact that I am aware I will almost certainly need to lie down after it's all gone. The relevance of all this nonsense to this particular dining entry is that polishing off one of these at lunchtime may well leave you feeling like you should eat something a bit lighter for your evening meal. Unless of course you've had practice.

We stumbled across the Spice Thai Cafe whilst searching for a liquor store, which incidentally take some rooting out in Toronto I can tell you. The Spice Thai is just a block down from a specialist wine shop where we bought (you guessed it) a bottle of wine that we planned to drink in front of the TV in our hotel room.

Despite the name, it's not a café, but an intimate, little restaurant with a nice pavement dining area outside when the weather permits. It's right across the road from the Radisson Harbour View Hotel.

The menu is actually not that extensive, with about five choices each for a beef, chicken, shrimp, or vegetarian meal with rice or noodles. The menu is graded with chillis to indicate how hot the meals are, but I took a three-chilli meal one night (the hottest) and it wasn't that hot at all by Thai standards I've come across elsewhere. Portions are well presented, very tasty but smallish, so take this into account when deciding how much rice to order with your meal. I was advised that the noodle dishes did not require additional rice, but I can testify that they do. Prices are reasonable, and our meal of two wonton soups, a ginger beef, chicken curry, two portions of rice, and two beers came to $46. The weather was dry, so we took advantage of the alfresco dining option. This is a place I'd not hesitate to recommend to the budget-conscious with a preference for Far Eastern cuisine - that's all they do - especially if you need to balance out a midday hot dog.

At $20, plus tax, this ascent needed to be worth it. In the morning it was overcast and I noticed that the top of the tower was disappearing periodically behind low clouds, so we waited for the weather to break, fearing we'd see nothing if we didn't. In the afternoon, the sun came out and we toddled along to the tower for a trip to the top of the world.

The first thing you're confronted with is your choice of options, starting at $20 for your basic trip to the observation deck, a bit more if you want to go up a few more stories to Sky Pod, and options to buy 5-day tickets, which are a good value if you're staying a few days and plan to take in more of these attractions. After checking on the length of the queue (10 minutes at 2pm), we went for the basic observation deck option. We'd heard the Sky Pod wasn't worth the extra money.

These days you get searched whenever you go to attractions like this, as though you were catching a plane, and the CN Tower is no exception. So, we got in line, passed the checks, posed for the customary rip-off photo (which we didn't bother to even look at, never mind buy), and pretty soon were packed into the alarmingly swift (22mph apparently) lift to the observation deck.

I must say that views on a clear day are impressive, and there are a few ways to appreciate them at that level. First is a panorama, where you're hemmed safely in by windows on all sides, but there's also the famous glass floor that you can stand on and look down, which is actually quite hard to force yourself to do. At this level there's also a restaurant that I noted attracts some ropey reviews so we left it alone. Go down a flight of steps and the panorama is open-air, but you're hemmed in by mesh, so your photo-taking is a bit more restricted, but it gives you more of a "feel" for what it's like to be so high.

Anyway, there are great views in all directions, out over the lake and islands, city, etc., and that's about it I suppose. When you're ready to do something else, you stand in line for the next elevator down (every couple of minutes) and you're out directly into the reasonably priced and well-stocked souvenir shop.

The final delight is the elevator operator. In his defence, he must have to say it 200 times a day, but his spectacular mastery of the indifferent closing summary was something I could only wonder at.

Here's the website that gives you all the boring facts and statistics about the tower in two languages.

This is the best value in Toronto at $6 return per adult. There are crossings from 8am till 10:30pm if my memory serves me correctly, in summer at least, and you're allowed to come back on any crossing you choose. Tickets for the crossings are bought from the departure point just behind the Westin Hotel on Queens Quay. Crossings are every 30 minutes and takes about 10 minutes.

Once on the island, you're faced with a small number of fast-food and drink kiosks and some useful orientation information about the pretty small island. I'd estimate a circumnavigation of the entire island on foot could be done inside 2 hours, so it's not like you can get yourself into any serious outback-type trouble, even if you tried. So, frankly, the best thing to do once you're there is to set off on an aimless wander - you'll get to see everything the island has to offer soon enough provided you keep moving. Actually, the first thing to do, before you forget and weather permitting, is to take some fine snaps of the Toronto Skyline from this privileged viewpoint.

After that, you notice that the island is pretty much solely an offshore picnic location. No cars are allowed on the island, but there is bicycle hire, so you can't relax 100%. This means that on holiday weekends, your tolerance of screaming brats might get tested a bit on the ferry and the picnic areas closer to the drop-off points. The good news is that parties containing screaming brats are generally not fond of a walk of much significance, so wander away from the ferry drop-off point and their density decreases exponentially.

