This past weekend I visited Toronto, Ontario. It seems weird to say that, probably because I am in Toronto every day for work and I live less than an hour away. But this time was different; I visited through the eyes of a tourist. My husband and I spent the Saturday of the Civic Long Weekend in Toronto visiting some main tourist attractions and enjoying the city like a new visitor to the city might. Our 1-day Toronto itinerary included:
- Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada
- CN Tower
- Steam Whistle Brewery
- Toronto Waterfront
- Toronto Eaton’s Centre
With weather in the high 30s (Celsius), it was an excellent day to visit. We purchased some “sea to sky tickets” online and headed into the city via the Go Train. Here’s our 1-day Toronto itinerary and some initial thoughts on the attractions.
Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada
Kicking off our 1-day Toronto itinerary was a stop at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. I didn’t think I would like the aquarium based on some of the reviews I heard. However, I’m happy to report I was wrong! It was a very busy day with lots of crowds, and I am sure it was amplified with long-weekend visitors. Given we were just two adults visiting, it was easy for us to navigate through the crowds. If you’d prefer a quieter visit, you might want to avoid weekends – especially long weekends!
There are great displays, facts, and observation points throughout the aquarium to see the aquatic life in all its glory. My favourite part of the visit was riding on the automatic sidewalk (at a snails pace!) to view the shark tank and all of the species within it. Definitely a highlight!
As I mentioned, we purchased “sea to sky” tickets online and this meant we got a discounted ticket price to visit both the aquarium and the CN Tower. This combo ticket is definitely worth it if you are in the area to visit both!
Overall verdict: definitely visit, but try to avoid weekends. Full review
of Ripley’s Aquarium to come… stay tuned!
CN Tower
In my 30+ years of life, I have never visited the CN Tower. I’m sure you’re thinking: how is that even possible? It is, believe me. I never had a school trip, never visited with friends, and never did the CN Tower climb (like I had planned). Each day I see the CN Tower multiple times, so I didn’t see the point in actually going to the top. My husband (from a town 2+ hours away from Toronto) had already visited the tower as part of an elementary school trip, so i decided it was time for me to go to the top. In planning to visit the CN Tower, I think I got my hopes a little too high.
CN Tower Lines
Like many tourist attractions there were lines, after lines, after lines. That was even after we purchased tickets online to avoid waiting in these long lines! I think we avoided one line by pre-buying our tickets. Let me take you through the process to get in.
- Line up outside of the CN Tower (we arrived at 12:40ish) to go get into the security building
- Line up in a security line (6 lines to choose from) and show all the contents of your bag(s)
- Line up to purchase your entry tickets (if you didn’t buy them online before you left, or while waiting in one of the two previous lines) after clearing security
- Line up to get to the elevators
- Go to assigned elevator and line up to go up
From the first line, to actually getting to the top of the CN Tower, it took us 1.5 hours!
CN Tower Experience
Once we finally made it up to the top, we were there for about 30 minutes. So it took us 3 times as long to get up than our actual visit lasted! The views from the top of the CN Tower were beautiful. There were full glass panels from floor to ceiling in some areas for amazing photos, and half windows everywhere else. The open air viewing deck was nice to walk around on (and less busy!) and nice and breezy. If you wanted to stand on the glass floor – good luck! People were so inconsiderate and rude pushing themselves onto the glass floor, laying down in your shot while you waited patiently to take a photo, and then pushing you to take their photo. It was very un-Canadian-like in my opinion. I gave up on getting any sort of good shot looking down the glass floor.
Overall verdict: The views were lovely, but I feel like the wait was not worth it. Perhaps if you visit on a different day it would be a better experience, but I’m not going to spend time or money to find out. If you’re planning a 1-day Toronto itinerary, you may want to really evaluate if you want to spend potentially 3 hours (or more) at one attraction.
Steam Whistle Brewery
After the CN Tower experience we were hangry, thirsty and didn’t want to wal too far because we had been standing for over 3 hours. Our 1-day Toronto itinerary continued at Steam Whistle Brewery – right across the street from the tower and aquarium and perfect for an afternoon drink. We were planning on taking a tour, but didn’t know what time to sign up for so thought we would just arrive and see if we could get in on a tour. Bad idea. The tours were all booked, so if you want a tour you will need to do a better job (than us) of planning in advance.
Inside was air conditioned and we got a table right away so we were happy to just sit down and enjoy the brewery atmosphere. Steam Whistle Lager is a light beer and very refreshing on a hot Toronto day. It’s not my favourite kind of beer (I typically prefer IPAs), but the setting, music and snacks (cheesy pretzels and pickles on a stick – yum!) made it a great experience.
Overall verdict: Worth a visit even if you can’t get on a tour. But if you really want to go on the tour, make sure you book in advance.
Toronto Waterfront
After the Brewery we decided to go for a little walk on the waterfront. It was such a hot day, and there was barely any shade to be found. Our walk was cut very short (although the waterfront would be a beautiful place to sit at a patio, go for a bike ride, take a leisurely stroll etc. if it didn’t feel like it was over 40 degrees) because of the heat, so we sat in the shade to re-evaluate our next activity.
Overall verdict: Worth a visit for beautiful views, great selection of patios and restaurants, and lots of activities. Dependent on weather conditions.
Toronto Eaton’s Centre
We decided to visit the Toronto Eaton’s Centre to get out of the heat. We’ve both been (many times) before, but thought we’d go browsing at Nordstrom’s and through some other shops. We walked to Union, took the subway up to Yonge & Dundas square and shopping began. You could easily spend an entire day shopping at the Eaton’s Centre, but we gave up after about 2 hours and decided to go for dinner.
Overall verdict: Great selection of stores, and a nice place to shop despite the crowds.
3 Brewers (Brasseurs)
Carrying on with our brewery theme from earlier in the day we decided to try out the 3 Brewers for dinner. I’d say it was a mediocre dining experience. Poor service, ok food, good beer. The pros were that we were seated right away, we were close to the subway to get back to Union and it had air conditioning!
Overall verdict: Pass, there are better restaurants in the area. We went out of convenience and for the beer. It was convenient and they did have good beer, but like I said – terrible service (and our standards aren’t even that high!).
1-Day Toronto Itinerary Summary
Overall, our 1-day Toronto itinerary was a good variety of sight-seeing, shopping, and relaxation. We had a great day in Toronto, spent approximately 10 hours in the city, and visited everything at a leisurely pace. You could easily replicate this itinerary and make it take longer or much less time (depending on the day).
Overall verdict: Toronto is a must-visit city! These are just a few of the many things to do in the city, and I’ll be back with a different 1-Day Toronto Itinerary in the near future.
