Our Trip to Toronto

This post is a bit late, as it was a couple of weeks ago that we were in Toronto, but I wanted to share our adventure. After our visit to Niagara Falls, we headed up to Toronto to stay a couple of nights. Toronto too was on my bucket list of places to go before we moved because I had never been to Canada on the East Coast. On the west coast, I had been to Vancouver and Whistler and had great experiences there and I've heard great things so I wanted to check it out. Plus, my 6 year old expressed interest in visiting another country and this was an easy way to do that. :)

From Niagara Falls, the drive to Toronto was about an hour and a half. We decided to check into our hotel which was right by the water. If you haven't used Priceline.com, I highly recommend it because you can bid on hotels and stay at a deeply discounted price. We have used it many times and have gotten really good deals. This time we bid and got the Westin Harbour Castle. It is a really nice hotel and was perfect for our stay. I highly recommend it. What I loved was the view we got like this in the morning and the concierge was very helpful in finding us restaurants that were kid-friendly.

There is so much to do in Toronto. We knew we wanted to check out the CN Tower and the Loma Castle, so we decided on getting the Toronto CityPass. It's a great deal if you want to see lots because it gets you to 5 area attractions for a discounted price ($50.36 plus tax for adults). The places that are included are: the CN Tower, Royal Ontario Museum, Casa Loma, Toronto Zoo, and Ontario Science Centre.

On our first day we visited the Ontario Science Centre. The kiddos had lots of fun checking out a lot of their exhibits. We picked and chose what to see because the museum is pretty big and we just did not have the time.

We also went to the CN Tower later in the afternoon. It's a great tower to visit. I really enjoyed the views at the top. We even caught glimpse of a football game going on in Rogers Stadium. The kiddos loved seeing the game. There is also a see through floor which was neat. The only thing I didn't like about visiting the CN tower was the wait to get up. We waited probably an hour in line just to go up the elevator.

On our second day, I started the morning with a 5 mile run along the waterfront. It was a great way to see some of Toronto on foot.

Toronto has got great transportation. We took a street car like this:

and also took their subway and buses to get around (they have a daily family pass for $11.50 to use on weekends for unlimited rides). I really liked that the subway stations were clean and seemed on the newer side. 

We checked out Casa Loma and it was really neat exploring the rooms of the large castle and also the underground tunnel to the stable and vintage cars. My favorite part was taking the windy staircase to the tallest tower where you can get views of the city and even see the CN Tower. 

The last attraction we saw on our visit was the Royal Ontario Museum. I'd say the museum is a mix of the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Natural History in NYC. It's pretty big and there is lots to see. Again we had to pick and choose the exhibits to see because we just could not see it all with the time we had. The kiddos loved seeing the dinosaur exhibit, along with all the animals they had on display.

Our trip to Toronto was busy and filled with the lots to do. We did not get a chance to check out the zoo because that was the furthest from our hotel but maybe if we ever go back we will check it out. Overall, I enjoyed visiting. It is a great city to visit! I would love to go back. The kiddos especially loved visiting Canada because they had these Kinder eggs that have little toys in them. :)

Have you been to Canada? Ever heard of Kinder Eggs?