- Population:~3.0M (city), ~6.5M (GTA metro)
- Timezone:ET/EDT
- IATA:YYZ
Overview
Toronto is the capital of Ontario, the largest city in Canada and the centre of one of the most multicultural metro regions in the world — around three million people in the city itself and roughly 6.5 million across the Greater Toronto Area. The city sits on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario in a long ribbon along the waterfront, with the CN Tower as its skyline anchor, a dense network of ethnic neighbourhoods around the centre and BMO Field, the lakeshore stadium on Exhibition Place.
Travel
Toronto runs as a long urban ribbon along the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, with the Don and Humber river valleys cutting green corridors through the grid and a downtown core that has densified sharply over the last twenty years. Three layers structure the experience: the dense Downtown and Financial District (CN Tower, the bank towers of King and Bay, the Rogers Centre, the Distillery District and St. Lawrence Market a few blocks east, the waterfront and the Toronto Islands ferry); the residential and ethnic-neighbourhood mosaic that surrounds it (Chinatown and Kensington Market just west of downtown, Little Italy on College Street, Greektown on the Danforth, Little Portugal and Little India on Gerrard, Koreatown along Bloor); and the Bloor-Yorkville corridor where most of the city's cultural institutions cluster — the Royal Ontario Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario a short distance south. The TTC subway and streetcar network is the spine of everyday movement: the 501 Queen and 504 King streetcars are among the longest routes in North America, the Line 1 Yonge-University subway loops the central business district, and Line 2 Bloor-Danforth runs east-west through most of the inner-city neighbourhoods. Toronto's annual festival calendar is unusually rich for a North American city — the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September is a major global event, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) draws large summer crowds, Pride in June is one of the biggest in the world, and Doors Open Toronto in May opens normally closed buildings to free public visits. Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) is Canada's largest hub; Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) on the Toronto Islands handles regional service from the downtown waterfront. BMO Field on Exhibition Place — home of Toronto FC (MLS) and the Toronto Argonauts (CFL) — sits directly on the lake about ten minutes from Union Station by the 509 Harbourfront streetcar or one stop west on the GO Lakeshore West line.
The CN Tower — 553 metres tall, completed in 1976 and the tallest free-standing structure in the world until 2007 — anchors the city's skyline and the downtown visitor cluster. Its main observation deck at 346 metres has a glass floor with a 360-degree view across Lake Ontario; the EdgeWalk hands-free walk around the exterior at 356 metres operates in summer. At the base of the tower, Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and the BMO Centre for international conferences sit in one compact zone. The Financial District north and east — with the Royal Bank Plaza's gold towers, the TD Centre's Mies van der Rohe black-glass cluster, the Brookfield Place atrium and the underground PATH network (a 30-kilometre concourse system connecting downtown towers) — gives the city its winter-functional core.
Frequently asked questions
Tourism & destination guides
Diplomatic missions in Toronto
7 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.
Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.