In search of maple syrup and some moderately good-looking residents (I’m referring to Drake here), I took a short flight up to the city of Toronto, for the weekend. I flew into the Billy Bishop city airport, which is like no ordinary airport. The coolest thing about it is that it’s situated on an island on the lake where you walk underwater to get to your taxi rank and the rest of the city. Plus on a clear day, you get the most INCREDIBLE views on Toronto’s skyscrapers and the iconic CN Tower from your descending plane! Ticks all the cool boxes for me, and quite the introduction to Toronto!
After an offensive flight time, checking into the hotel and getting settled, I was starving. Deciding on the revolving 360 Restaurant in the CN Tower for lunch was easy. My parents came here years ago and its always been on my list to visit, but its very popular so make sure to book in advance. Arrive early as it takes a while get through the crowds and elevate to over 351 metres in the sky. It takes just over an hour to revolve around completely with views of Downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario. With that in mind, we ordered a bottle of Rose and relaxed for the afternoon over a delicious meal, watching the planes in my new favourite airport. One of the best things about dining in the 360 Restaurant is you get complimentary access to the Look Out and Glass Floor levels of the tower after your meal. Bonus!
View of Downtown Toronto from CN Tower
The CN Tower itself is a true engineering marvel and head and shoulders above the other skyscrapers in the city. At 553 metres you can enjoy endless views, glass fitted elevators for the ride up and down, step onto the world-renowned glass floor and the Sky Pod that brings you up to the tiny tip of the spire. Its easy to see how a day could fly by up there. For the real thrill-seekers (clearly not me!) theres also the edge walk, the worlds HIGHEST hands free walk, around the top of the observation deck. Not for the faint hearted!
Day two saw more exciting activities as we headed to the greater Toronto area to its most well known landmark, Niagara Falls. It straddles the line between Canada and United States so you get to see two countries in one. Thankfully the best view of the horse-shoe falls is on the Canadian side (yes Toronto is in Canada in case you forgot!)
Niagara Falls
Always hungry and always on the hunt for food, we started off with lunch at Elements on the Falls. While the food was basic, the view was incomparable. March is off-season for visiting the falls so crowds were low but nothing could have prepared me for the cold I experienced that day. You could probably only last 30 seconds enjoying the falls before freezing your fingers off. Holding a camera to take a picture was a major task. The temperature is so low that time of year, it turns the spray into tiny icicles that stick to the pavement that make the area look like something out of Disney’s Frozen. Seriously Beautiful. However I ended up completely soaked through with freezing water from the spray. We came, we saw, we quickly exited before catching our death in search of hot chocolates. Its definitely worth the visit, but be sure to come in the summer months and catch the Maiden of the Mist tour which i have heard is great and wasn’t running in March. With all that siad, the waterfalls not matter what weather, would take your breath away and I am so grateful i got experience nature at its finest.
In summary, my trip to Toronto was incredible. Don’t let the sub-zero temperatures put you off. After all it was -12 degrees when i visited. Wrap up with the proper clothing and I would definitely recommend seeing it all for yourself! Or just visit in the summer ?
Aoife x
