due to being dry-docked. We live in Rochester, NY. Should we consider taking Amtrak? costs about $160 round trip for 2 and takes about 5 hours.
Thanks

What's the Amtrak schedule?

It seems to me that train leaves NY in the evening and travels all night, arriving in Toronto in the morning. That would mean it goes through Rochester in the middle of the night.

Return, as I understand it, leaves Toronto around 9 in the morning, meaning you need to pay for a Toronto hotel, only to get up in the morning and go to the station.

When the Breeze was running, two Toronto reporters went to Rochester and back, one on the boat and one by driving. It was pretty much a toss-up, timewise. But if you drive, you can spend some time in Nigara Falls, too, if you want.

the train leaves at 215 pm arrives at 7:30pm.We are staying for 3 nights in Toronto. Return trip leaves at 9:40am arrives back in Rochester at almost 3pm. I am kind of thinking that bring a car to Toronto is not a good idea due to the parking issue.

That's not a bad schedule.

Is that $160 each for two people, for $320 worth of train tickets? You can buy a lot of gas and parking for that money, plus have the benefits of making your own schedule, stopping to see the Falls, enjoying driving around Toronto, etc. (If it's $160 for both of you, total, it would still cover gas and parking for three days)

But, if you are a train-lover, you give up the pleasure of the train ride, and you can have a nice time in downtown Toronto without a car. I live downtown, without a car, and get along fine, most fo the time. Then I call friends and they drive me places.

But don't think Toronto is not an OK place to drive. Yes, parking costs something, and varies depending on the hotel you choose. There's lots of street parking in most interesting areas, for $2-$3 per hour. Parking lots in interesting areas cost $8-12 during the day (up to 6 or 6:30), or, on some days, more if there's big activities in the neighborhood. Capitalism at work.

With a car, you can easy buy stuff that is fairly big and take it home.

And, how much time do you really have? Do you need to be back home in the afternoon? On the return, you can go to the station for the 9:40 train and get to the Rochester station at 3, and then you have to get home.

But if you drive, you could hang around Toronto that day until, say, 2 pm, drive to Niagara on the Lake, visit the town, have dinner in some fine restaurant, then cross the border and still get home before the 11 pm TV news. It's like getting another day's vacation.

I think it all boils down to whether you have a comfortable car and like to drive. I'd drive.

The $160 was for both of us, round trip, but after researching I can get it for $128 for both of us. We are staying at the Sheraton Centre and they will not guarantee a space for us in thier parking lot! Plus it costs about $14 US per day.
The Amtrak scedule is certainly not ideal- we wont arrive until 8pm-probably 8:30 at the hotel depending on where the station is.

We took a train to Boston last year and loved it!

Pepper, I'm going to Rochester in a few weeks; what's the nicest hotel or inn in town, I have no budget restriction ?

Greyhound is about the same price as the train. ~$150 for two people roundtrip. Takes about the same time (~5hrs), but more frequent, and in my opinion more on-time. If you really don't want to drive, I think I'll take the bus rather than the train.

Not sure what date you are palnnin gon going but there is a discount code available of V148 that will give you 20% a coach seat fare.

OK, as we learn more...

For $138 round trip by train for the two of you, my suggestion is to take the train. That seems like a bargain.

Picture a narrow U, with the train station at the bottom of the U, right beside a subway station.

One side of the U is to the west of the train station, running north along University AVenue.

The other side of the U is east of the train station, running up Yonge Street.

It is a narrow U, only three blocks across (Yonge to Bay to York to University)

The Sheraton Centre is directly north of the railway station, five blocks up York Street(Front to Wellington to King to Adelaide to Richmond, and you're at the back door of the hotel.

So, if you have draggable, wheeled luggage, you could just walk. Or it is a short cab ride; there are cabs right in front of the station. And if it is raining, and you want to walk, there's an underground tunnel network. The stores in the tunnels will be closed, but the tunnels will be open and security guards will be watching your trip on monitors.

Once you check into the hotel, you can go looking for a late dinner. There are several dozen restaurants all within a fifteen minute walk in many directions that have kitchens open until at least ten, and then will continue with bar service for several more hours.

If you go to www.mirvish.com and click on the restaurants listed under the special deals, you'll get a long list, including web site links for most of them.

