Thumbs up for Toronto
THINK of Toronto and what comes to mind? For me there was very little.
I was aware it was in Canada and had lots of banks, but the thought of it as a tourist attraction had never occurred. However the Greater Toronto region is home to 5.5 million people, and almost half of the city's residents have moved from elsewhere so it must have some sort of attraction.
Taking a trip there proved that it is an undervalued place to have a holiday.
Our visit was timed to coincide with the start of the Luminato Festival, an annual arts and creativity event now in its third year.
The first night culminated in a live concert in 'the heart of the city' Yonge-Dundas Square, headlined by Roger Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive fame. And to use their best-known - even if grammatically incorrect - song title, you ain't seen nothing yet...
The main theme this year was a celebration of the guitar, with an attempt to break the record for the world's largest 'jam,' quite a bit of blues music and a line-up including stars such as Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin. If you wanted something with no strings attached there were also exhibitions of painting and photography, theatrical and dance performances and the first visit to Canada by the RedBall project, which uses the city itself as the canvas with the aforementioned giant red ball squeezed into the most unlikely places.
However Toronto is truly terrific even if you ignore the arty stuff.
It's a city with many heights and quite a few (decent) depths. Talking of the former, a trip up the CN Tower is compulsory. The fully-operational radio communications set-up was the world's highest free-standing structure until a couple of years ago, but its successor in Dubai is not fully built yet and given that country's financial situation might never be finished.
The CN has splenty of vantage points including a glass floor a mere 342 metres up. Head a little bit further and you can eat in the 360 Restaurant, which constantly revolves, giving the phrase 'going round for dinner' a whole new meaning. And you don't have to worry about taking any climbing equipment - because luckily there's a lift. It takes less than a minute to get to the top and if you have the nerve to look down as you're going up there is also a glass floor below you.
When you've tackled that, fancy a ride on a hippo? Not the actual animal (although there is a nice model of one outside their offices) but a bus which becomes a boat. Hippo Tours takes you on an hour-and-a-half trip round the city so you can see most of the major landmarks, complete with a diversion into Lake Ontario. The captains are trained both on dry land and marine environments, so you're extremely unlikely to suffer that sinking feeling, It's very relaxing, but there's no toilet on board, so it's probably best if you don't follow my example and try to drink Canada dry the night before...
When you're visiting somewhere new, museums can tend to be a bit hit-and-miss, but the ones we visited don't disappoint.
The biggest is the huge Royal Ontario Museum, set on five levels featuring lots of natural history dating back to the days of dinosaurs up to the present period, and also a host of exhibits featuring what seems like all of the world's different cultures.
If you're male, a museum of footwear may not seem very exciting, but the Bata Shoe Museum is full of surprises, 12,500 artefacts in total ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous - my favourites are the Dutch army ones which had the soles on backwards so enemies wouldn't know if they were coming or going - and actual shoes worn by stars of such magnitude as Elvis Presley and Queen Victoria.
It's not strictly a museum but the Distillery district is a site of great historic value. Once the largest distillery in the world, the area fell into disuse until the start of this century when a massive redevelopment begun, turning it into a thriving pedestrian centre with shops, cafes, bars, galleries and regular special events
As for eating, there are places a-plenty. These range from another taste of the high life at the Panorama Restaurant and Lounge, 51 floors up at the Manulife Centre, to Milestones Grill and Bar, overlooking the aforementioned Yonge-Dundas Square. Other options include Canoe - another high one, this time on the TD Bank Tower - which specialises in 'regional Canadian cusine' or Frank, the new restaurant based at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which includes an installation by contemporary artist Frank Stella, the only Stella I'll ever go near in my life due to I sufferering spectacularly the morning after drinking the vile liquid at the Luminato opening night party, held at another of the city's cultural centres, Canada's National Ballet School.
Our base for the visit offered food for thought too. Le Meridien King Edward - commonly known as the King Eddy - is one of Toronto's most luxurious places to stay, set near the centre of the sprawling city. It is the place where John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed while visiting Canada for one of their famous 'bed-ins for peace' there in 1969. It has been open for over a century, with 298 rooms and aims to combine 'old world charm with sophisticated comforts.'
To my mind it manages this and and also has very pleasant staff, a change from the surliness you can expect in some other places. In fact the people there are are in general the most polite, helpful people I've met on my travels. A big thumbs up for Toronto.Factfile
If you're taking the trip to Toronto, you might want to take a day out and travel 75 miles to see the Niagara Falls as well. If you can ignore the sheer tackiness of the surrounding town - think Blackpool without the understated style - the waters themselves are something to behold. Quite spectacular.
They straddle the international border between Canada and the US - your mobile phone supplier will change depending on whereabouts you're standing - and are north America's most powerful waterfalls and the largest producer of electric power in the world. If you want to get up close and wet, The Maid Of The Mist boat trips - www.maidofhemist.com - are the best way to do so, and Tourism Toronto should be able to provide details of organised trips out to the falls.
You can find out more about the city by visiting Tourism Toronto's website, www.seetorontonow.com and there are details of next year's Luminato Festival at www.luminato.com
The King Edward hotel is one of the sponsors of the King Tut exhibition taking place at the Art Gallery of Ontario until April 18 2010. It is offering packages including VIP exhibition tickets. Look at www.lemeridiem.com/kingedward and follow 'exclusive offers link.'
I flew from Manchester to Toronto with Air Transat, which describes itself as 'Canada's leading holiday travel airline. www.airtransat.co.uk for further details.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