The far side of the island offers unbroken views of, well, open water, and if you're prepared to be slightly more daring/creepy, nude sunbathers. These are kept within a contained area presumably, so they don't mix with, and scare, the screaming brats.

When you look at the map of Toronto, you'd be forgiven for thinking there was an airport on the island. This is stretching the definition to the limit. There is a landing strip where small light aeroplanes can take off and land, but there are no associated buildings or any other airport related paraphernalia. Actually there are generally no aeroplanes either, so, for the most part, it would be more accurately described as "a partially tarmaced field that you're not supposed to walk across."

When we took the trip across, it was a sunny early afternoon, so the balminess of the island was wonderful, but if we'd had more days, I think we'd have been sorely tempted to take a trip before dusk in order to take in the sunset over the lake and the city, and to get some nighttime shots of the city skyline. Maybe next time.

My hot tip for this trip? Take a picnic and spend a couple of hours not doing much.

Whenever we arrive in a town of any size, irrespective of location, cultural attractions, history or whatever, the first thing we have to do (not a majority decision)is charge towards the district with the highest density of retail outlets to see how quickly we (term "we" used in it's broadest context) can knock as big a hole as possible in the holiday budget. Consulting the "Rough Guide" quickly identified the "Eaton Centre" as Toronto's most likely. So before breakfast (we'd sort that out when we get there - no time to waste) on our first morning in Toronto we hurtled out in the general direction of this marvellous mecca. It was a 20-minute walk from the Westin as it turned out. Easily located - phase one accomplished, 9:15am - shops not open yet. Oh well--you mentioned breakfast?

We took our breakfast in one of the ubiquitous Tim Horton's coffee shops opposite the centre then wandered across and in to browse the outside of the shops in anticipation of their 10am opening. Sad. It's actually quite pleasant as malls go - open plan, light airy with shops on four or five split levels. All the usual suspects here, I won't list them, and a good size Borders book shop. There's a pretty good food hall on the ground level at the far end too, lined with kiosks serving more-or-less any type of fast food you can think of - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, pizza/pasta, fish & chips, poutine, and more. You can get a great midday feed here for C$7 or less.

The centre is easy to find too--very central and easy to walk to from whichever district you happen to be staying in. The interesting brownstone Old City Hall stands right next to it.

Here's the website with all the details, floor plan, and whatever. Knock yourself out.

Toronto is a lot like New York and San Francisco in that it contains a number of very interesting, accessible, and distinct neighbourhoods. I was aware of them before the trip, but I have to say that the single best guide to neighbourhoods (at least where they are and the main points of distinction of each) was a free, simple little map thrust into my hand outside Union Station by the "ShopDine Tour" Double Decker Bus sightseeing company. It did not persuade me to part with $31 and see the city from atop a yellow double-decker bus, but it did impress me enough to link the company website to this journal. Thanks for the map chaps and good luck with the buses.

There were six neighbourhoods of central Toronto listed in this pamphlet, and stone me if we didn't get round 'em all, so here are the highlights and lowlights.

Harbourfront: We didn't need much of a guide to this area - we were staying in it. We'd already appreciated the attraction of the $6 ferry crossing to Centre Island from Queens Quay next to our hotel. We'd enjoyed the boardwalk along the shore of Lake Ontario several times, noting the occasional organised musical event of an evening (usually a brass-band type thing that attracted a large audience) between Queens Quay West and Queens Quay East and the fondness of the locals to spend dusk sipping cold drinks at the numerous open air bar-fronts. Super. It also has the attraction of two good hotels in the Westin (where we stayed) and the Radisson (where we didn't). For a lunchtime picnic or an early evening drink, it's quite lovely, especially on a humid day, when it tends to be a bit less stuffy than the city proper.

St Lawrence Market Neighbourhood: Take a 10-minute walk east from the Westin and you hit an fascinating old neighbourhood (the city's oldest I believe) centred around the buzzing St Lawrence food market. It has interesting Victorian-esque buildings, plenty of Irish-type pubs, a few restaurants, and the wonderful Flatiron building. We went to the market for breakfast one morning and particularly enjoyed watching it wake up and creak into life. There rae loads of fresh fruit stalls, fish, meat, speciality stores, etc., in this highly entertaining and generally good-value setting. We looked a good spot for a drink, though we never got round to that.

Baldwin Village: Blink and you'll miss this quaint little area centred on one and a half short streets. Apart from the cosmopolitan aire and interesting little two-story buildings, this area also appeared to offer some great options for ethnic dining. It actually merges with Chinatown, so maybe that's why.

