The Canadian city offers towering views, history, culture and world-class cuisine – and Hollywood loves it, too
Claire Webb - 20 July 2019
Visitors to Toronto can’t help but compare the city to New York, and usually remark on how much cleaner it is. In fact, Canada’s biggest metropolis was called York until 1834, and it often doubles for American cities in TV shows. In recent years, Torontonians have occasionally spotted women clad in scarlet cloaks and stiff white bonnets filming The Handmaid’s Tale, the drama series based on the 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood (Toronto happens to be Atwood’s adopted home and the setting for many of her other novels). Toronto has long been a liberal mecca for migrants and is one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities – over half its citizens were born outside of the country. It truly is a cultural melting pot that offers everything you’d expect of a world-class city, while a favourable exchange rate makes it considerably cheaper for Brits than its neighbour. The Handmaid’s Tale Sunday 9.00pm C4, starring Elisabeth Moss, is filmed in Toronto
FEEL ON TOP OF THE WORLD
A spindle-like building towers above Toronto’s skyscrapers: the CN Tower (cntower.ca), a 553m-tall antenna and lightning rod (pictured below) that’s struck an average of 75 times a year. When a storm isn’t raging, you can soar up it in a glass elevator and peer down at the toy cars on the highway, and the dinky boats gliding across the endless waters of Lake Ontario. If you want to feel like Spider-Man, brave the EdgeWalk. You’re harnessed to an overhead rail so you can stroll hands-free along a 356m ledge around the perimeter of the observation deck.
ADMIRE ANCIENT WONDERS
The Royal Ontario Museum (rom.on.ca) is Canada’s answer to the British Museum and its treasures include Egyptian mummy cases, a Ming dynasty tomb and a mesmerising Neo-Babylonian bas-relief of a lion. A more recent arrival is a life-size 3D-printed model of a Wendiceratops, a species of herbivorous dinosaur with flamboyant horns. It’s named after Wendy Sloboda, the Canadian fossil hunter who unearthed it in the western province of Alberta in 2010.
DISCOVER INDIGENOUS ART
Over a third of the Art Gallery of Ontario is dedicated to art by First Nations, Inuit and Métis – the “First Peoples of North America” – and other global indigenous art. Current exhibitions include a celebration of Brian Jungen, who creates sculptures from repurposed everyday objects such as trainers. There’s also a room of Henry Moore’s monumental sculptures, and a hugely popular new acquisition allows visitors to come face to face with countless variations of their reflection for 60 seconds – Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – Let’s Survive Forever. From 21 September, Toronto will hold its first Biennial of Art (torontobiennial. org), a 72-day contemporary art festival along the city’s waterfront.
PIG OUT IN HOGTOWN
As you’d expect in a city where more than 140 languages are spoken, there are restaurants catering to every whim and budget, from a new wave of First Nations chefs serving seasonal dishes with an indigenous twist, to Chinatown’s perennially popular, no-frills establishments and Torontonians’ beloved all-day brunches. Whet your appetite with a stroll around the wrought-iron St Lawrence Market, which has been feeding the city since 1803. Join the queue at Carousel Bakery to try the city’s famous peameal bacon sandwich: a soft roll piled with cornmealencrusted, mustard-topped bacon – it’s one of the reasons Toronto’s nickname is “Hogtown”. TIME FOR A DRINK In 1832, two English millers built a windmill on the shore of Lake Ontario. They ended up swapping flour for whisky, and Gooderham and Worts became the world’s biggest distillery. Nowadays their red-brick warehouses contain artists’ studios, galleries, boutiques, coffee shops, a craft brewery, restaurants and a German-style Christmas market. Go Canada’s walking and Segway tours (gotourscanada.com) explore the Distillery District’s history.
SPLASH THE CASH
In the 60s, Yorkville was a hippy hangout that attracted the likes of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Nowadays it’s decidedly chichi and crammed with designer shops. In Holt Renfrew – Canada’s Selfridges – you can find some of Meghan Markle’s favourite labels, including Mother, Aquazzura and Mackage. The Duchess of Sussex lived in the area when she starred in the New York-set legal drama Suits, which was filmed in Toronto’s Financial District. Footwear aficionados will want to hotfoot it to the Bata Shoe Museum, which houses more than 13,000 shoes and related items, and hosts stylish exhibitions.
FLIGHT TIME
Around eight hours from the UK.
WHEN TO GO
Toronto winters are long and cold, with snowfalls from November to March and even April. Spring and autumn are short and temperate, and the city is buzzing during the hot summer, which lasts from June through to September.
EAST COAST ITINERARY
Toronto is the gateway to Niagara Falls, which is a two-hour drive away. Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and French-speaking Montréal are a half-day’s drive or train journey away. For more information, visit seetorontonow.com.
