Toronto, Canada- How to visit Toronto & see top tourist spots easily & inexpensively

Toronto, Canada- How to visit Toronto & see top tourist spots easily & inexpensively

[Music] In this video of Toronto, we’ll discuss where to stay inexpensively when visiting Toronto, how to get to downtown Toronto efficiently and inexpensively, how to tour all of the major tourist sites in Toronto inexpensively by using public transit, tips on using the Toronto public transit system, and a guide to all the major tourist spots in Toronto. So, please stay tuned to my [Music] video. Please remember to post a like, subscribe to my channel, and hit the notification bell so you can always get my latest travel videos. Welcome back to my channel. Today, we’re going to explore Toronto, Canada. Now, Toronto, Canada is a pretty expensive city to visit. So, I’m going to show you how you can visit Toronto at a reasonable cost. Now, the first step is to find a reasonable priced place to stay in Toronto. Now, Toronto hotels are quite expensive. They are expensive for several reasons. First of all, the price is expensive. Second, they charge a very high price for park your car. And third is they have extra taxes on top of the taxes already. So, uh, it gets to be a quite a expensive venture to get a hotel in Toronto. So, the first step to traveling in Toronto is to find a hotel in the Clarkson neighborhood of Missaga. That is where you want to stay, the Clarkson neighborhood of Missaga. Clarkson is just west of downtown Toronto and is connected by express train service into Toronto by the Clarkson train station. There are six very good brandame valuepriced hotels in Clarkson, all within walking distance or short car ride from Clarkson’s train station. All of these hotels have free parking. The hotels always have rooms and they’re never fully booked. Also note that Clarkson station also has free parking. [Music] Once you’ve gotten your place in Clarkson, then all you have to do is walk or take an Uber to the GO train station. Now, when you get to the GO train station, there are three methods for payment. One is if you’re here on a weekend, you can get a weekend pass for about $7 return into Toronto. Second is if you’re a senior like me, the weekend pass only costs about $4.20 US return into Toronto. The third option is to find one of these machines and tap on using your credit card. I’m now at Clarkson Go and I’m now ready to board the train. The train ride into Toronto only takes about 30 minutes and the trains run every 30 minutes, including on weekends. The trains into Toronto are rarely crowded, are clean and safe inside, and offer free, clean bathrooms on board. Soon, the tall buildings of Toronto come into view, as well as the famous Toronto skyline, featuring the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Very soon, we arrive into Union Station, the main train station in Toronto with restaurants and shops. It’s very clean and safe. If you used a credit card to tap on the train at Clarkson station, you’ll need to locate one of these machines at Union Station to tap off using the same credit card to prevent being overcharged. If you buy a day pass or return ticket from Clarkson Station, you won’t need to do that. And now I’m in Toronto, just in front of Union Station. To tour Toronto inexpensively, I’m going to show you how to do it. We have four different directions we can go. We can go west, north, east, and south. What I’m going to do first is go west, which is that way. This direction is west. That’s the CBC building, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. They have live shows that they record and if you want to be part of the studio audience, you just have to go onto their website and get a free ticket and you can be part of the audience. After about 10 minutes of walking from Union Station, you reach this intersection, the intersection of Front and John Street. And when you do, just go [Music] left. As you go left and walk up these stairs, you’ll be met with three famous buildings. Behind me is the CN Tower. It is the tallest building in Canada. It is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. That means it’s taller than any building in the United States of America and it’s in Canada here in Toronto. [Music] So behind me is the Roger Center. The Roger Center is the home of the Toronto Blue Jays. They’re a Major League Baseball team and they won the World Championships two years in a row in 1992 and 1993. This is their stadium. Right next to the CN Tower is our third building, the Ripley’s Aquarium of Toronto. It is the largest indoor aquarium in all of Canada. Located next to Ripley’s Aquarium, in the shadow of all the tall skyscrapers in Toronto, is the Toronto Railway Museum. [Music] Located next to the Toronto Railway Museum is the Steam Whistle Brewing Company. The Steam Whistle Brewery does have a beer garden and they also have free samples and it’s uh fresh. It’s pretty [Music] good. As we leave this area and backtrack across the same pedestrian bridge over which we crossed before, we walk about 5 minutes and get to the intersection of John and King Streets. [Music] This area along King Street in Toronto is called Toronto’s entertainment district. You’ll be able to find many of the