If it is rainy or cold, letting them loose at Casa Loma is a good choice. It is a baroque folly built by a Canadian industrialist very close to the city.

I took my daughter and nieces there when they were 11 and 13 and just arranged to meet up with them at a certain time.

There's lots of secret passages, gardens and obscure staircases etc. to visit while you can just mosey around.

Casa Loma is IN the city, not very close; it's uphill from the Dupont subway stop - there are stairs.

What's with all the attitude on this thread?
It's one sarcastic post after another ...

<<It's one sarcastic post after another ... >>

Huh?? What's sarcastic about letting people who may never have been to Toronto know that Casa Loma is in Toronto (in fact it's in central Toronto) rather than somewhere outside the city.

Or perhaps it was my post observing that the new tourist area is the Distillery, not the Brewery, district. Once again, just trying to be helpful.

If you want sarcasm, try the Europe board for a while.

laverendrye, I didn't even mention any names and you are so quick to justify yourself.

What's wrong with saying it nicely

like ...

"Actually, Casa Loma is in the city ..."

or

"It is called the Distillery District (They must have been thinking about the brewery located there)"

Everyone on here was trying to be helpful! Do you think people are going to want to continue posting on here if they are ridiculed like that?

W&G

I don't know how to say this without being accused of further sarcasm and ridicule, but if my post pointing readers to the Distillery district is considered to be ridiculing people, there sure are some very sensitive posters on this board.

I only referred to my own post and that of SallyCanuck because they were short and to the point, and therefore might have been construed as "sarcastic".

As to the Casa Loma post, I certainly didn't think that SallyCanuck was trying to ridicule anyone.

If I had intended to be sarcastic, there would have been no doubt in anyone's mind about it, but that was the furthest thing from my mind.

Thank you laverendrye for your defence of my short post - I don't know what about it got up W&G's sensitive nose and if "triptime" asked about the brewery district once he/she got here, there may have been puzzled looks so a correction was definitely in order.

I am a visitor to Toronto every 18 months or so and I love the Royal Ontario Museum, I think your boys would as well, I never miss a visit. Also, for the boys, I think that Much Music or some equivalent is filmed on Yonge Street on Saturday nights, perhaps Sally or someone else can verify this.

Eaton Centre is just a large shopping mall, not that impressed unless you want to shop.

Casa Loma might be interesting for the boys.

Just want to thank everyone for all their help in planning our Toronto trip. We stayed at the Toronto Eaton Centre which was located in a convenient area. It is attached to the Eaton Mall which was huge. It was walkable to the Hockey Hall of Fame and also the Rogers Centre. We took the street car to The Beaches area. It was a nice beach area with a boardwalk to walk along. Really pretty houses/cottages along the way. There weren't any shops along the boardwalk, but on Queen Street there were a ton of shops. It was a quick drive there on the street car, but coming back to the hotel took longer because it made many more stops and it was packed. We bought a family 4 pack for $8 and we could ride all day on the street cars, subway, etc. Gretzky's restaurant was filled with memorabilia and the food was good for burgers and such. The perogies were excellent. From the Rogers Center it was nice to walk back to the hotel along the Harbor. It is absolutely beautiful. Lots of restaurants and shopping. We had a really great time and would head back to Toronto one day. I do have one question. At some point I remembered reading about getting reimbursed for the Goods and Services Taxes (GST) while in Canada. Can someone explained what can get reimbursed and how to go about it. Thanks!

Check out this Canada Revenue website - you should be able to find information about the GST rebate:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresi...ls/menu-e.html

The rebate program is no more ... and even after reading all the info I am still extremely confused.

It looks like you can no only get a refund if your trip was part of a tour package or you are a tour operator (?) Can someone explain this in simple terms?