Toronto Information please
 

Just starting to find indo on Toronto. What hotel to stay in close to the water? Would like to ferry to Wards, etc. or rent a boat. Also want to go to CN Tower for lunch. How close is this to the Boardwalk? Also would like to shop at Winners. Where is the best place to stay for these activities. Looking at going in the Spring and will be driving from Ohio. Thanks everyone!

The Westin Harbour Castle is right next to the ferry docks to Toronto Islands. The Radission Plaza is a few blocks away, right along Queen's Quay, overlooking the lake.

There';s a streetcar route that goes right past the ferry terminal, too, running from the Union Station subway stop over to Spadina Avenue and then up to Bloor Street at Spadina. So it is easy to get to the ferry boat from lots of hotels. Or it's a ten minute walk from the Royal York and the Novatel, and a few minutes longer walk from lots more hotels.

There are two convenient Winners stores for tourists. One on Spadina Avenue, south of King. This is close to lots of outdoor equipment stores, too. The other downtown Winners is at College and Yonge Street, a coupl;e of blocks north of The Eaton Centre indoor mall.

The boardwalk is a long way away. Half and hour or so on a streetcar; ten to fifteen minutes by car, once you get your car out of a hotel garage.

There's no best place, really, but for your targets, the "downtown" area, as contrasted to mid-town, is better. Read the other Toronto-relatd messages for more info.

BAK

Thanks BAK!

I'm not crazy about the Winners store on Spadina - the aisles seem really narrow and it's not comfortable to shop there. I prefer the one at College Park. Happy shopping!

Thanks Susan

More about Winners -- the stock in each store is different, so depending on where you are, you might want to put up with the cramped aisles just to see what's there. Whenyou've seen one Winners, you HAVE NOT seen them all.

The Yonge and College store is,however, the one to visit when you're only visiting one.

A serious shopper with a car can visit half a dozen Winners stores in a day.

Over Christmas, a friend and I drove past a new Winners and its companion store, Home Sense, being built in Oakville. She figures this will occupy here for a few hours a month, and is already planning on garage sales to sell the stuff she has in order to make room for the stuff she'll buy.

BAK

If you are interested in discount clothing, Toronto is full of discount outlet stores and malls ranging from upscale (Harry Rosen and Holt Renfrew) to mainstream such as Eddie Bauer, Nike. I bought an Armani shirt from Harry Rosen for about $60 and Eddie Bauer blue jeans for $25.

Thank you Jim.
Bak
I have never heard of Winners but am looking forward to the adventure. We will be in Toronto in the Spring. Is one day enought for the Islands? And if so, where would be a good place for lunch on the water? Thanks.

Your question about the islands opens up a can of worms.

the harbour is a mishmash of conflicting political jurisdictions,a nd the end result is that there's no place very good to eat on Toronto Island, but there are lots of good places on the mainland, at the harbour, overlooking the lake.

So, if you want to eat reasonably well on the islands, take a picnic. Lots of people do. There are several deli-like places close to the water, you can get excellent takeout food from lots of places slightly further from the water but close to your hotel, etc.

On themainland, there's a good restaurant on the top of the Westin harbour Castle, that, dpending on how busiy the hotel is, is open for lunch and good. There are a couple of restuarnts overlooking the water in the Queens Quay Terminal at Harbourfront -- I'd pick Il Fornello myself. And there's a good restaurant in the Radisson Hotel. Plus a good (not really not, not very good, just good) outdoor snack bar overlooking the water.

Winners is an end-of-line, samples, etc. clothing, jewelery, and more, store. It's neat and tiody, more or less, and has generally very good to excellent merchandise. For men's shirts, its hard to find better value, assuming you are flexible in color, etc.,

At my house, there are wonderful French steak knives, indiviudal wooden serving plates, much women's jewellry, most of my dress shirts, half my neckties, some kids toys (but not much) and the pantry has excellent salad dressings and spaghetti sauce from there, too. Plus a frying pan.

And a lot of women's clothes -- some sportswear and a lot of business wear.

My wife can spend an hour in a Winners with no problem, but I'm only good for fifteen minutes.

It's hard to imagine, for instance, not finding a gift for almost anyone in a Winner's store.

If you have a car, the outlet malls and stores in the suburbs are great, too. Depending on whenyou get to Eddie Bauer's, for instance (and it is a long way from downtown) you can find good clothes, out of season though, for up to 90 percent off. My $600 winter jacket cost $90 a couple of years ago.

I appreciate your informative reply BAK. Thanks again!

Now you make me want to make a trip back to Toronto for shopping. :>

Happy New year!

K.