plays that uh are being shown on Broadway in New York City here in the Toronto Entertainment District. When you’re in Toronto’s entertainment district, be sure to look down at the pavement. You’ll see the Canadian Walk of Fame with names of famous Canadian stars who made it big in Hollywood. Now, I’ve shown you the entertainment district and the area west of Union Station. And now, we’re going to go to the area north of Union Station. To go north of Union Station, you take the University Line North. And there’s several subway stops along the way, and you just duck into the first subway you find. We’re going to duck into the subway and take the University line from Ozgood to St. Clair West Station. [Music] To buy a ticket for the Toronto subway, you can either buy the tickets using cash or credit card from these machines or just tap your credit card as you enter the turn styles. Little transit tip for you about Toronto. When you buy a Toronto TTC ticket or you tap on with your credit card, you have 2 hours before they charge you again. So during those 2 hours, you can ride uh the subway, you can ride the street cars, buses, whatever you want for a period of 2 hours. Riding the subway in Toronto is clean and safe. When you get to Slair station, you will go up the escalator and find this nice supermarket called Loblaws, where you can get a snack and clean public restrooms. From the Loblaws, we go outside, cross the street, and go up this street. We then head left on Melgund Road. Melan Road ends here and there’s a little alley. We follow the alley around the corner and we get to the next street. This next street is called Walmer Road. And we just keep walking along Walmer Road. We walk along Walmer Road for about 4 minutes and find what looks like a castle. In fact, it is a castle. It’s Castaloma, which was once the largest residence in all of Canada. It is today the largest castle in Canada. [Music] Yes, this is Castaloma, the largest castle in all of Canada and one of the largest residential palaces in all of North America. Castaloma has a very interesting history. Castaloma, the largest castle in North America, was built by Henry Pellet, a very wealthy man who brought electricity to Toronto. However, after 1918, the city of Toronto and the province of Ontario made electricity a public utility, which in essence bankrupted Henry Pellet. And in 1923, the castle became the property of the city of Toronto as it is today preserved as a museum. Keeping Castaloma to the right side, we walk through this little parquette and soon we reach a set of stairs. These are called the Baldwin steps and they lead us onto a street called Spadina Road. We follow Spadina Road. We walk along Spadina Road till we get to the Dupont subway station. We go inside. We enter the subway. We go in this direction. We catch the subway train and then we get off at St. George Station. At the exit of St. George Station, we see this huge museum. It’s a shoe museum. The Batasho Museum is the only shoe museum in the world. Let’s go inside and check it out. [Music] The Bat Shoe Museum was created by the owners of the famous shoe company Bat Shoes. Bat Shoes is a Canadian company from Toronto, but the bad shoe stores are found mostly in Asia and Europe. This museum features famous footwear worn by famous people and also nobility through the ages. [Music] One set of boots which were interesting to me were these cowboy boots worn by the famous movie star Robert Redford in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. [Music] Also just outside the St. George subway station is the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum. The ROM is not only the largest museum in Toronto, it is the largest museum in all of Canada. Let’s go inside. [Music] Hello. Anything that touched it, the very air itself was to be feared. He’s crazy. [Music] The ROM is a great place to visit. Uh it’s a very large museum. It has five floors of exhibits and um it can take you between four and 5 hours to get through it. One thing I will say is that what will disappoint you is that there is absolutely no history of the indigenous population of Canada at the ROM. So they have European history, African history, history of the Americas, uh Asia, and even the Middle East, but not of Canada. That’s kind of sad. [Music] A very short walk from the ROM is the Yorkville neighborhood, which is a very upscale neighborhood in Toronto. The Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto is a hidden gem. It’s located next to the Bay subway station, and it’s a beautiful little neighborhood, and it is probably the wealthiest neighborhood in all of Canada. Uh it has a lot of beautiful uh restaurants and shops that are upscale and uh it’s a great place for people [Music] watching. If you’re in Yorkville, take a little stroll down a little alley called Old York Lane. It’s a beautiful little alley. It’s a great place to walk. [Music] At the end of Old York Lane is a subway station, the Bay subway station. We duck into the Bay subway station and we head to the Dundas subway station. [Music] [Music] It’s all good. [Music] Young Dundas Square is the main square in the city of Toronto and it’s kind of like the equivalent of Time Square in New York City with all the high