Toronto

Toronto is the largest city in Canada and 4th largest in North America, with a population of 3 million. The greater Toronto area is home to 6.7 million of Canada’s 39 million people. Founded as York in 1793 on the north shore of Lake Ontario and renamed Toronto in 1834, the city is a center of finance and media and a major technology hub.

I’m going to be in Toronto for two weeks in July for the Deep Learning + Reinforcement Learning Summer School at the Vector Institute and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).

Here are the notes I collected for this time and next on how to enjoy a nice visit to Toronto.

Travel Guides

• NY Times 36 hours in Toronto
• Eugene Levy’s Toronto
• Lonely Planet’s guide to Toronto
• WikiVoyage Toronto
• BlogTO’s 35 things to do in Toronto this summer
• Culture Trip Toronto

Things to see

Toronto has some architecturally cool buildings.

Map links

• Toronto
• CN Tower
• Casa Loma
• Distillery District
• Gooderham Building
• Graffiti Alley
• High Park
• Queen’s Park
• Scarborough Bluffs
• St Lawrence Market

Museums

• Art Gallery
• Royal Ontario Museum
• Gardiner Museum

Nearby

• Beaches
• The Toronto Islands
• Niagara Falls
• Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve

Music

There are a bunch of music venues that look to be worth checking out.

• The Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar
• Jazz Bistro
• The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koerner Hall. Pianist Vadym Kholodenko performs on July 18, 2024 at 7:30 PM.
• There are outdoor shows on Thursdays and Sundays during summer at the Toronto Music Garden by the waterfront.

Toronto based musicians:

• Guitarist Chris Platt.
• Allison Au is performing with guitarist Rob Chapman and bassist Jonathan Meyer at Hirut Cafe on July 16, 2024 at 8:00 PM.
• Emily Steinwall.
• Duncan Wilson Trio, Duncan Wilson (p.), Chris Parnis (b.) and Petros Anagnostakos (d.)
• Jesse Dietschi Trio

For next time: The Toronto Jazz Festival runs for 10 days at the tail end of June. Roy Thomson Hall is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Too bad summer is their off season.

Theater

• Second City Toronto comedy club.
• Canadian Stage puts on Shakespeare performances in High Park Amphitheatre. Sadly not during the time I’ll be in Toronto.
• Toronto Fringe Festival runs July 3 - 14

Books and book stores

The Toronto Guardian has a nice list of the best bookstores in Toronto. Culture trip lists the best used bookstores.

• Bakka Phoenix Books, Canada’s oldest science fiction and fantasy bookstore
• Balfour Books, used books
• BMV, used and discount books

Books

• The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas Jerry Dennis

Canadian Writers

Why not read some books by Canadian authors?

• Margaret Atwood
• Emily St. John Mandel
• Alice Munro
• Michael Ondaatje
• Cory Doctorow

Eating

• Annabel’s - Italian, recommended by locals.
• Bloor-Yorkville restaurants

Getting around

• Bike Share Toronto
• GO transit system

News

The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail are Canada’s most widely read newspapers.

City of Toronto 1876