5 Days in Toronto

The market on Front Street East has existed in some form since 1803, when this stretch of the shoreline was set aside for public trading. The South Market building dates from 1845, when it was Toronto's city hall, and part of that original hall is still inside. National Geographic named it the world's best food market in 2012. It is a proper working market, with butchers, fishmongers, cheese counters, bakers and lunch counters under one roof.

The thing to eat is the peameal bacon sandwich: unsmoked pork loin rolled in cornmeal, griddled and piled on a Kaiser roll. The best-known counter is Carousel Bakery at 93 Front Street East, in the South Market, which lists Tuesday to Sunday hours on its own site. Order it with mustard and expect a short line before noon. After lunch, wander the upper floor and the stalls selling Ontario cheese, smoked fish and maple products.

Hockey is the closest thing Canada has to a shared religion, and this museum, ten minutes' walk west of the market, is its cathedral. It sits in a grand former Bank of Montreal building at Yonge and Front, part of Brookfield Place, and the Esso Great Hall holds the Stanley Cup itself and the other NHL trophies. The rest is rooms of players, records and memorabilia.

It's a good half-day for hockey fans and a quick one for everyone else. If you don't care about the game, skip it and spend the hour on the CN Tower or the islands instead.

Two minutes west, across the corner of Bay Street, is Union Station, the busiest transport hub in Canada, serving more than 70 million passengers a year. It was built in 1927, has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1975, and still looks like the railway palace it was meant to be: GO trains, Via Rail and the UP Express airport train all leave from the platforms below.

You will use it again, because it is the start of your day trip to Niagara Falls. For now, step inside the main hall, then follow the signs out to the Front Street side. From here the CN Tower is a ten-minute walk to the southwest.

When it was completed in 1976, the CN Tower was the tallest free-standing structure in the world, and it held that record for more than 30 years. It stands 553 meters tall and was built by Canadian National Railway on the old rail yards. The main attractions are the Main Observation Level, the Lower Observation Level at 342 meters with a glass floor that you can stand on, and an outdoor terrace.

Go on a clear day, ideally in the afternoon so you can see the city and the lake in light. The lake side shows the Toronto Islands and the harbor you will visit on day four. There is also a revolving restaurant, 360, about 350 meters up, if you would rather sit than stand.

EdgeWalk is the hands-free walk around the outside of the main pod, 356 meters above the ground and 116 storeys up, with nothing but a harness clipped to an overhead rail. It was the first of its kind in North America when it opened in 2011. The whole visit takes about 90 minutes, and the walk itself lasts about 30. You lean out over the edge, with a guide beside you, and the thrill is real but controlled.

It operates in almost any weather, and the coldest days often give the clearest views. You must be 13 or older, with a guardian present to sign for ages 13 to 17, and you leave everything but your clothes in a locker. Glasses stay on with a lanyard they provide.

Harbourfront Centre is the cultural strip along the lakeshore on Queens Quay, built on former wharves that were filled in during the early twentieth century. It's a mix of galleries, theaters, craft studios, a skating rink in winter and a long boardwalk with views of the harbor, ferries and the islands. In summer the grounds fill with festivals and free concerts; in winter it's quieter, but the lake light at dusk is worth it.

Walk east along Queens Quay at sunset toward the Toronto Islands ferry terminal, which is five minutes from here, and note the departure times for tomorrow or the day after. The Scotiabank Arena, where the Leafs and Raptors play, is a short walk back north.

The ROM is Canada's largest museum and the most visited, with more than 18 million objects across art, world cultures and natural history. It opened in 1914 and sits on Bloor Street next to the University of Toronto, with a daring crystal-shaped addition by Daniel Libeskind that opened in 2007. Inside, the dinosaur galleries, the Egyptian and Near Eastern collections, the Chinese temple art and the First Peoples galleries are the highlights.

Pick three or four galleries instead of trying to see everything, because the building is a maze. The dinosaur hall is the best bet if you have children, and the world cultures galleries are the best bet if you don't. Museum station is right at the door.

Ten minutes north of the ROM, Yorkville was a folk-music village in the 1960s and is now the city's most expensive shopping district, a grid of boutiques, galleries and cafés on Bloor Street and Yorkville Avenue. The Victorian houses survive, converted into shops and restaurants.

It's not essential, but it's a good place for a coffee and a walk between museums, and a way to see the leafy, wealthy side of the city. Village of Yorkville Park, a small garden with a waterfall and a 650-tonne granite rock, is worth a look.

Koreatown runs along Bloor Street West around Christie station, a short subway ride west of Yorkville, and it's one of the places that make Toronto's food scene feel like several cities at once. The strip is lined with Korean barbecue, tofu stews, fried chicken, bakeries and bingsu dessert cafés, and many places stay open late.

Order a hot tofu stew (sundubu) or a barbecue set for lunch, and finish with a bakery stop. Korean fried chicken with a sticky glaze is the safest order with a group. After lunch, High Park, a 161-hectare park that opened in 1876, is a short ride further west if you want fresh air.

Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival castle on a hill above the city, built from 1911 to 1914 for the financier Sir Henry Pellatt. It had an elevator, secret passages behind Pellatt's office, an oven big enough to cook an ox and a swimming pool that was never finished. Pellatt had helped bring hydroelectric power to Toronto, and his money ran out within ten years: he left in 1923 and the city seized the house for unpaid taxes in 1924.

Today you walk through the great hall, the library and the towers, with views of the skyline from the top. The place is theatrical rather than historical, and it's best at the end of the afternoon, when the light on the stone is good. Dupont station is a ten-minute walk away.

Toronto's two big indoor teams share one arena next to Union Station: the Maple Leafs of the NHL and the Raptors of the NBA. The Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967, the longest drought in the league, and the city still turns up in blue and white. The Raptors won the NBA title in 2019, and their tickets are usually the easier ones to get.

Pick whichever team is home on your Thursday, or swap days to fit the schedule. Buy from the team or an official resale marketplace, never from a stranger outside. Both seasons run from October to April, so in summer there are no games; the Blue Jays play baseball nearby at Rogers Centre in the warm months.

Kensington Market is a National Historic Site, not for a single building but for what it has been: a place where each wave of immigrants opened their shops. In the early twentieth century it was the Jewish market, with tailors, bakers and furriers, and later came Portuguese, Caribbean, Latin American, Vietnamese and other communities. The Victorian row houses on Wales Avenue and the small streets around Augusta Avenue and Baldwin Street still look like an old village.

Walk Augusta, Baldwin and Nassau, and look in the cheese shops, vintage stores, spice shops and cafés. Everything is on a small scale and a bit scruffy on purpose. It's a place to eat, not to shop: grab a patty, an empanada or a taco from Seven Lives on Kensington Avenue as you go.

A butter tart is the great Canadian pastry argument: a small flaky shell filled with butter, brown sugar and egg, baked until the top is crisp and the middle runs. People fight over whether raisins belong in it, and over whether the filling should be runny or firm. Wanda's Pie in the Sky, a small shop in Kensington Market, is a long-running name for butter tarts and pies. Look for the classic runny style.

Buy one plain and one with pecans, eat them standing outside, and make up your own mind about the raisins. The shop also sells whole pies, with seasonal ones like pumpkin in October, if you want a bigger project.

Toronto's downtown Chinatown is centered on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West. It moved here in the 1950s and 1960s, when the first Chinatown near today's City Hall was demolished to make way for the new municipal buildings and Nathan Phillips Square. The residents and businesses moved west, and were joined by new immigrants through the 1960s, so the strip you see is the second Chinatown, not the first.

Today it is a loud, crowded mix of Chinese, Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian shops: produce stalls spilling onto the sidewalk, bakeries with pineapple buns, herb shops and dim sum halls. Go at midday and eat dim sum at a long-standing hall such as Rol San (388 Spadina) or Mother's Dumplings (421 Spadina), both on the main strip, and buy pastries to go.

The AGO sits on Dundas Street West beside Grange Park, and it is one of the larger art museums in North America. The core is a Georgian house called The Grange, which the gallery acquired in 1911, and the building has been expanded several times, most recently by Frank Gehry from 2004 to 2008. The Gehry staircase and the long timber-and-glass facade are worth seeing for themselves.

The collection has Canadian, First Nations, Inuit, African and European art, and a sculpture centre devoted to Henry Moore that Moore helped design. Allow two hours, and look at the Canadian galleries even if your focus is European art, because that is where you can't see the same thing elsewhere.

Queen Street West is the city's artistic and independent-business spine, running from Spadina Avenue to Bathurst and beyond. The western stretch has long been the city's center for broadcasting, music, fashion and the visual arts, and it still has independent shops, record stores and murals. The chain stores have moved in on the eastern end, but the further west you go, the more local it gets.

Walk it from Spadina toward Ossington, or go east first to Nathan Phillips Square, which has a skating rink in winter. Toronto City Hall, with its two curved towers, opened in 1965 beside the square. Old City Hall, in use since 1899, is the stone building across the street.

The Horseshoe is one of the city's best-known live music rooms, a no-frills bar at 370 Queen Street West that has been running since 1947. In September 1997 the Rolling Stones opened a world tour here with a 75-minute show.

Check the calendar for the week, buy a ticket or show up for a local act, and expect a cheap beer, a crowded floor and a loud night. It's an honest, scruffy, unpolished room, and it's the right way to end a day in this neighborhood.

A short ferry ride from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal takes you to the Toronto Islands, a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario that shelter the harbor. They are car-free, with a year-round residential community, parks, beaches, bike paths and the best view of the skyline you will get. The ferries run all year from the terminal on Queens Quay.

