Toronto -public transportation
 

We will be in Toronto on Sept. 21 & 22 (Wednesday & Thursday). We will arrive around noon. I have read that traffic is awful in Toronto and that it would be best if we parked at the hotel and used public transportation. We are staying at the Days Inn on Carlton. I have a map of the Toronto subway system that I'm not sure I understand very well. We would like to go to Casa Loma, Chinatown, maybe to the Beaches, and just walk through interesting areas of the city. Can somebody help me understand the subway system or other public transportation better so we can easily get around in Toronto?

Casa Loma by the TTC - take the Yonge line northbound to St. Clair Station.
Take the streetcar westbound and get off at Spadina. Casa Loma is a short walk south on Spadina and is in the southern part of Forest Hills (if you walk north, there is Forest Hills village abouth 3 blocks north) Reverse the route to return downtown.

The Beaches - take the subway or walk to Queen and Yonge. Take the eastbound streetcar. Get off a Kew or anywhere past Woodbine. The boardwalk is about two blocks south.

Carlton becomes College as you travel west of Yonge. Take the steet car westbound to Chinatown on Spadina. Then catch the streetcar westbound to Clinton to Little Italy.

For Toronto Islands, take the subway to Union and the streetcar to the first stop on the Queens Quay line. You could as well walk straight south on Yonge.

Other areas to see are the Distillery area at Parliament south of Front, King and Queen street downtown.

You can buy a TTC Day Pass for $8/person, unlimited travel on the subway, buses and streetcars. Good after 9:30 am on day of purchase.

Just a minor point of clarification - it's Forest Hill Village, not Forest Hills. (I should know. I grew up there!)

Thanks so much for the helpful information. I forgot to ask about getting to the CN Tower. My daughter thinks we need to go, even though I'm not sure it's worth the price. Is there a good subway/streetcar map I can get somewhere? We are also going to Washington DC and their subway map seems so easy to read. I'm sure we will purchase the day pass. I assume the price of $8 is Canadian. Can I purchase the pass with my credit card? If not, is the best way to get Canadian money to use my ATM card? I had planned to use my credit card for the hotel, food, and attractions. Is that the most sensible way to pay for our expenses?

Thanks again to those of you who are helping us plan our first visit to Toronto!

It might be more economical to buy tokens rather than the day pass. They are $2 each when you buy them in batches of five so four rides a day is the break even point. The TTC is still cash oriented. Cash is readily obtained from ATMs with your bank card. There are also many currency exchange businesses if you prefer to exchange cash but I can't speak to the rates at such establishments. For a map of the TTC system ask for a ride guide at any subway station. You can look at one at www.ttc.ca.

Use money to buy bus tickets, etc.

It's easy enough to get from automatic teller machines. Look for machines that obviously belong to a real bank, rahter than ones that belong to bar and restaurant owners.

It's hard to define "expensive." The CN Tower kept my son and his two friends busy for fourhours, and we would not have left then if it had not been closing time. The boys were 9-10 years old.

The subway is a giant U, with a line across it. Union Station is at the bottom of the U.

It costs $2.50 per ride, so if you take three rides during the day, it's cheaper than buying the pass.

And you can do a lot of walking in Toronto. You can walk from the Days Inn to Chinatown, the CN Tower, shopping on Queen Street West, the Bata Shoe Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario, if you have good shoes.

The Beaches does require a streetcar ride. Ifyou take the streetcar to Neville Park, which is the end of the line for the full route (some streetcars turn around before this) you can woalk back towards downtown along the water, and when you get bored, walk up to Queen Street East in the Beaches neighborhood, shop, window shop, eat, and then catch the streetcar back to Yonge Street.

Paper transfers let you go from bus to streetcar to subway, etc., without a second ticket. So, above, by three rides, I mean you need a second ticket only after you get off to start exploring.

Whether driving in Toronto is awful depends on where you come from. It's easier than Boston and LA, but maybe harder than Brandon.

Regardless, your hotel is nice and central, so there's no need to drive much.

BAK

Your hotel should have a map of the ciyt with the subway system overlayed, so you can orient yourself. it is not that difficult to understand once you see it that way. as far as i know, the TTC does not accept any payment other than cash, in Canadian funds. You can't purchase tickets, tokens, or passes with anything but cash, and this must be done at Subway stations. to get to the tower, take the subway to Union Station, and follow the directions, which are all over the station and connecting tunnels. you have to go through the subway station, then the train station, then over the VIA Rail/CN/GO tracks, and you exit right at the foot of the tower.

Try to fit in a visit to the Bata Shoe Museum if you can (if your daughter is like most females, she'll love it, and so will the rest of the family). It counts as culture; it's actually a well-curated and interesting presentation that shows how footwear tells you something about different cultures: exhibits on footbinding in Asia, shoes made by aboriginal tribes in Canada, plus Marilyn Monroe's shoes, Elton John's shoes, etc. It's at Bloor and St George (St George subway, the intersection of the two main subway lines). It's also within walking distance of a pleasant neighbourhood called the Annex (beside the university), with lots of reasonably priced cafes (west of Spadina), interesting shops, etc. You could combine a trip to Casa Loma and the Shoe Museum with lunch on Bloor St W.

Thanks again to all who have replied to my post. I'm sure I will drive directly to the hotel and park the car. We live in a small town in the Midwest, so we aren't used to traffic except when we go to a large city or when traveling. We don't mind walking. When we arrive we will go to the hotel desk and ask for a map.

Thanks for the idea about the shoe museum. I have read about it, but wasn't sure we would be interested. My daughter (who is an adult) is definitely a shoe lover. I have looked at their website and will have her do so also over the weekend. We are animal lovers and have also considered going to the zoo. Can someone tell me their impressions of the zoo? We have visited zoos in several US cities and some are more impressive than others. I felt the admission fee was a little pricey, but if it's a great zoo I'm sure it would be worth the price.

Thanks again for taking time to reply to my post.

My husband and I have been zoo members for several years because it is a great zoo (at least we think so :-) ). One thing that impresses us is it tries to keep away from the animals in square cages mentality, and has therefore put in various innovative types of enclosures such as the African Savannah and most recently the Gorilla Rainforest (modeled on the one at the Chicago Zoo, I believe). Overall it is organized by world area, so when you walk or take the "zoomobile" you can see the animals in groupings which help you to understand interrelationships in the ecosystem. Similarly the pavilions with representative vegetation help with this.

Another thing we like is that the zoo has extensive and in many cases successful breeding programs for a wide variety of animals (giraffes, lions, tigers, gorillas, ferrets.....) which seems to indicate they try hard to keep the animals unstressed.

Having said all of that, it is a long way out of the downtown so it is probably something you would want to drive to - drive takes about 30-45 minutes (although public transit is possible I have never done it). It would take most of a day to make a good visit to the zoo including getting there (it is very spread out) and admission is quite expensive so it would be a pity to make a flying visit and not see most of what it has to offer. With your limited time in Toronto you might want to leave the zoo for another trip and concentrate on all the other excellent things you have listed unless your family makes a point of visiting zoos in as many cities as possible.

Have a great trip!

Thanks nkh for the advice about the zoo. I agree, we will save visiting the zoo for another trip. I think we will find plenty of other things to keep us very busy.

Thanks again to all of you who have helped me to plan my trip. Just a little over 3 weeks until we arrive in Toronto!