Going to Toronto, what to do?

[blinkme_210]

My family and I will be going to Toronto for about 5 days later on in the week, and we're kind of lost as to what to do when we get there. I've checked Toronto's tourist website, Toronto.com, but it's not like it lists which mall is the best to go shopping, or give real opinions of what to avoid.

I know we're gonna go to Chinatown obviously, haha, the various Chinese malls, Niagara Falls, Yonge Street, CN Tower, etc. This is what I've gathered from my friends. So if anyone could give us like a little breakdown of malls and other places to visit that'd be great.

[blinkme_210]

Oh, and is it easy to navigate the transit system in Toronto? I know my parents will be wanting to go off on their own some days, and they'll be taking the rental car with them. Since I'm only 22, I won't be able to easily rent my own car, so it'll be public transit for me.

[K271]

Public transportation in Toronto sucks!! Depends on where your hotel is and where you want to go. As long as you are on the subway lines you will be fine. Other wise it pretty pitiful. Within downtown you can take subway, buses, or street cars and you should be good.

If you get a chance, check out Miller Tavern at Yonge and York Mills... upscale dining but the best steak and lobster cakes you will ever have.

Shopping - Yorkdale Mall 401 and Allen, accesible by the subway
- Britannia Outlet Mall - in Mississauga at Britannia
Drive and Hurontario

[K271]

More shopping at Yorkville, Bloor and Bay area

Sights - Harbour Front is pretty cool, there's the musical gardens down there. Follow that up with a ferry ride to Centre Island. Easily can be a day trip.

Check out a Jays game if you're into baseball, if not bring your golf clubs and goto Oakville Golf and Country Club.

On the drive to Niagara, stop at Niagara on the Lake and do some wine tasting.

Pacific Mall is the big chinese mall, lots of bubble tea places in there, I swear every other store is bubble tea or ripped dvd's.
Some interesting stuff in the mall but kind of ho hum to be honest.

Head over to Danforth this weekend if you are in town. It's Taste of Danforth (Greek Festival), it's a great street party with lots of awesome eats.

[blinkme_210]

Wow, thanks for all that info K271. I will definitely hit up the harbour waterfront.

I just found out that I will be staying at the Marriot Eaton Center, which is a walk way from Yonge Street. So anything particularly interesting on Yonge Street I should check out?

[GTS Jeff]

There's a glass floor at the top of the CN tower. What you do is take off your pants and sit down. Good fun for all.

[?????]

Hey blink i'll be there from the 2nd till the 13th for training.
And thanks for the info K271.

[90Tegra]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
There's a glass floor at the top of the CN tower. What you do is take off your pants and sit down. Good fun for all.

if u have heart problems i wouln't recommend this to anyone. But there is so many nice places down here. check out yorkdale mall for sure, and if you can try to visit pacific mall its on steeles and kennedy(chinese only mall) as you seem to be chinese.

[K271]

You're right at Eaton Center, everything is with in walking distance. Good thing you're not in town this past weekend, it was Caribana Festival which everyone in TO knows the chances of being shot goes up. All the Americans come up for this huge three day party, all the american thugs roll in town with their SUV's and bring the gangsta party to town.

Check out St. Lawrence Market which is Jarvis St and Front. Around the same area at night is the Distellary District, cool lounges. Oh yeah, take the bus out to the beaches, can play some volleyball or watch some toronto ladies serve it up.

There's Ontario Place but it's more for kids.

[powerslave]

I'd definitely recommend the Royal Ontario Museum. A buddy of mine and I went to it thinking we need to kill half an hour, it was so great we ended up leaving it three and a half hours later. Definitely worth checking out!

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by K271
You're right at Eaton Center, everything is with in walking distance. Good thing you're not in town this past weekend, it was Caribana Festival which everyone in TO knows the chances of being shot goes up. All the Americans come up for this huge three day party, all the american thugs roll in town with their SUV's and bring the gangsta party to town.


I just got back from there and I was wondering why Yonge street had so many cops on it at 11:00 A.M. There was seriously four at every intersection and mounted cops on circle patrol. Now I know the answer.