BAK

If in Rochester, do NOT stay at Hyatt - it may be a "4*" but we had a horrible experience, including shower head falling on my head while taking a shower and waking up with bug bites. We have stayed at the Clarion Hotel Riverside with good results.

For accomodations in Rochester, I think the better ones are actually out of the downtown area in the eastern suburbs ... Lodge at Woodcliff, Brookwood Inn, DelMonte (Renaissance) Lodge ... all in the Pittsford/Perinton area. In the city, I would recommend the Strathallan East Ave near downtown (very nice area).

Yikes, I reserved at the Hyatt; thank god I can still cancel, I leave this friday. I need to be centrally located; aside from the Strathallan which they say is near downtown, which would be my best choice for really being downtown;
as luxurious and new as possible......

I think that the Strathallan on East Avenue can really be considered centrally located ... you are literally 2 minutes from the middle of downtown and are actually in more practically "central" area right on East Ave in one of the nicest sections of the city (area with all the large older homes and mansions; right by the Art Gallery)... very close to the "East End" area of clubs/restaurants and also the Park Avenue and Monroe Avenue areas in the city. Although a bit older, it is considered a high end, elegant hotel. There is really not as much going on right in the heart of downtown where the Hyatt is (it's actually a bit "dead" around there) ... except I would highly recommend getting over to the Dinausour BBQ for some of the best smoked BBQ around ... they also have blues bands playing almost every night.

Yes, the Strathallan is good or try the Inn on Broadway. Inn on Broadway reviews can be found on tripadvisor at
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html
and their web site is
http://www.innonbroadway.com/contact.html

Thanks to both of you for the recommendations; I'll definitely cancel the Hyatt today and book at one of the 2 hotels above. Even after all these years on the web, I'm still impressed at how much info a person can get with these forums !!

I think that the Strathallan would be a better choice than the Inn on Broadway both in terms of location and luxury. I've heard of the Inn, but it's not even listed in the Rochester phone book; I really don't know much about it. The Strathhallan has a long-standing reputation in Rochester for high quality.

Actually, I just checked the web page for the Inn on Broadway ... It looks really nice and is in a good location right near East Ave in heart of "East End" ... Just down East Ave from where Strathallan in, a bit closer to the heart of downtown. You could actually walk to some of the clubs/restaurants in the East End (if that interested you). I don't think you would go wrong with either.

Thank you both for your help; I reserved at the inn on broadway, based on the pictures of the rooms, the inn seems more luxurious.

The people I am visiting live 3 miles from there; I'll report next monday upon my return. They discounted their $160. down to 130. I'm there 2 nights.

Is there an upscale shopping area downtown that would be worth a stroll; I'll have a few hours saturday morning.

That's the unfortunate thing about Rochester ... Not only is there no upscale shopping downtown, there is very little shopping at all downtown. The Midtown Mall saw its day in the 70s/80s and is essentially dying (if there are any stores left at all). You would need to go to Eastview Mall in the eastern suburb of Perinton/Victor for the region's upscale shopping ... That's probably 20 miles outside of the downtown area though.

Since you are staying in the city, for a couple hours on Saturday, I would highly recommend exploring the Park Ave area which is right near downtown and near your hotel (minutes away). It's one of the nicer areas in the city and you'll find some unique/interesting boutique-type shops and restaurants. Be sure to go to the Parkleigh Pharmacy (corner of Park & Goodman) which is really not a pharmacy but rather an upscale novelty/boutique shop that sells all kinds of stuff from Godiva chocolates, coffees, pottery, clothing, jewelry, kids stuff, Crabtree&Evelyn items, etc. It's a great place to brouse; you could spend an hour there! There are several other shops on Park Ave. It's a great (and very safe) place to stroll around and people watch - especially on a Saturday afternoon. I would recommend starting out at the Parkleigh (park your car somewhere around there) and then strolling east towards Culver Road and stopping at whatever interests you. There's also a nice gift shop at the Art Gallery on University that is right near there.

There are some upscale women's boutique clothing shops on Monroe Ave in Brighton as you head out of the city, but if you only have a couple hours I would recommend the Park Ave area ... There's plenty there and it will give you more of a "flavor" of Rochester than the actual heart of downtown area will.

Many thanks , cher, this stroll sounds like just what I needed to fill a bit of time, if the weather is nice !!