Toronto

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.

The Distillery Historic District east of downtown is a preserved Victorian industrial brick complex — the Gooderham and Worts distillery, founded in 1832 — converted to a pedestrianised arts, retail and restaurant district in 2003. Forty-plus restored 19th-century buildings, public art, the Toronto Christmas Market in winter and an active gallery and theatre programme make it one of the city's most concentrated heritage districts. A few blocks west, St. Lawrence Market — Toronto's main public market since 1803 — fills two halls with butchers, fishmongers, bakers, cheese counters and prepared-food stalls. The classic move is a peameal-bacon sandwich at Carousel Bakery in the South Market, followed by a walk through the neighbouring St. Lawrence Hall and the Front Street heritage block.

The Toronto Islands — a chain of small islands connected by paths and bridges in the harbour, ten minutes by ferry from the foot of Bay Street — provide the city's most distinctive view back at itself: skyline and CN Tower seen across the water from Centre Island's beach. The islands have no cars; bikes, walking and a small amusement park (Centreville) carry visitor traffic. Hanlan's Point at the western end is a clothing-optional beach. The waterfront proper between the ferry docks and the Music Garden runs the length of the harbourfront, with Sugar Beach's pink umbrellas, the HTO Park urban beach and the Harbourfront Centre's cultural programming, continuing west to Trillium Park and Ontario Place — directly east of BMO Field on Exhibition Place.

Kensington Market — a four-block bohemian district immediately west of Spadina and north of Dundas — is Toronto's most distinctive low-rise neighbourhood: vintage clothing shops, Caribbean and Latin American grocers, third-wave coffee, dollar pizza counters, and a Pedestrian Sunday street-closure programme on the last Sunday of each summer month. Chinatown along Spadina Avenue between Dundas and College is one of the largest in North America, with herb shops, dim-sum houses, banh-mi storefronts and the Spadina streetcar running the length. North of Bloor, the Annex (around the University of Toronto's St. George campus) carries Victorian houses and student bookstores; further west, Little Italy on College Street and Little Portugal on Dundas West continue the ethnic-neighbourhood ribbon.

The Bloor-Yorkville corridor along Bloor Street West between Avenue Road and Yonge concentrates much of the city's luxury retail and many of its largest cultural institutions. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), with its 2007 Daniel Libeskind crystal-shaped expansion, is the largest museum in Canada and covers natural history, world cultures and Canadian Indigenous collections. The Bata Shoe Museum sits a block north. South of Bloor, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) at Dundas and McCaul reopened in 2008 with a Frank Gehry redesign anchored on the curving wooden Galleria Italia. Further west on Queen Street West and along Ossington Avenue, the city's contemporary gallery and live-music scene continues.

High Park in the west end — 161 hectares of mixed forest, ravines, oak savanna, the small Grenadier Pond and a public zoo — is the city's largest west-side green space and the site of Toronto's spring cherry-blossom event in late April or early May. Casa Loma north of downtown — a 98-room Gothic Revival “castle” completed in 1914 by Sir Henry Pellatt — sits on the Davenport Escarpment above the city, with its towers, gardens and the historic stables visible from much of midtown. The Hill north of Davenport and the long Spadina Road climb give Toronto its only meaningful elevation change in the inner city; the Spadina Museum at the top of the hill keeps an Edwardian-era house museum on the same ridge.

Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) runs the subway (Lines 1 Yonge-University, 2 Bloor-Danforth, 4 Sheppard), the legacy and Flexity streetcar network and a comprehensive bus network. The Presto card or contactless payment covers TTC, GO Transit regional rail and most metro-region operators. Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) connects to Union Station downtown via the UP Express train in 25 minutes; Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) on the Toronto Islands offers regional flights via a pedestrian tunnel from Eireann Quay. BMO Field on Exhibition Place is reached by the 509 Harbourfront streetcar from Union Station or one stop west on the GO Lakeshore West line. Day trips: Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake (1.5 hours west by car or train), Algonquin Provincial Park for autumn colour (3 hours north), Stratford for the Stratford Festival (2 hours west). Time zone: Eastern (ET/EDT).