buildings and the billboards all around. Also next to Dundas Station is a huge shopping mall called the Toronto Eaten Center. [Music] Toronto Eating Center is the one of the largest malls in the city of Toronto and it is definitely the largest mall in downtown Toronto. [Music] The Eat Center Mall in Toronto is a mid-pric mall. It doesn’t have the luxury brands that topend stuff like Versace or uh Karagamo. It’s got the middle price brands and there’s a lot of them here. So, it’s a fairly affordable mall if you want to walk around. The Toronto Eaton Center has a very high glass ceiling which creates an atrium. On the top of the atrium are a series of sculptures of a flock of Canada geese flying in their habitual pattern for their annual migration. At the end of the flock of Canada geese is the Queen Street exit and we exit there and we turn right. As we look to the right, we see this classically designed beautiful piece of architecture with a clock tower. This lovely old building is currently the Toronto Courthouse. It used to be the Toronto City Hall. So, it’s also called the old Toronto City Hall. And you’re probably wondering where’s the new Toronto City Hall. Well, that’s right across the street over there. This is the new Toronto City Hall, or as it’s known, just Toronto City Hall. And next to it is Nathan Phillips Square. It is the main municipal square in the city of Toronto. Today behind me in Nathan Phillips Square is the Toronto Outdoor Art Festival. [Music] back. you this kind of butter also that’s your [Applause] Whereas Young Dundas Square is the main square in Toronto, this is the main municipal square in Toronto. You’ll see a lot of um festivals happening here and as well as live music. [Music] [Music] We leave Nathan Phillips Square and start our 15-minute walk back to Union Station where we started. This area of Toronto is purely a concrete jungle with glass and concrete towers. It’s quite scenic though. Now, downtown Toronto is full of a lot of very, very tall buildings and it is a concrete jungle. However, couple of things. Number one, it’s perfectly safe to walk around. They have lots of security, lots of police patrolling the streets and also in the subways. Um, it’s quite safe to take the subway. They have a lot of security patrols in the subway as well. Are they sure? Another thing you’ll notice about Toronto is the traffic in the downtown core is not crazy. You’re not going to be hit by cars or taxis. Uh they’re not going to ride up on the sidewalk to hit you. And uh there are clearly marked bike paths. So uh usually it’s very very safe to walk around and um it’s easy to cross the street. Another thing I can advise you is if you are driving to Toronto from the US, my recommendation is you do not drive in the city of Toronto, especially on a weekend and especially in the summer. Lots of roads are closed to traffic and it creates a lot of chaos and um I would not recommend it. I think you’ll probably regret it if you drive into downtown Toronto. Best to use public transit and um take the uh public transit into Toronto. the uh the the GO train and as well as the subway. To help you get your bearings, we’re back at Union Station and this time we’re going to head east of Union Station and we’re going to walk. We start our walk at 161 Bay Street, which has an amazing inside view of a beautiful atrium. And we keep walking down until we see the next building, which is the Hockey Hall of [Music] Fame. The Hockey Hall of Fame has a Tim Horton’s coffee shop with a poster of Tim Horton, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1977. The gift shop in the Hockey Hall of Fame does not disappoint. It’s absolutely huge. The section of commemorative hockey pucks was interesting to me. It features Haley Wikenhouser, who is the only woman player in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Hockey Hall of Fame gift shop is huge compared to the actual Hockey Hall of Fame, which is downstairs in the basement of the building. [Music] If you don’t follow hockey, you will find these three facts interesting. Number one, although hockey is considered a Canadian sport, most of the hockey teams in the National Hockey League, the professional league, are in the United States. Second is that uh this city, Toronto, Canada, has not won a National Hockey League Championship since the year 1967, thus making it the least winning team in all of professional sports. And thirdly, the winningest hockey team in National League history is the Montreal Canadians. and the Hockey Hall of Fame is not situated there. Less than 5 minutes walking from the Hockey Hall of Fame is Berscie Park, a dog park featuring a very cool fountain, a dog fountain. