Toronto with NO Car
Sep 17th, 2004, 05:21 PM
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Toronto with NO Car
Doing research for my Toronto vacation, I keep seeing places with a "Mississauga" (sometimes I see other like "York"
address. I aasume that Mississauga must be very close to Toronto to be included in Toronto listings ... but just how close is it?
I don't drive, so I will not be renting a car. How far can I get on public transport?
address. I aasume that Mississauga must be very close to Toronto to be included in Toronto listings ... but just how close is it?I don't drive, so I will not be renting a car. How far can I get on public transport?
Sep 17th, 2004, 06:54 PM
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I thought you had decided on two B&Bs.
Mississauga is a different city, that touches the west side of Toronto. It has something like 600,000 population, and has its own transit system. It costs double (one Miss. fare and one Toronto fare) to get anywhere interesting.
You can get just about anywhere you want to go quite easily on public transit in Toronto.
There are buses on rubber tires, streetcars on steel tracks, and underground subways cars, and once you pay a fare ($2.25 cash, exact change, or buy tokens for a little less, or buy a day pass) you can transfer from one to the other to the other in order to get to your destination. Clean, safe, quite efficient, etc. Today I was on a streetcar to a bus to a desitnation, and then returned via bus to subway to streetcar, $2.25 each way.
BAK
Mississauga is a different city, that touches the west side of Toronto. It has something like 600,000 population, and has its own transit system. It costs double (one Miss. fare and one Toronto fare) to get anywhere interesting.
You can get just about anywhere you want to go quite easily on public transit in Toronto.
There are buses on rubber tires, streetcars on steel tracks, and underground subways cars, and once you pay a fare ($2.25 cash, exact change, or buy tokens for a little less, or buy a day pass) you can transfer from one to the other to the other in order to get to your destination. Clean, safe, quite efficient, etc. Today I was on a streetcar to a bus to a desitnation, and then returned via bus to subway to streetcar, $2.25 each way.
BAK
Sep 18th, 2004, 05:14 AM
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BAK,
I did decide on two B&Bs - I didn't say ANYTHING about "sleeping" in Mississauga. - I just saw some nice restaurants etc. You would be surprised how many listings on the Toronto tourism site give a Mississauga address.
Thanks for the info.
I did decide on two B&Bs
- I didn't say ANYTHING about "sleeping" in Mississauga. - I just saw some nice restaurants etc. You would be surprised how many listings on the Toronto tourism site give a Mississauga address.Thanks for the info.
Sep 18th, 2004, 06:16 AM
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OK. No sleeping in Mississaugua.
It's too far away to go to, unless you have a vry, very good reason. You can eat just fine in Toronto.
There are you coming from? It gioves us a frame of reference.
"Toronto" is a big city of about 3 million people, created a few years ago by putting six cities into one. Etobicoke, North York, East York, York, Scarborough, and the "old" City of Toronto, all were separate municipalities -- genuine cities with a mayor or in the case of York, a borough with a mayor -- that touched each other, and were also part of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto that governed some overlapping facilities. So small roads belonged to, say, Etobicoke, but major roads that ran through several cities belonged to Metro.
After the amalgamation, everything got called "Toronto" but the old municipality names stick for various reasons, such as saying "I live in Etobicoke" means you are in the far west end of the city. And years before that, there were 13 municipalities, so there's still reference to them, including Leaside, Forest Holl, and Mimico.Most telephone numbers in toronto begine with 416.
Toronto is the middle of the Greater Toronto Area, commonly called the GTA, and this includes cities and towns that touch Toronto. These cities and towns have their own mayors, and in clusters that comprise Regions. So Mississauga and Brampton are on the west and north-west of Toronto, and are in Peel Region. There's Brampton Fire Department, but Peel Region Police. York Region is on the north, with Markham, Vaughan, and more, and Durham Region on the east, with Oshawa, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and more.
Again,unless you are looking for something very special, no need to go there. The Toronto Internaional Centre, for instance, is a convention and trade show center, and I'm going there Monday for a show. It is just outside northern Etobicoke, in Mississauga.
The old city of York and the current York Region may lead to some copnfusion about "York." And be cause there used to be so many cities, there are repeated street names and these need to be sorted out. I can't think of a repeated street name that matters to a tourist, though.
The Toronto airport is in Mississaugua. Lots of chaiin restaurants have branches in Toronto and it other places in the GTA.
The Toronto Transit Commission, TTC, is the city of Toronto system that used to include what was metro Toronto, and now includes what is Toronto, but does not cary passengers into York or Peel or Druham Regions. Buses from there come into the edge of Toronto and passengers buy new tickets when they change.
And, in regard to "but just how close is it?" It -- Mississiauga, for instance, is just across the street from Toronto, except you have to get to the far edge of Toronto from downtown, to get to that street to cross. It's maybe 10 miles from downtown Toronto along Queen Street and The Queenswqay to get to the point on The Queensway where it turns into Mississauga.
It's too far away to go to, unless you have a vry, very good reason. You can eat just fine in Toronto.
There are you coming from? It gioves us a frame of reference.
"Toronto" is a big city of about 3 million people, created a few years ago by putting six cities into one. Etobicoke, North York, East York, York, Scarborough, and the "old" City of Toronto, all were separate municipalities -- genuine cities with a mayor or in the case of York, a borough with a mayor -- that touched each other, and were also part of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto that governed some overlapping facilities. So small roads belonged to, say, Etobicoke, but major roads that ran through several cities belonged to Metro.
