The best way to explore a city is to do a bike tour on the first day. This way, you get to know the city with information from the local guide and immediately know where you want to go back to in the next few days! After my last bike tour in Hanoi with Bajabikes, I had immediately booked another bike tour for my next trip to Canada as well; Toronto bike tour “The Highlights”.
Preparations for the Bike Tour
This bike tour takes you past all the highlights of the city of Toronto, and there are quite a few! The tour was about 17 kilometers long and took about 3.5 hours for 91 USD. There are lots of stops with lots of photo opportunities as well. My tour started at 13:00 local time (another option is 9:00), at Toronto Bicycle Tours downtown. It took a while to find the entrance which was at the lowest level of a St Patrick Street parking garage. We had a nice group of six people, with 4 nationalities. Always nice to meet other travelers, especially on my solo trip.
After some instructions, bike saddle check, signals explanation for stopping, turning left and right, bottle of water in the bidon holder; it was hot and great weather. Lucky me!
Grange Park and Kensington Market
Cycling out of the garage and on to the first stop; Grange Park. This park overlooks the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University. Both are unique buildings with very modern designs. The guide explained that the Art Gallery was built around Toronto’s oldest building, this is how they preserve the old culture that merges with the new architecture. You do see this more in Toronto. This way they keep the old buildings intact which still gives more allure to this modern city. Nice to see and hear, wouldn’t have known and seen it without a guide!
Following the guide through China Town on to Kensington Market. Kensington is truly a multicultural neighborhood, full of colorful stores and restaurants from all parts of the world. We stopped at a stretch of street where there was both a Korean restaurant, next to a synagogue and Jamaican coffee shop. This does indicate the mix of cultures; very nice vibe in this neighborhood.
University of Toronto and Nathan Phillips Square
Next stop was the University of Toronto. A beautiful area, wide open with beautiful old buildings of various studies such as engineering and medical sciences. From this point also a beautiful view of the CN Tower (more later). We arrived just when several graduation parties were going on (late May), hence the party tents in front of the buildings. Indeed a party to study here!
We cycled through the busy streets with sometimes separate bike lanes; Toronto is a very bikeable city. We arrived at the heart of the city the Nathan Phillips Square. Here a number of iconic buildings converge on a large square. Surely the most beautiful and striking are Toronto’s old and new City Hall. The shape of the new building is really striking with two tall semicircular towers with a kind of circular building in between; symbolizing Toronto as a growing city. This plaza also has a pond where you can skate in the winter. Here you can also see the much-photographed TORONTO letters, including Canada’s logo the maple leaf.
Nice tour so far!!! All the different interesting locations, looking forward to the next destinations!
Times Square of Toronto and Financial District
Via a stop at a small church in the city, straight through a mega-sized shopping center the CF Toronto Eaton Centre with the bike our hands. Now we ended up in the “Times Square of Toronto;” the Yonge Dundas Square. I want to return to both places in the coming days. A little shopping belongs in a city trip, of course!
After the bustle of the squares, on to Toronto’s Financial District. What a high and beautiful buildings! I was proud of this photo that shows what kind of neighborhood this is. The building of Royal Bank of Canada has a golden color because there is real gold in the glass, how bizarre. Seven metal cows lie in the grass, referring to the bull and bear markets in the financial system.
Old Town and Distillery District
Cycling past the oldest hotel in Toronto to the oldest part of the city; Old Town. The guide told us that the lake water used to be all the way up to here. Funny to see. In this part of town there are two market halls; the St Lawrence Market and Farmers Market. A covered permanent market with a farmers market across the street on Saturdays as well, so went back the next morning since that was a Saturday; enjoyed strolling around.
Now to the most distant destination of the bike tour; the Distillery District. What a fun hip trendy district this is! The sun was shining and people on terraces and cute boutique stores everywhere. Time for a restroom stop and we were able to stretch our legs through the red colored streets. This old part of town is full of restored old distilleries right by the water.
Through a boulevard on Lake Ontario, which feels like a sea so big it is, to an artificial beach. The beach is in a harbor and has real beach chairs, sand and restaurants around it. Nice vibe and I understand like no other that this is a popular spot in town especially in the spring and summer.
Waterfront and CN Tower
Now it was cycling in a straight line along the Waterfront, to the city’s icon: the CN Tower! You can see this broadcast tower and tourist attraction from every part of town. And vice versa too, you can go up the 553-meter tower to get a spectacular view of all of Toronto. The Canadian National Tower was the tallest structure in the world until 2007.
In the plaza at the bottom of the tower are several attractions, including the railroad museum and several eateries. You will also find the Blue Jays’ famous Rogers Centre baseball stadium just steps away. On the other side of the plaza, you can immerse yourself in the underwater world at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada.
This area is also home to many hotels and airbnb’s. All are not cheap, my airbnb was in Little Italy a little outside of downtown, a little more affordable and greener. By public transportation or with a rental bike it’s perfectly doable.
End of the Bike Tour
After some selfies with the iconic CN Tower in the background, we got on our bikes back to the starting point. It was busier on the road, rush hour in Downtown Toronto, but all just fine to cycle. There we rode back into the cool garage, handed back our bikes and I headed for a nice restaurant. I got a huge appetite from the bike ride!
Super excited and with a big smile I sat behind my Pad Thai in PAI, a hot spot in town. What a fun day! A very good impression of the city of Toronto, diverse city with different neighborhoods, with nice people, where nature is not far around the corner. Really recommend both the bike tour and the city of Toronto itself!!!
