Toronto is the most multicultural city on earth — 51% of its 3.2 million residents were born outside Canada, making it the only major city in the world where immigrants are the majority. The result is a culinary and cultural landscape of extraordinary diversity: a Chinatown, a Little Italy, a Little Portugal, a Greektown, a Little India, a Koreatown and a Jamaican-Canadian neighbourhood all within cycling distance of downtown. Canada's largest city and its economic capital (the TSX is North America's third-largest stock exchange) also has the CN Tower (the most recognizable structure in Canada, at 553m the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere until Dubai in 2010), the finest museum collection in Canada (Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario designed by Frank Gehry), and the best food scene in North America outside New York and San Francisco — a city often underrated by visitors who don't stay long enough.
The CN Tower (553m, built 1976, the world's tallest freestanding structure for 34 years) has the best view in Canada from the LookOut Level (346m) and the Glass Floor (the original glass floor experience, 342m above the ground — you stand on 6.4cm of tempered glass looking straight down to the street). The EdgeWalk (hands-free walk around the exterior at 356m, wind speed allowing) is one of the world's most extreme urban experiences. Go at 8:30am opening to avoid queues.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSt. Lawrence Market (Front Street East, established 1803 — National Geographic named it the world's best food market in 2012) is the finest indoor food market in North America: the peameal bacon sandwich (back bacon cured in cornmeal, the quintessential Toronto food, from Carousel Bakery — a 40-year institution), Quebec cheese, Ontario preserves, fresh Lake Huron pickerel, and the South Market (Saturday) with 120 vendors. The market building itself (1844, the original City Hall) is architecturally significant.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Distillery District (the preserved Gooderham & Worts Distillery complex — the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America, dating from 1832, now converted to galleries, restaurants, theatres, studios and retail) is pedestrian-only and car-free, creating the most atmospheric heritage precinct in Canada. The cobblestone streets, cast-iron buildings and micro-distillery (Gooderham & Worts is again producing whisky) make it the best afternoon walk in Toronto.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideToronto's Chinatown (Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street — one of the largest Chinese communities in North America, primarily from Hong Kong and mainland China) has the most authentic Cantonese cooking outside Hong Kong: dim sum at Rol San or Crown Princess (order by ticking a paper card), Peking duck at Lee Garden, hand-pulled noodles at Yang's Noodles. For the full experience: a dim sum lunch or evening dinner of XO sauce char siu and clay pot tofu.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Royal Ontario Museum (ROM — the largest museum in Canada, 2004 Daniel Libeskind Crystal extension that crashes into the original 1914 Edwardian building) holds 6 million objects across 40 galleries: the Egyptian mummies, the Chinese tomb guardian figures, the dinosaur gallery (the finest in Canada), the British Columbia First Nations totem poles and the Bat Cave. The Libeskind Crystal (the angular glass and aluminum collision with the original building) is one of the most divisive and discussed pieces of architecture in Canada.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKensington Market (the 19th-century Jewish market neighbourhood west of Spadina, now a counter-cultural mix of vintage clothing, international food shops, record stores and community gardens) is the most eclectic neighbourhood in Toronto: a Portuguese fishmonger beside a Jamaican bakery beside a Mexican taqueria beside a vintage vinyl shop. Pedestrian Sundays (May–October, last Sunday of the month) make the streets car-free and the neighbourhood is at its best.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Harbourfront Centre (Queens Quay West, 10 hectares of lakefront arts centre with galleries, performance spaces and craft studios) and the Toronto Islands (the chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, a 10-minute ferry from Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, CAD$9 return) give the best view of the Toronto skyline from the water. The Ward's Island beach and the Centreville Amusement Park make the islands the city's recreational lung.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOssington Avenue (the 1km strip from Bloor to Dundas in West End Toronto — in 10 years evolved from industrial to the finest restaurant and cocktail bar strip in Canada) has the highest concentration of independent restaurants and bars in Toronto: Bar Raval (Spanish pintxos and vermouth in a Gaudí-inspired interior), Grey Gardens (the finest room in Toronto), Civil Liberties (outstanding cocktails in a converted Victorian house).
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO — the largest art museum in Canada, 2008 Frank Gehry redesign featuring the sculptural titanium and glass facade along Dundas Street West) holds 95,000 works across its collection: the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre (the finest collection of Moore bronzes in the world, donated by Moore himself), the Thomson Collection (European Old Masters and Canadian Group of Seven), and the contemporary Canadian art collection. The Gehry building is as interesting as many of the works inside.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCollege Street West (the strip through Little Italy — Ossington to Bathurst — and Little Portugal) is the most European streetscape in Toronto: Italian espresso bars open since 6am (Café Diplomatico, the most iconic patio in Toronto since 1968), pastelarias (Portuguese custard tarts and bifanas — pork rolls), the Dufferin Grove organic farmers' market, and the Roncy Polish neighbourhood for pierogi and kielbasa. The combination within walking distance is Toronto's multicultural miracle at its most delicious.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCasa Loma (1914, built by Sir Henry Pellatt — the financier who first brought electricity to Toronto — as his private residence: 98 rooms, 30 bathrooms, a stables complex connected by an 800m underground tunnel, a rooftop garden and two towers) is the finest castle in North America. The views from the towers over the Toronto skyline north to the Annex neighbourhood are the best in the city at sunset.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCanoe (54th floor, TD Tower, 66 Wellington Street West — the finest Canadian tasting menu restaurant in the country, Executive Chef John Horne's celebration of Canadian ingredients: Nunavut Arctic char, Alberta beef, PEI oysters, Ontario corn, Quebec maple) gives the best dining view in Toronto: the city grid lit below, Lake Ontario to the south, and the tower canyon of Bay Street. One of the great Canadian restaurant experiences.
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