PROFILE City/Province TORONTO Seeing the sights in
T
he global recession seems to have bypassed Toronto. Dozens of new condominium towers are
springing skywards and the face of the downtown area of Canada’s largest city is being reformed by a battalion of cranes and ‘Coming Soon’ signs guarding new projects rising from the ground. The city will welcome several major
new hotels in the next year or so including The Trump Hotel and Tower, Four Seasons and Shangri-La. Visitors to the CN Tower, which itself
unveiled the new adrenalin-inducing Edgewalk experience (pictured) this summer will notice a huge hole where work has started on Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, due to open in 2013. Even the beaches of Lake Ontario,
which fringe the southern edges of the city are, after several years, once again welcoming bathers after the city successfully cleaned up the lake. Toronto is a ‘walking city’ where
many attractions are easily visited in a couple of days. Alternatively visitors can get a feel for the highlights by signing up for a Hippo Tour. They'll tour downtown aboard an amphibian bus
14 WINTER 2011 • SELLING CANADA
before it splashes into the waterways of Ontario Place. Top of most 'must see' lists will be the
CN Tower – suggest dinner in the revolving restaurant – and the Royal Ontario Museum where several free tours a day introduce you to various halls that include 'China', which is filled with rare artefacts, and 'Native America', where you can see the war ‘bonnet’ worn by Sitting Bull when he killed General Custer and more than 200 US troops at the battle of Little Big Horn. The city also has several delightful surprises, like the BATA Shoe Museum, dedicated entirely to the history of footwear. Exhibits include wooden clogs designed for hard labour in the mills, coal mines and iron and steel works of Britain during the Industrial Revolution, leather sandals from ancient Egypt and the space boot worn by Jim Lovell when he stepped on the moon in 1969. Toronto is also a great suggestion for
fans of North American sports. Near the CN Tower the Rogers Centre – formerly the Skydome – is the place to pass three enjoyable hours eating as much fast food as you can handle while
The Art Gallery of Ontario has a major Picasso exhibition next year (April 28-August 26). It will feature over 150 of the artist's works on loan from the Musee National Picasso in Paris"
you watch the baseball team, the Blue Jays, while the Air Canada Centre is the home of the city’s beloved Maple Leafs. Toronto is a city for strolling. Visitors should amble along at least one of the city’s main arteries. Yonge Street is an eclectic mix of modern retail outlets – like the Eaton Centre – souvenir shops, restaurants, all-night supermarkets, tattoo parlours and barber shops that offer haircuts until midnight for $15. Yonge Street also reflects how
Toronto beats to a multicultural pulse. Food outlets of various sizes serve everything from Caribbean jerky to Middle East wraps to Mexican enchiladas while elsewhere in the city the Far East influence is so strong there are five separate Chinatowns, the largest Greek neighbourhood in North
Edgewalk sees guests walk onto a fi ve-foot ledge that encircles the CN Tower's main pod 116 stories above the ground; baseball at the Rogers Centre; BATA Shoe Museum
America and two Little Italys. Suggest clients spend an afternoon or
evening in the Distillery District, which started out in 1831 as a grist mill and grew into the largest gin and whisky plant in the British Empire. Booze is no longer made here but left behind is the largest collection of Victorian buildings in the Commonwealth (outside of Britain). They house boutique stores, craft shops, artists' galleries, bars, restaurants and more, which visitors visit via cobbled streets.
STAR DEAL
Prestige Holidays 01502 567 222;
www.prestigeholidays.co.uk A four-night Toronto city break in 2012, staying at the Delta Chelsea, is from £975pp. It includes flights with Air Canada, a two-hour city tour and a day trip to Niagara Falls with lunch.
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