Toronto - any recommendations?

lisa21

I'm thinking about going to Toronto possibly next month - just wondered if anyone could recommend a decent mid-price hotel and the best sort of areas to stay in? Any advice welcome!! TIA xx

balsingh

I have been to Toronto twice and used Priceline/Hotwire to book hotels. Managed to get good 4* hotels for £60-£70 a night. Always stayed in the Downtown West area as it convenient for all the downtown sites.

guitarinacase

The Strathcona is good value. It is a downtown hotel, friendly staff and has a really good sports bar in the basement.

curtlyb

balsingh wrote: »

I have been to Toronto twice and used Priceline/Hotwire to book hotels. Managed to get good 4* hotels for £60-£70 a night. Always stayed in the Downtown West area as it convenient for all the downtown sites.

I'll second that excellent advice

lisa21

thanks for the advice all, theres some great deals on flights at the moment so am definitely going to take advantage. Thanks again!! : )

Heledarl

sorry to jump in on this bandwagon, but I'm also visiting Toronto and am in need of a really good recommendation for a good hotel to stay in whilst we visit Niagra Falls. Anybody know any bargains to be had for a good 4/5* hotel just for two nights out of the holiday?
Balsingh-I've also just used hotwire to book some hotels for my stay and I got great bargains for some really good hotels. (4* hotel for £45 a night).

Alan_Bowen

There really isn't enough at the falls to warrant staying there. I would recommend spending more than a day there, frankly it was so over commercialised, we couldn't wait to leave. Do the Maid of the Mist and a photo opportunity from under the Falls and you are done in my opinion. For those looking for reasonably priced accommodation in Toronto, we stayed at the Novotel close to the city centre in Toronto and were very happy,. Niagara by the Lake is a small wine producing town a few miles 'downstream' from the Falls and a much nicer place to stay out of the city.

gfplux

This is my report on our trip to Canada in 2006.
It might help.

In January 2006 I asked on The Motley Fool for some advise and recommendations for a trip we were planning (2 adults + 14 year old daughter) to CANADA. I got plenty of useful guidance and encouragement. Thanks, recs were given all round. There seems a “buzz” about CANADA with more and more people making the trip. Here is a summary of our trip.

All Hotels and Car hire were booked on line before we left. Our Local travel agent did the air tickets matching the best online offer I could find.
The plans for the trip came together with the flights booked with Air Canada arriving Toronto 30th August and leaving from Montreal 14th September. All the hotels were in walking distance of downtown.

We spent 6 nights in Toronto at The Holiday Inn Express on Lombard Street Total Price C$984 for a Huge room including buffet breakfast
Three nights at The Killarney Lodge in Algonquin Park. Total cost C$1626 for a log cabin, canoe and full board.
Two Nights in Ottawa at Best Western Victoria suites, O’Connor Street. Total cost C$298 for a Suite with 2 rooms (including a kitchen) including buffet breakfast.
Four nights in Montreal at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, Blvd Rene-Levesque East. Total cost C$703 for a huge room with kitchen including buffet breakfast.
We picked up our Alamo rental car when we left Toronto to drive to Algoquin Park and dropped it off when we arrived in Montreal. Total Cost C$656 for 7 days

TORONTO.
Toronto Airport was a dream as there were no delays in getting into the country, surprisingly Canadian passport holders were not segregated so all the queues moved very quickly and we even felt welcomed by the officials (unlike the USA) The trip to our hotel was by Taxi (no queue ) Cost Can $46 gave C$55 incl tip.
Toronto is a great city and the shopping is almost as good as New York. Amongst the many things we enjoyed were The Eaton Centre Shopping (a few times!). Eating at The Hardrock caf!, China Town, and Baton Rouge. Visiting The CN Tower (glass floor, scary!!), The Bata Shoe Museum. The Distillery District was a huge disappointment, do not waste your time. The description hinted at a Covent Garden feel, the reality was more like a Convent.
We took a day out to Niagara falls using public transport. This was very simple to do and much cheaper and more fun than taking an organised tour. We had lunch at The Keg Steakhouse and the service was dreadful.
Niagara is a town of two halves. The falls are amazing and the trip on the Maid Of The Mist was even better than we could have imagined. The other side of Niagara Clifton Hill is very tatty in the extreme. What sort of tourists they feel they are catering for I can not imagine. With all respect to British seaside resorts it was like Blackpool GONE BAD.
We took a day out to Paramount Wonderland a huge amusement park. It is not as pretty as a Disney, however if you have a teenager or like scary rides this is a must visit. Again we used public transport, very efficient and good value.
During our time in Toronto we found a great fresh food store called Dominion. Great place for picking up snacks https://www.freshobsessed.com . They have a few outlets.