Visitors to Toronto can’t help but compare the city to New York, and usually remark on how much cleaner it is. In fact, Canada’s biggest metropolis was called York until 1834, and it often doubles for American cities in TV shows. In recent years, Torontonians have occasionally spotted women clad in scarlet cloaks and stiff white bonnets filming The Handmaid’s Tale, the drama series based on the 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood (Toronto happens to be Atwood’s adopted home and the setting for many of her other novels). Toronto has long been a liberal mecca for migrants and is one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities – over half its citizens were born outside of the country. It truly is a cultural melting pot that offers everything you’d expect of a world-class city, while a favourable exchange rate makes it considerably cheaper for Brits than its neighbour. The Handmaid’s Tale Sunday 9.00pm C4, starring Elisabeth Moss, is filmed in Toronto
FEEL ON TOP OF THE WORLD
A spindle-like building towers above Toronto’s skyscrapers: the CN Tower (cntower.ca), a 553m-tall antenna and lightning rod (pictured below) that’s struck an average of 75 times a year. When a storm isn’t raging, you can soar up it in a glass elevator and peer down at the toy cars on the highway, and the dinky boats gliding across the endless waters of Lake Ontario. If you want to feel like Spider-Man, brave the EdgeWalk. You’re harnessed to an overhead rail so you can stroll hands-free along a 356m ledge around the perimeter of the observation deck.
ADMIRE ANCIENT WONDERS
The Royal Ontario Museum (rom.on.ca) is Canada’s answer to the British Museum and its treasures include Egyptian mummy cases, a Ming dynasty tomb and a mesmerising Neo-Babylonian bas-relief of a lion. A more recent arrival is a life-size 3D-printed model of a Wendiceratops, a species of herbivorous dinosaur with flamboyant horns. It’s named after Wendy Sloboda, the Canadian fossil hunter who unearthed it in the western province of Alberta in 2010.
DISCOVER INDIGENOUS ART
Over a third of the Art Gallery of Ontario is dedicated to art by First Nations, Inuit and Métis – the “First Peoples of North America” – and other global indigenous art. Current exhibitions include a celebration of Brian Jungen, who creates sculptures from repurposed everyday objects such as trainers. There’s also a room of Henry Moore’s monumental sculptures, and a hugely popular new acquisition allows visitors to come face to face with countless variations of their reflection for 60 seconds – Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – Let’s Survive Forever. From 21 September, Toronto will hold its first Biennial of Art (torontobiennial. org), a 72-day contemporary art festival along the city’s waterfront.
PIG OUT IN HOGTOWN
As you’d expect in a city where more than 140 languages are spoken, there are restaurants catering to every whim and budget, from a new wave of First Nations chefs serving seasonal dishes with an indigenous twist, to Chinatown’s perennially popular, no-frills establishments and Torontonians’ beloved all-day brunches. Whet your appetite with a stroll around the wrought-iron St Lawrence Market, which has been feeding the city since 1803. Join the queue at Carousel Bakery to try the city’s famous peameal bacon sandwich: a soft roll piled with cornmealencrusted, mustard-topped bacon – it’s one of the reasons Toronto’s nickname is “Hogtown”. TIME FOR A DRINK In 1832, two English millers built a windmill on the shore of Lake Ontario. They ended up swapping flour for whisky, and Gooderham and Worts became the world’s biggest distillery. Nowadays their red-brick warehouses contain artists’ studios, galleries, boutiques, coffee shops, a craft brewery, restaurants and a German-style Christmas market. Go Canada’s walking and Segway tours (gotourscanada.com) explore the Distillery District’s history.
SPLASH THE CASH
In the 60s, Yorkville was a hippy hangout that attracted the likes of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Nowadays it’s decidedly chichi and crammed with designer shops. In Holt Renfrew – Canada’s Selfridges – you can find some of Meghan Markle’s favourite labels, including Mother, Aquazzura and Mackage. The Duchess of Sussex lived in the area when she starred in the New York-set legal drama Suits, which was filmed in Toronto’s Financial District. Footwear aficionados will want to hotfoot it to the Bata Shoe Museum, which houses more than 13,000 shoes and related items, and hosts stylish exhibitions.
FLIGHT TIME
Around eight hours from the UK.
WHEN TO GO
Toronto winters are long and cold, with snowfalls from November to March and even April. Spring and autumn are short and temperate, and the city is buzzing during the hot summer, which lasts from June through to September.
EAST COAST ITINERARY
Toronto is the gateway to Niagara Falls, which is a two-hour drive away. Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and French-speaking Montréal are a half-day’s drive or train journey away. For more information, visit seetorontonow.com.