Canada's largest city, Toronto is a blending pot of cultures and ethnicities, which makes it home to a vast array of restaurants with everything from Vietnamese to Korean and Jamaican. Although English may be the first language of its citizens, it is at first confusing to see French just as frequently spoken and with most English instructions and signs followed by a French translation. Toronto is truly a multicultural city, with a lively entertainment district and North America's largest underground pedestrian system, host to over 1,000 shops so check out our quick guide to this culturally rich city.
Perhaps the most surprising aspects of Toronto for us, was how truly multicultural the city is, with over 100,000 immigrants arriving annually, Toronto is home to a huge range of cultures. Not only that, due to the history of their colonisation, most Canadians speak French as a second language and it is an official language of the country, which often makes you feel as though you’re not in North America. Although Toronto is a bustling centre of business, as the second largest financial centre in North America, it also feels like an incredibly young and fun city, decorated in colourful graffiti and with a vibrant Chinatown. It is a refreshingly vibrant and cultured city to visit if you’re looking to try new flavours and experiences.
The city is full of fun and interactive museums and galleries, Ripley’s aquarium (amazing by the way), the CN tower, St Lawrence’s market, the Scotiabank arena home to Toronto Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs. And whilst we visited all the main attractions using our CityPass (saving us so much money and time), 7 days may have been slightly longer than necessary for us. However with excellent train links, Toronto is a good base for other nearby Canadian cities including Montreal and Ottawa. I’d definitely recommend this place for anyone wanting to try out Canada, but perhaps not in the winter as we did!
Currency: Canadian Dollar $CAD
Language: English and French Time Difference: -5 Hours Best Time to Visit: Toronto is extremely cold in the winter (as we experienced -15 on a bad day in early January) and whilst we enjoyed our time, we probably would have been more inclined to see attractions had it been warmer. Visit between April-May or September-October to experience mild weather and fewer crowds. Flight Time: 8 hours direct from the UK Price Range: Similar to in New York, in that prices do not include tax and whilst this is added on at the end it can inflate original advertised prices. Due to the conversion rate we found Canad was pretty cheap for food, taxis and most items in stores. If you do end up getting I’ll like me, pharmacies were more expensive than at home $8 dollar for ibuprofen where at home it was 29p... Save on cheap flights to Toronto with our SkyScanner link here
3 Comments
2/24/2019 08:22:19 pm
Really enjoyed this quick run through of Toronto, it certainly sounds like such an interesting place to visit. I love places which are really multicultural, it just adds to the whole experience for me. Ahh how did you cope with minus 15!! I used one of those kind of passes for the attractions in New York last year and they're a godsend aren't they? Great post!
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