Bloor-Yorkville: A fairly expansive bustling commercial stretch based on two long and wide streets, although the upmarket commercial thrust is balanced somewhat by the Royal Ontario Museum at its southern edge. There are some moderate-to-pricey hotels here, high-end fashion, and retail outlets, but these turn somewhat seedier the instant you turn south onto Yonge Street.

Downtown Yonge Street: It takes all kinds to make a world, and there are some pretty grubby and seedy commercial ventures on this busy stretch, but there are also good secondhand book and record shops in amongst the "adult theatres" as you head back towards the more conservative Eaton Centre. The Eaton Centre is a pretty tidy sizable mall that I'll give its own journal. I think it's fair to say that Trish liked it there.

Entertainment District: A term which loosely describes the 6 or so block square area north of the CN Tower and neighbouring Skydome (currently know as the Rogers Centre - catchy eh?). There is mid-price to expensive wining and dining, plus a high density of theatres and pricier hotels. There are some good pub-type establishments mixed in here, too.

All these neighbourhoods were travelled to and between on foot, and that, I maintain, is the way it should be. Contrasts are wonderful, safety levels are good, and this is the only way to get a feel for such a diverse and cosmopolitan city in a very short space of time.

But then I suspect I don't yet know the half of it... maybe next time.

On our first foray out into Toronto, we were buying something from a shop in the Eaton Centre, and the assistant happened to ask us where we were staying. When we told her it was at the Westin she replied, "Oh, it's nice there, and they have a wonderful concierge". This put me a little on the back foot. I wasn't sure we'd ever stayed in a hotel with a concierge before, and I wasn't even 100% sure what one was. I'd certainly not used one before, so on our return, I was determined to try this new thing out - provided it was free.

When we did return, I noticed that the concierge was actually a young-ish man who looked a bit like Steve Buscemi standing behind a desk to the right hand side of the lobby. It appeared that people would approach him with questions about Toronto, and he would answer them. That meant I needed a question. I was deliberating what I could ask later in the heavenly bath (Westin's words, not mine) when it occurred to me that I did not know what terminal to pick up my rental car from at Pearson Airport the day after tomorrow. That was my question sorted out. I'd ask which terminal the Thrifty desk was at when we set out for our evening meal.

When the time came to test how wonderful things were, I found I'd been beaten to the concierge desk by two budding young socialites (I'll call them Paris and Nicky - just for fun). No problem. They were there first, and I could watch them and pick up some tips on concierge etiquette at the same time. It turned out that they were looking for some pointers on where to eat and drink that night, a conversation I decided wouldn't have too much direct relevance to us, as it looked like they were on a much bigger budget.

This whole episode started tamely enough--they asked some questions about restauraunts and bars, the concierge ran through a list of expensive-sounding options, detailing the merits of each place as he went, occasionally calling up websites and turning his monitor so they could see. It then transpired that they intended to plan their menu choices at the concierge desk too, so they needed to see menus. Lots of menus. And drinks - where should we go for drinks? What do they serve there? Is there any way we can see a selection of their cocktails? The queue behind me, needless to say, was growing, and some of my fellow queuers might have had questions requiring as similarly a brief response as my own, but Paris and Nicky appeared oblivious or indifferent to our growing prescence. I concluded that this chapter in all our lives was unlikely to be resolved any time soon when one of them disappeared to the toilet, leaving the other to browse websites with the poor concierge. After a few minutes she returned, and the inane questions recommenced with increasing ferocity (inane questions are measured on a scale of ferocity).

By this time, they were more or less trying to determine whether the bartender in a particular bar would be left-handed. Throughout this, I noted the exemplary manners, courtesy, and dignified demeanor of the concierge. He was indeed "wonderful". I concluded that what I was watching could only be down to one of three possibilities:

1. These girls were professionals hired to make this fellow's life hell by a spiteful ex-lover.
2. These girls were tourist industry "mystery shoppers", and the Westin, the concierge, or both was on its way to earning some magnificent award.
3. These girls had the combined intellect of a pebble.

At that point, I was struck by the thought that at 38, it is increasingly likely that I have more years behind me than in front of me, so, like most of my fellow queuers by this time, I wandered off. Later that night, as we returned to the hotel after our meal, I noticed the concierge was free. "I need to pick up a car at Pearson Airport the day after tomorrow, and I don't know at which terminal Thrifty have their desk. Could you find that out for me, please?" I asked. "They have a desk at all three terminals, sir. Have a good night," he replied. Wonderful.

That was it. I'd used the services of a concierge, I had knowledge of it, and I could not now go back. I felt dirty and ashamed.