In summer, ferries go to Centre Island, Ward's Island and Hanlan's Point, and you can rent bikes or kayaks. From mid-October to mid-April, only the Ward's Island route runs, with sailings from about 6:30am to 11:45pm, so the island is quiet, windy and good for a walk. Bring a layer, walk the boardwalk west toward Centre Island and look back at the city.

East along the waterfront, a short ride or a walk from the ferry terminal, is Sugar Beach, a small city park across from the Redpath sugar refinery. It opened in 2010 and has a sand beach, umbrellas, Muskoka chairs and candy-striped paving in a maple leaf pattern. It's not for swimming but for sitting, with the working refinery as a backdrop.

Stop here for ten minutes to see how the city turned an industrial edge into public space. Sherbourne Common is one block east.

One block east of Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common is a waterfront park on a former industrial strip, and it does a job most visitors never notice. It was designed as one of the earliest parks in Canada to treat a whole neighborhood's stormwater, and the treatment plant sits in the basement of the park pavilion.

The part you can see is a 240-meter water channel running down the middle, with three sculptures called Light Showers by the artist Jill Anholt rising nine meters out of it. Walk the length of it from the lake to Lake Shore Boulevard, a few minutes at a stroll. It's a quiet piece of the new waterfront, and a pause before the Distillery District, a short ride further east.

The Distillery District is the largest collection of Victorian industrial buildings in North America. It was the Gooderham and Worts distillery, which was founded in 1832. The company merged with Hiram Walker in 1926, the last distilling stopped in 1990, and it was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988. Now more than 40 heritage buildings and ten streets hold boutiques, galleries, restaurants and a theater.

Come for the cobblestones and red brick, take photos, have a coffee, and look inside the shops and studios. The Soulpepper theater company plays here. In the run-up to Christmas the whole place becomes the Winter Village market; the 2026 season opens with a tree lighting on 12 November.

Greektown stretches along Danforth Avenue in the east end, between Chester and Dewhurst. Greek immigrants settled here after the First World War, and the strip still has Greek restaurants, bakeries and shops. Take the subway to Chester or Pape, and walk.

Dinner is grilled meat, souvlaki, grilled octopus, tzatziki and a Greek salad with a block of feta, and you share plates. It's a lively street at night. In mid-August the Taste of the Danforth food festival takes over for a weekend.

Niagara Falls is three waterfalls on the Niagara River, on the border between Ontario and New York. The biggest is Horseshoe Falls, also called the Canadian Falls, which carries about 90% of the river's flow over its edge. The Canadian side has the better view of all three, and Table Rock Welcome Centre, right at the edge, is the best viewing point.

From the Niagara Falls station, take a taxi or the WEGO bus, which stops at the main sights; the station is about 3.5 km from the falls. Walk the promenade along the Niagara Parkway, and then work your way down to the boat landing.

The boat tour, called Voyage to the Falls and sold earlier as the Hornblower Niagara Cruises, takes you into the mist at the foot of Horseshoe Falls. Expect to get wet, because the noise and spray are the point. This is the nearest you can get to the falls without going behind them.

Niagara Parks lists the boat as a seasonal attraction, April to November. The 2026 season opened on 1 May, and in 2025 the boats ran daily through November and only Friday to Monday in December, so check the operator before you rely on it in late autumn or winter. In cold weather, Journey Behind the Falls and the tunnel give you the same sense of power without the boat.

A lift takes you down about 38 meters (125 feet) from Table Rock to tunnels cut through the bedrock behind Horseshoe Falls. Short passages lead to portals, where you look out through the falling water, and a lower observation deck puts you a few steps from the base of the falls. The attraction was called the Scenic Tunnels until the early 1990s, and it is open all year.

It's self-guided, takes about an hour and is the one that works in any weather, including when the falls are half-frozen. Wear shoes with grip. A heated viewing platform is planned for spring 2027.

The Niagara Parks Power Station is the old Rankine generating station, which opened in 1905 and was decommissioned in 2006. It reopened as a museum in 2021, and in July 2022 the tunnel opened. A glass elevator takes you down 180 feet into the wheel pit, and a tunnel about 2,200 feet (670 meters) long, once used to return spent water to the river, now leads to a new viewing platform at the foot of the falls.

The platform sits right on the river's edge, level with the base of Horseshoe Falls, and the view is different from anywhere else: you are looking up the gorge from below. The tunnel is self-guided, takes the better part of two hours with the exhibits, and the viewing platform may close in bad weather. It's the newest of the Niagara attractions.

If you would rather taste than see, swap the power station for the wine country downriver, around 20-25 km north of the falls. Niagara-on-the-Lake, the first capital of Upper Canada, is a small town of colonial-style streets surrounded by vineyards. Inniskillin, whose first vines went in the ground in 1974 and which got the region's first winery license since Prohibition in 1975, is the pioneer of Canadian icewine, a dessert wine made from grapes frozen on the vine.

Taste a flight of Riesling, Chardonnay and a glass of icewine, then walk the main street. The town is also home to the Shaw Festival theater and to Fort George.