What Travelers Say About Toronto
Toronto is Canada’s largest city and one of the most multicultural places on earth — more than half its residents were born outside the country, and that diversity defines everything from its food to its festivals. Spread along the shore of Lake Ontario, it’s a clean, safe, walkable metropolis where soaring glass towers sit beside leafy Victorian neighbourhoods and dozens of distinct ethnic enclaves.
The CN Tower still anchors the skyline and offers dizzying views (and a glass floor for the brave), but Toronto’s real character lives in its neighbourhoods: the cobblestoned Distillery District, the bohemian jumble of Kensington Market, Greektown, Little Italy, and one of North America’s largest Chinatowns. The Royal Ontario Museum and Art Gallery of Ontario satisfy culture-seekers, while a quick ferry ride reaches the car-free Toronto Islands and the city’s best skyline view. Niagara Falls is an easy day trip.
Toronto is welcoming and very safe by big-city standards, with an efficient transit system (the TTC). The main downsides are cost — it’s an expensive city for hotels and dining — and the brutal winters, when temperatures plunge well below freezing from December to March. Visit in late spring through early autumn for patios, festivals and the best of the lakeside city.