In short
Toronto is Canada's largest city and one of the most diverse in the world: a majority of its residents were born abroad, and that reads in the map of neighbourhoods more than in the monuments.
Downtown clusters around the CN Tower and the lakefront. Kensington Market is the alternative, multicultural quarter, Queen West the gallery district, the Distillery District a pedestrianised Victorian industrial ensemble. Greektown, Little Italy, Chinatown and Little India are not tourist labels but inhabited neighbourhoods.
Arriving and getting around
Two airports. Pearson, the large one, is linked to the centre by the UP Express train in twenty-five minutes. Billy Bishop, on an island facing downtown, serves regional flights and is reached by a pedestrian tunnel.
The TTC network combines subway, streetcars and buses. The Queen and King Street streetcars are slow but serve the essentials.
The PATH, an underground network of nearly thirty kilometres, links the downtown towers: the local answer to winter, as in Montreal.
What it really costs
Toronto is, with Vancouver, the most expensive city in Canada for housing.
Taxes are added to displayed prices and tipping is expected — the same mechanism as elsewhere in Canada.
When to come
May–June and September–October. Summer is hot and humid, winter cold but less severe than Montreal, with a wind off the lake that sharpens the feel.
TIFF, the film festival in September, fills downtown for ten days.
What nobody tells you
The Toronto Islands are reached by ferry from downtown in fifteen minutes. They are inhabited, largely car-free, and give the best view of the city skyline. It is the outing visitors most often miss.
Niagara Falls is about an hour and a half away and works as a day trip by train or bus. The Canadian side gives the head-on view of the Horseshoe; the town around it is heavily commercial.
St Lawrence Market has operated since 1803 and remains a neighbourhood food market.
Ontario applies strict control over alcohol sales: it goes through dedicated stores, with more limited hours than supermarkets.