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] After St. Lawrence Market, we keep walking eastward for a little bit till we get to our next destination. [Music] [Music] One interesting thing about Toronto, Canada, is that although it’s one of the largest cities in North America, and the city of Toronto is actually larger than Chicago, Toronto doesn’t have any slums because of this type of development. with low rent housing. They call it co-op housing. So the people with lower income are allowed to live here and for a reduced rent and in exchange um they abide by the laws and they keep the place clean and it is clean. The Distillery District is a unique entertainment and restaurant area with beautiful cafes, art galleries, and shops. And uh it’s just steps away from the co-op housing, which is right across the street. It’s interesting that such an upscale neighborhood like this one is located right next to one of the poorest areas of Toronto. [Music] [Music] The distillery district is called a distillery district because in the early 1900s there was a huge distillery here called Gutterarn and Wartz a very prominent international brand of whiskey at the time. These are photos from that era. The distillery district is called the distillery district because at one time this was the distillery of good and works. It was not only the largest distillery in all of Canada, it was the largest distillery in all of the British Empire in the year 1900. There are several beautiful art galleries in the distillery district that you should definitely check out if you’re here. The one thing is that I can’t videotape them uh for you. Uh it’s not allowed to take pictures inside or video. So um you’ll have to check it out for yourself, but they are gorgeous and um they’re neat. Uh if you like art, this is a place to come. [Music] Do you want to picture the family? [Music] your handy [Music] Now the distillery district in the modern age does not have a distillery here but what you will find is the Mil Street Brewery. The Mil Street Brewery has a small distillery but as well as an active uh brewery and uh you can get fresh beer uh and it’s very very tasty. Mil Street is one of the better known brands in this area of Canada. Mil Street Brewery sells samples of their beer in small halfpint glasses like these for which they charge $20 Canadian for four. You can also buy chilled full pints size cans of a selection of Mil Street’s beers from their fridge for between $3.50 and $4.25 25 cents Canadian per can. During slow times, the Mil Street Brewery does have free tastings. Now, a little heads up for you. If you come to the Distillery District in Toronto, uh they do offer cans of beer and they they’re chilled and you can buy them here. Um but uh you can’t drink outside, so you have to take it home and drink it to be legally safe. If you get caught out here, there’s a pretty hefty fine uh to drink uh in a public space here in Toronto. It’s not like in the US. Burggo is one of the coolest stores and uh it’s here in the Dodger district. If you’re here, um you should spend some time looking around. You don’t have to buy anything. It’s just a cool place to look around. [Music] 100%. Yes. [Music] [Music] Now, when you get to the end of the distillery district, there is a tram stop uh that’ll take you to Union Station. It’ll take about 5 minutes by tram, but if you walk it, it hardly takes 10. So, it’s a pretty easy walk back to Union Station. So, now we’re back from the distillery district back to Union Station. So, we’ve gone west, north, and east. There’s only one more direction to go, and that’s south. That’s that way. We’re going to go south. Scosia Bank Arena is actually attached to Union Station. So, you just head south and you’re right here at Scotia Bank Arena. You don’t even have to go outside. Scotia Bank Arena is the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto Raptors uh basketball team. Both professional teams that play out of here in Toronto. [Music] This area in front of Scotia Bank Arena is called Maple Leaf Square. Now, it’s officially the name of uh this area. However, when the Raptors play here, uh it’s called Jurassic Park. It’s the same square, uh Maple Leaf Square, Jurassic Park, it’s the same. And um this is where the live uh screen is right behind me. So you can watch the game for free if you’re [Music] outside. Now, as I mentioned before, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team have not won a championship since 1967, making them the worst team in all of professional sports currently. The Toronto Raptors basketball team, on the other hand, won a championship in 2019, and yet hardly anyone seems to notice here in Toronto. Uh, they’re all still hockey fans. In less than 10 minutes of walking, south from Union Station is Lake Ontario, which is one of the Great Lakes. Along the shore of Lake Ontario is called Queen’s Key, spelled Q U A Y, the Canadian way. It’s a place with cafes, restaurants, shopping, and places to stroll and cycle. [Music] It’s also a place where you can catch a Toronto Islands cruise. There are several cruise ships docked here. [Music] [Music] with Lake Ontario behind me. I hope you enjoyed my economic tour of Toronto, Canada today. Please stay tuned for more of my travel videos and thank you for watching. Please subscribe, post a like, and hit the notification bell for future videos.

Join Dev as he takes you to downtown Toronto. Follow along as he gives suggestions and tips on where to stay, how to use the public transit, and what to see inexpensively in Canada’s largest city. Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/devs.destinations; on X at https://x.com/devsdestination; on TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@devs.destination and on Pinterest at https://ca.pinterest.com/devsdestinations/.