The next stop on our adventure was Toronto.
Driving into Toronto.
We found our accommodation which was perfectly adequate and in the centre of the city. If you like, use this link to sign up to Air B&B and we’ll both get $25 in credit toward our next trip!
We then caught the ferry over to Toronto Island which cost $7.50 for adults and $3.65 for children under 14.
Our Ferry.
The island was lovely. It’s about 5km long, full of gardens, parks and a boardwalk. There’s also a children’s amusement park, a maze and a pier. We just wandered around, enjoying the sunshine.
Our view of Toronto from Toronto Island.
The next day, we had every intention of doing the City Sightseeing Toronto hop-on-hop-off bus tour. However, after waiting for over an hour after the scheduled pick up time, which included calling the company and being told we had at least another forty five minute wait, we decided to give it a miss.
We took a cab to Casa Loma, a castle in the middle of Toronto. It was very impressive, with beautiful rooms, furniture and gardens.
Casa Loma.
It had a great deal of history and we spent a few hours wandering around. Entry was a bit expensive, adults were $25 and children under 14 were $15. You get your own audio tour device, and it’s all self guided. We highly recommend a visit.
One of the beautiful rooms in Casa Loma.
Next we took the subway back into the city and walked over to the Distillery district. There were a lot of very funky shops and great places to eat (and drink). We had lunch at the Mill St. Brewery and it was delicious.
We then took a cable car into the city. Our cable car driver was incredibly nice; he was the quintessential Canadian. Eh!
The CN Tower in Toronto.
We split up from our travelling companions and Poopsie and I headed down to Yonge-Dundas Square, nicknamed Toronto’s Times Square.
Me crossing the street in Toronto’s Times Square.
As our friends live in America, they continued using their mobile phones in Canada and had been using them to navigate us around. However, we’d separated from them a few hours earlier and we did not have functioning mobile phones…
We got lost.
Part of our detour.
But, as we wandered around while it was starting to get dark, we stumbled across the CN Tower again, but this time it was lit up. Silver linings.
Have you ever been to Toronto? What did you think?
* All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.
What a lovely recap of my city! I’m so glad you had a great time, and happy you fit in a visit to the island – it really is a pretty little oasis from city life! Great photos too, btw!
Thanks! I am very glad you feel we did your city justice. I mentioned to Poopsie that Frugal Desperado was from Toronto so we had to make it a good post!!
It most definitely was a fantastic post – mission accomplished!
I noticed you mentioned below that Canada felt more like Australia – you know, that’s exactly what I tell people when they ask me for my opinion of Oz! I visited Sydney when I was planning ahead for a year abroad, and I decided against living there because it felt *too* much like home. It very much had the same “feel” as walking around in Toronto. I wound up moving to China for that year instead (but managed to fit in another trip to your beautiful country while I was there – better an 8 hour flight than a 22 hour one!)
The flight is definitely the biggest killer. Everywhere is so far from Australia! One day when we’re living overseas, I hope it will be much easier to travel!
Looks like the trip there was awesome! The ferry looks really cool, Casa Loma looks really nice – I love castles. The CN tower looks amazing. I’ve never been to Canada, I can’t wait to go there!
Tristan
Definitely recommend you get there when you can, Tristan!
Canada is on our to-do list as well. Your story about getting lost cracks me up, because that is the sort of thing I would do. At least there was a whacking great tower to guide you home (so pretty!) Did you notice much of a difference between Canada and the USA? (Actually, you probably have readers from both countries, so better be careful what you say!)
Thanks for the comment Mrs ETT. I would say Canada reminded us a lot more of Australia. In America, we definitely felt like we were in another country but with Canada, we could have been walking down a street in Sydney. I definitely recommend you get over there when you get the chance!