4 Best Sights in Toronto, Ontario

Even if you aren't a hockey fan, it's worth a trip to see this shrine to Canada's favorite sport. Exhibits include the original 1893 Stanley Cup, as well as displays of goalie masks, skate and stick collections, players' jerseys, video displays of big games, and a replica of the Montréal Canadiens' locker room. Grab a stick and test your speed and accuracy in the Goodyear Shoot Out virtual experience, or strap on a goalie mask and field shots from big-name players with the Shut Out computer simulation. The grand building, a former Bank of Montréal branch designed by architects Darling & Curry in 1885, is covered with beautiful ornamental details—note the richly carved Ohio stone and the Hermès figure supporting the chimney near the back. At the corner of Front and Yonge Streets, the impressive 17-foot bronze statue Our Game is a good photo op. Entrance is through Brookfield Place on the lower level.

This subterranean universe expanded from existing tunnels in the mid-1970s partly to replace the retail services in small buildings that were demolished to make way for the latest skyscrapers and partly to protect office workers from the harsh winter weather. As each major building went up, its developers agreed to connect their underground shopping areas with others and with the subway system. You can walk from beneath Union Station to the Fairmont Royal York hotel, the Toronto-Dominion Centre, First Canadian Place, the Sheraton Centre, The Bay and Eaton Centre, and City Hall without ever seeing the light of day, encountering everything from art exhibitions to buskers (the best are the winners of citywide auditions, who are licensed to perform throughout the subway system). According to Guinness World Records, the PATH is the biggest underground shopping complex in the world. Maps to guide you through the labyrinth are available in many downtown news and convenience stores. Be aware that large sections of the PATH may be closed on weekends when the office buildings are closed. This can cause particular problems for wheelchair users because not all sections of the underground are fully accessible.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a virtuoso of modern architecture, designed a significant portion of this six-building office complex, though he died before its completion in 1992. As with his acclaimed Seagram Building in New York, Mies stripped the TD Centre's buildings to their skin and bones of bronze-color glass and black-metal I-beams. The tallest building, the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, is 56 stories high. The only architectural decoration consists of geometric repetition. Inside the low-rise square banking pavilion at King and Bay Streets is a virtually intact Mies interior.

Historian Pierre Berton wrote that the planning of Union Station recalled "the love lavished on medieval churches." Indeed, this train depot can be regarded as a cathedral built to serve the god of steam. Designed in 1907 and opened by Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1927, it has a 40-foot-high coffered Guastavino tile ceiling and 22 pillars weighing 70 tons apiece. The floors are Tennessee marble laid in a herringbone pattern (the same that's in Grand Central Terminal in New York City). The main hall, with its lengthy concourse and light flooding in from arched windows at each end, was designed to evoke the majesty of the country that spread out by rail from this spot. The names of the towns and cities across Canada that were served by the country's two railway lines, Grand Trunk (incorporated into today's Canadian National) and Canadian Pacific, are inscribed on a frieze along the inside of the hall. As train travel declined, the building was nearly demolished in the 1970s, but public opposition proved strong enough to save it, and Union Station, a National Historic Site of Canada, is now a vital transport hub. Commuter, subway, and long-distance trains stop here.