toronto (dundas/jarvis area)
 

I currently booked the comfort inn city centre on the corner of Dundas St. East and Jarvis for our toronto summer vacation. We have 4 children and have searched all over the city for a hotel that will accommodate us in a family suite for under $300.00 per night and this is it. Is this area safe?

While Jarvis and Dundas is not the most attractive part of Toronto if attacks on visitors staying at this Comfort were at all regular I strongly suspect we would hear about it on the 6 o'clock news...and I can't recall any such reports. If that is the only place that meets your requirements then so be it. I have walked down Jarvis in the afternoon a few times recently but not at night so perhaps someone with more local knowlege will post.

I might pick other places if there were rooms, but, all in all, you'll be fine.

The walk from Dundas and Yonge is only a few blocks, and the area west of the hotel (which is the part you'll be in from Yonge over to Jarvis, will be safe enough that I would not worry about it.

I'm in that area a lot -- there are more and more hotels, restaruants all the time, so there will be lots of other tourists out, too.

BAK

You cld not pay me to stay @ Dundas & Jarvis! For about $50 more per night ( only $350 assuming one week), why not get 2 "connector" rooms @ The Holiday Inn on King St West? www.hiok.ca

Bear in mind that you are looking for a room in a prime tourist season in a downtown area.

If you have a car, try checking out hotels outside of the downtown core.

Markham has the best selection of Hotels outside of the downtown core.
On a map, look for where the 404 (Don Valley Expressway extension) and Highway 7 intersect.

The best is the Hilton Suites at Warden and Highway 7.
The Marriot Courtyard is a new place near Leslie and Highway 7. You can
park your car at the Fairview Mall and take the subway downtown by driving down Leslie or drive downtown down the Don Valley Parkway.

There are tons of restaurants in the area including a dozen or so places on East Beaver Creek. There is a great
selection of Asian restaurants in the area.

Canada's wonderland and Zoo is an easy drive from here.

Also visit Unionville's Main Street.

During the daytime the Jarvis /Dundas area is not bad but at night it really is not a good area.
Recently, as BAK noted, the area has improved greatly but it is still not somewhere I would want to spend a vacation.
Adjoining rooms at another hotel, or going outside the city, as suggested by other posters above are both preferable to staying at that location. Iknow the area very well through volunteer work I've done there over the years.

cheers

Jerry

The real concentration of gay bars, etc., is on Church Street around Wellesley, which is a few blocks north and west of Jarvis and Dundas.

Going to Markham is just silly. Add forty minutes driving each way, unless you want to travel during the daytime (add another 20 minutes, probably,) and add parking charges downtown, and you proably won't save much money, either.

About other downtown hotels -- yes, if there are rooms available at the Holiday Inn on King, or the Delta Chelsea, or the Sheraton or Hilton downtown, they'd be better places to stay. Or eiother intecontinental, or the hotels in the Choice Hotels group at B loor and St. George, Charles at Yonge, Jarvis and Lombard...

But if the prices are higher and budget matters, and/or there are no rooms available, Jarvis and Dundas is fine. You might decide to take a cab a few blocks, or you might decide to walk.

BAK

Thank you for your responses. I just cancelled our reservation at the Comfort inn city centre and booked the Cambridge Suites Hotel on Yonge and Richmond this was the only other hotel that could accommodate us but with 3 double beds instead of queens and no pool. But I'm sure we will feel safer.

Plotnik, while I continue to feel the Comfort Inn would have been fine, your new location is even better.

Any other questions?

BAK