I was just there two weeks ago, here's all the things I did:

1. NYC/Atlantic City/Philadelphia/Washington 4 day tour.$300 for travel and accomodations to the cities listed above. PM me if you want more details

2.Blueman Group - The guys from the Intel commercials have their own theater now. $65 for a truely original show.

3.City Pass - $55 for a pass to the Royal Ontario Museum, CN Tower, Science Center, Art Gallery,Casa Loma and the Zoo.

4.TTC Day Pass - Get up at 7 AM, buy a day pass and hop on random buses. TO is so diverse that it's almost like stepping into a different world everytime you get off the bus.

5.TSX - Check out the super fancy mall inside the TSX. Normal malls place Cavaliers and Pontiacs inside for advertising purposes. This place puts Benzes and Porsches.

6.Underground Mall - An underground mall that stretches through downtown.

7.PizzaPizza - This franchise spreads worse then cancer, but their pizza is damn good.

You'll learn to appreciate Calgary alot more after visiting TO. No smog, nice mix of nature and urban living and way less crowded.

After visiting TO, I finally understand why some people become so obsessed with being famous. When you're constantly surrounded by so many people, it's very easy to feel small,worthless and un-noticed.

[Weapon_R]

I went for 3 days and it is hardly enough time to get bored of TO. I stayed in downtown and had a blast.

Visit the CN tower - it's breathtaking. I had a hotel right across the street from it, and a lake there. Lots of fun there with seadoos and such.

Budget an entire day to visit Niagara Falls and Yonge Street. Niagara is amazing if you enjoy natural beauty, while Yonge street is miles and miles of cool stores, attractions, bars/clubs/restaurants and such. It stretches forever - someone told me it goes to Montreal, but i'm not sure about that.

Downtown TO is very lively at night. It's like people never sleep there, I remember seeing a Subway open very, very late and people lined up for it. You will see so many people at the clubs that it'll make the Calgary scene look like crap.

Hit up the skydome for a Jay's game. When I went there, you could EASILY get an awesome deal for tickets from the scalpers :bigpimp: , or you can get them from the ticket counter. Being in a big city with only a few friends, we opted for the ticket counter as we had no way of verifying the legitimacy of the tickets being sold in the streets. If you know someone who knows whats up, go for it.

Check out some of the retail stores and restaurants you won't ever see here. Downtown TO is so much bigger and more colorful than Calgary's, so expect to find tons of things to do. Near the skydome is the hard rock cafe, and its pretty good there.

My only regret was not buying a few of those paintings that homeless guys sell on the streets for dirt cheap of hockey players :bigpimp:

[blinkme_210]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
My only regret was not buying a few of those paintings that homeless guys sell on the streets for dirt cheap of hockey players :bigpimp:

Or of Tupac, Kurt Kobain, and other dead music stars. Lol.

I just came back from Toronto, and my experiences are pretty much the same as what others have already said about Downtown. If you do go to Toronto, book yourself a hotel on Yonge Street. Closer to Bloor St. if you're into Gucci, LV, Armani, Chanel, all the good things. And more south near Queen St. if you want all the nightlife and shopping.

As for Markham.... Chinese capital city of Canada, I swear! I stopped at a light, there were only chinese people in the cars next to me, chinese people crossing the street, chinese people waiting for the bus, chinese shops lining both sides of the road, etc. It's insane, you'd swear you were in Hong Kong . Certain parts of Markham, especially along Warden Ave, numerous towering partment buildings lining both sides of the road with barely any grass create the Hong Kong feel. I think the amount of non-chinese people I saw in Markham can be counted with just my one hand.

As for the cars... BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Inifiniti are the new Toyotas and Hondas, every asian person and their dog owns a few. Drive around any parking lot in Markham and you'll see 3 Series, C Class, and G35's galore. Saw 4 CLS500's just in the Pacific Mall parking lot, along with 350's, S2000's, 5 Series, 7 Series, E Class, S Class, SLK Class, FX35/45, SC430, etc etc. If you've never been to Markham, you'd think I was talking out of my ass.