ALGONQUIN PARK.
Algonquin park http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/service/ser_lodges.html is a gigantic state park 4 hour relaxed drive north of Toronto. We had a wonderful time. Killarney Lodge is a great place to stay. It is not cheap but provided a great experience. This was the great outdoors for Townies. Each cabin has its own canoe. And more than enough lakes to explore. The park itself has many trails for walking or biking from easy to hard, ideal for a mixed group. We walked and also rented bikes This gives you a real taste of Canada. We understand that during high summer there are quite a lot of mosquitoes

OTTAWA
It was a relaxed 4 hour drive to Ottawa. This is the capital city and is well worth a visit. Our Hotel was a 15 minute stroll to Parliament Hill. This was along Elgin which is a lively street with many restaurants and bars. We did a tour of the Parliament Building (you have to book and normally come back a couple of hours later for the tour) We also did a boat tour of the river. A great place to visit is Byward market. We had lunch there at Tuckers “amazing” highly recommended.
MONTREAL.
This was a relaxed 3 hour drive from Ottawa. On our first day we visited the Old Town and Port this was rather disappointing. We also visited Notre Dame Basilica, a rather strange experience as we had to buy a ticket to get in. What proved a great day out was the visit to the Jardin Botanique. WOW this was a great place. We were lucky with the weather. The experience may not be so good on a wet day. We also visited the Museum of fine Arts which was a worthwhile visit and co-in sided with a wet afternoon. Found a great place for fresh food and snacks IGA. They have a web site https://www.iga.net It was interesting to see that Montreal is not as rich as Toronto (all the money moved away during the independence troubles in the 70’s) There are many beggars on and around St Catherine Street and a lot of evidence of homeless people. These latter facts may also to be to do with the attitude of the Police as there were no beggars to be seen on the “posh” Rue Sherbrooke. We ate worthy of mention at St Hubert, Rue Sainte Catherine, Les 3 Brasseurs in the latin quarter, Baton Rouge (again). Bocochina near “The Bay” all very good.
When we left the hotel for the airport the Taxi cost C$35 I gave C$40. The journey was 35 minutes in the rain.

The timing of our trip was dictated by School Holidays as our daughter starting her new term in mid September. We were Lucky that the Canadian School kids had gone back at the end of August. This time also appeared to fall between the Tourist big Summer season and the Autumn season when there are tens of thousands of visitors for the “colours of the trees”. This meant we had a relaxed and queue free time during our trip. All the driving was done at a very relaxed pace keeping to the speed limits 95% of the time. All the journeys could have been made in a shorter time but we were on holiday.
Overall Canada proved to be a great place to visit and we all would recommend it. We will be going back. The food and shopping was great value. Tipping was the same as the USA. The people are absolutely wonderful, very, very friendly and helpful.
Very important to remember that most of the sales tax of about 5% is refundable by either making a claim on returning home or for a small fee we did ours on the last day at a booth in “The Bay” Department Store.
You should go to CANADA if you can.

lisa21

wow gfplux, thanks for that!!

well....I have taken the plunge and booked today, flying from Newcastle at £99 each way was too much of a bargain to miss!! Have taken all the advice on board about Niagara and think we'll just visit there for a day to say we've been.

Lastly, we've booked into the Days Hotel downtown, but reading Tripadvisor reviews has got me pretty worried (I know!! I should have checked beforehand!! ) has anyone here got any experience of that particular hotel? xx

GlennTheBaker

I can highly recommend King Tours for a day trip to Niagara Falls, having used them in November 2007. If you want to PM me your travel dates I'll see if there are any super bargains to be had regarding hotels. With whom are you flying for £99? That's a steal!

cpdc1030

Hi All, lived in Toronto for about 16 years so I might be able to offer a bit of advice.

The Days Hotel is quite cheap and is in a good location, about 10 mins or less to the Eaton Centre. It isn't anything special but the rooms are ok. However unfortunately the area tends to attract a fair number of aggressive beggars - but not a lot of actual crime. It can just be a bit surprising if you're not used to it. It is also right next to the gay village, which can be a plus or minus depending on your preferences

You didn't say how long you're staying. If more than about 4 days then I'd definetley recommend getting a car as it is probably cheaper than the tours to Niagara and much more convenient. Some of the better restaurants are also in suburban areas so they're difficult to get to without a car. Anything more than about 4 days in Toronto will probably be a bit too much - try to make some time for Montreal which is a wonderful change of pace.

Tipping is a bit less generous than in the USA - 15% for good service, 10% for bad service (don't think of not leaving a tip unless you are in Chinatown where they won't care).