After the amalgamation, everything got called "Toronto" but the old municipality names stick for various reasons, such as saying "I live in Etobicoke" means you are in the far west end of the city. And years before that, there were 13 municipalities, so there's still reference to them, including Leaside, Forest Holl, and Mimico.Most telephone numbers in toronto begine with 416.
Toronto is the middle of the Greater Toronto Area, commonly called the GTA, and this includes cities and towns that touch Toronto. These cities and towns have their own mayors, and in clusters that comprise Regions. So Mississauga and Brampton are on the west and north-west of Toronto, and are in Peel Region. There's Brampton Fire Department, but Peel Region Police. York Region is on the north, with Markham, Vaughan, and more, and Durham Region on the east, with Oshawa, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and more.
Again,unless you are looking for something very special, no need to go there. The Toronto Internaional Centre, for instance, is a convention and trade show center, and I'm going there Monday for a show. It is just outside northern Etobicoke, in Mississauga.
The old city of York and the current York Region may lead to some copnfusion about "York." And be cause there used to be so many cities, there are repeated street names and these need to be sorted out. I can't think of a repeated street name that matters to a tourist, though.
The Toronto airport is in Mississaugua. Lots of chaiin restaurants have branches in Toronto and it other places in the GTA.
The Toronto Transit Commission, TTC, is the city of Toronto system that used to include what was metro Toronto, and now includes what is Toronto, but does not cary passengers into York or Peel or Druham Regions. Buses from there come into the edge of Toronto and passengers buy new tickets when they change.
And, in regard to "but just how close is it?" It -- Mississiauga, for instance, is just across the street from Toronto, except you have to get to the far edge of Toronto from downtown, to get to that street to cross. It's maybe 10 miles from downtown Toronto along Queen Street and The Queenswqay to get to the point on The Queensway where it turns into Mississauga.
Sep 18th, 2004, 07:01 AM
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BAK, you are like a walking encyclopedia!! 
Believe it or not, I have been trying to do a lot of this research on my own, but I think I'm just not hitting the right websites. (The tourism sites certainly don't cover all this info!!) Anyway, just want you to know I do appreciate it.
When I asked "just how far is it?" I was thinking that maybe it was similar to the situation where I live (and it IS very similar) I live in "Metro-Atlanta" NOT the city of Atlanta ... but for all practical purposes if someone asks you where you are from, you say "Atlanta" I suppose if someone from Toronto was looking at a tourism website for Atlanta, they would see a lot of listings for Marietta, Kennesaw, etc. (We have our own bus system too - but it is very easy to get to the Atlanta transportation system.)
As far as places to eat, I do know that I definitely want to go to Katz Deli but other than that, I am sure I will be more than happy just staying in Toronto.
Thanks everyone.
Sep 18th, 2004, 01:23 PM
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Buckhead?
Last night I finished reading Tom Wolfe's "A Man In Full" which is mostly set in Atlanta, so I know a lot more than I did before starting thee book.
There's reference to downtown Atlanta closing up as the office buildings empty; best restaurants are in the suburbs, etc.
And I've been through Atlanta many times, not stopping, and been there on business trips several times.
Toronto is vastly different.
There's tens of thousands of us who live downtown close enough to walk to the big office towers for work. In my area downtown, there will be thousands of people on the street this evening.
I don't think the Toronto official tourism sites are great. If you go to www.BrianKilgore.com you'll see a link to tourist tips. It's full of info, and lots of photographs.
Toronto is much more like New York and Chicago than it is like Atlanta or Los Angeles.
BAK
Last night I finished reading Tom Wolfe's "A Man In Full" which is mostly set in Atlanta, so I know a lot more than I did before starting thee book.
There's reference to downtown Atlanta closing up as the office buildings empty; best restaurants are in the suburbs, etc.
And I've been through Atlanta many times, not stopping, and been there on business trips several times.
Toronto is vastly different.
There's tens of thousands of us who live downtown close enough to walk to the big office towers for work. In my area downtown, there will be thousands of people on the street this evening.
I don't think the Toronto official tourism sites are great. If you go to www.BrianKilgore.com you'll see a link to tourist tips. It's full of info, and lots of photographs.
Toronto is much more like New York and Chicago than it is like Atlanta or Los Angeles.
BAK
Sep 18th, 2004, 03:23 PM
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Thanks BAK,
You are a real asset to this forum ... I didn't mean to imply that I thought Toronto was like Atlanta. I see how you could have thought that by what I wrote, but believe me, I don't think that way. Frankly, I think Atlanta is very backwards for claiming to be a big international city. (It certainly isn't a walkers city, that is for sure) I just meant in regards to having Atlanta spread out over many cities it is similar.
I have spent some time in NYC and I love walking around. I am excited about visiting Toronto. BAK, maybe you could recommend some sites and/or places to eat. You seem to be such an expert. I am very happy to have you here.
You are a real asset to this forum ... I didn't mean to imply that I thought Toronto was like Atlanta. I see how you could have thought that by what I wrote, but believe me, I don't think that way. Frankly, I think Atlanta is very backwards for claiming to be a big international city. (It certainly isn't a walkers city, that is for sure) I just meant in regards to having Atlanta spread out over many cities it is similar.
I have spent some time in NYC and I love walking around. I am excited about visiting Toronto. BAK, maybe you could recommend some sites and/or places to eat. You seem to be such an expert. I am very happy to have you here.
quot;>(heehee - I guess you don't have to give me those recommendations.)
Sep 22nd, 2004, 10:09 AM
#10
Hi - I have a package of restaurant/sight seeing I put together for a friend who visited Toronto last year - happy to email it to you........send me an email at [email protected].
Hi Brian!
Hi Brian!
