Where to Stay, Eat and Play in Toronto, Ontario

Toronto is a bustling major metropolitan area, with plenty to do and see, here is a (hopefully) helpful guide on what to see in Toronto.

A Place to Stay

We stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel (http://www.metropolitan.com/toronto/ ) near the heart of downtown Toronto. The hotel is reasonably priced for the location and comfort that it provides. The interior decorating in the room could use some updating, but it really didn't affect the actual stay at the hotel. I must say one of the best things about the hotel was the bed in the room. By far one of the top two hotel beds I have ever stayed in (Downtown Atlanta Sheridan is the other). So if comfort is one of your keys to travel, it comes highly recommended at the Met. The hotel also comes with many amenities such as a workout room and hotel.

I must also recommend against the parking garage below the hotel. The price is reasonable by Toronto standards (around $20 per night), but the actual ramp is nearly impossible to navigate, and if a car is leaving, good luck both trying to fit, coupled with the fact that you can be as low as 6 storied underground, and navigating can be a nightmare. All this, and I have a rather small car.

Things to Do:

Much like most major metropolitan areas, Toronto has an awful lot to do. On day one we mostly concentrated on settling in and dining at a really nice Japanese Restaurant called Izakaya. I would definitely recommend this place to you, except that it officially closed it's doors for good on February 23^rd, 2008. We also stopped at a grocery store to pick up snacks for the hotel.

Our original intention for the night was to go to a place called The Mod Club for the radio station 102.1 Thursday night live to air broadcast from 11pm - 2am. There are plenty of clubs and bars in the Downtown area to frequent, so you have a full range of things to do if you choose.

On Friday, we walked several blocks to the Eaton Center ( http://eatoncentre.ca/ ) , one of the largest shopping centers I have ever been to in my entire life. I found a reasonably priced jacket that I bought from a store called Urban Behavior. There are all the main national retailers you would expect to find, plus lots of smaller Toronto region only stores that are well worth checking out.

We then made our way, via car, north to the Ontario Science Center (http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/ ) even as adults we spent almost 4 hours exploring all the different wonderful hands on activities they have their. Walking through a rainforest, hoping on a space explorer, and all sorts of other activities that are great for people of all ages. There is also an Imax theatre there with several different options of what to see. It was a little expensive for our tastes ($25 per person) so we decided to skip that part on walk along our favorite area of Toronto: Queen Street West. Part of the reason I love Queen street so much is because it reminds me of my hometown Elmwood Ave, with tons upon tons of small shops that you could spend plenty of time in individually. We always stop at a Japanese food/candy store called Sanco's. If you're looking any sort of Japanese candy, this is the place to stop at. After filled our car with candy and more for ourselves and our family, we walked down and shopped some more, then stopped for dinner at Izme Sushi, located right on Queen Street. We definitely didn't leave ourselves enough time for Queen st (we should have known better), but I would highly recommend it for anyone who likes boutique shopping, music stores, and good food.

OverallOverall, Toronto is the city to visit. With great hotels, great food (lousy pizza, but anyways) and plenty of things to do, I would say grab your passport and head to "the New York City of Canada"