It Was Now or Never: Toronto & Niagara Falls in October

The one place I absolutely needed to see while we were in Canada was Niagara Falls. Ever since I saw David Copperfield go down there (or did he?) in 1990, I wanted to go there. We kept postponing the trip week after week. Finally, in October someone told me that it was slowly getting too cold to go there. This was our cue and soon after we hit the road bund for Toronto. The flights were ridiculously expensive and after all, it’s not that far driving, right? Never underestimate Canadian distances!

Turns out it was far – very very very far! Especially with one child that suffers from occasional motion sickness and another that needs to visit the bathrooms ever so often. 

After what felt like the longest ride of our lives (Liya started asking if we were there yet even before we reached Montreal city limits and continued for a solid 9 hours) we arrived at dawn in Toronto.

The city itself neither impressed nor disappointed me. There are many things to do and see but it did not strike me as a city I’d fall in love with. But, we also only stayed two full days (the other two days of the long weekend were absorbed by driving back and forth), so I think I would like and need to go back again to fully grasp what it all has to offer.

But for now, here’s what we did during our short visit:

where we stayed:

We stayed at Fairmount Royal York Hotel. It was a luxurious stay, but the Hotel was a little stiff in my opinion. Liya loved the bellman at the entrance wearing a characteristic uniform with cap making him look (in her opinion) like a pilot. She would call out “Look mommy, the pilot is still here!” every time we got to the entrance. Still, the Hotel was absolutely perfect to stay with children and I have to say ideally located.

eating & drinking

We found that there is hardly any spontaneity possible in this city when it comes to dining (at least in the weekend, I don’t know how it is during weekdays). Very much like in Zurich, you can hardly get a table without reservations, let a lone for four people of which one needs a high chair. That was a bit of a disappointment since most of the places we wanted to go were already fully booked and we spent a lot of time looking for restaurants, calling or walking from one to the other unsuccessfully. Therefore: make reservations early!

• The night we arrived, we got more and more desperate after trying one place after the other only to find that there seemed to be not one open table for us in this city. We finally went to Earls Kitchen + Bar, where we had to wait a little but eventually managed to have dinner. They made nice Mocktails and Cocktails (I personally think a good bartender should be measured by the ability to creat interesting mocktails rather than cocktails) and also the food was good – but it was WAY too loud.

• Fresh on Front: We loved it here and had breakfasts twice in this vegan bistro with an amazing choice of fresh juices and salads. Staff was friendly, the interior was stylish, crowd was interesting but, alas again it was too loud (is everybody deaf in Toronto?).

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• The Haam: This japanese-mexican-fusion restaurant is not necessarily suitable for a dinner with kids but there are benches to sit on and sushis to eat, so our girls were happy and thus, so were we. The food was nice, especially the soft shell crab was delicious and staff was friendly too.

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• Very much qualified to host families with children, however, was Pizzeria Libretto. We were early and therefore managed to get a table even without reservations. The Pizzas were delicious and the crowd was young and local. The Kids got placemats to draw on and pencils.

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where to go, what to do:

• We did not know about it but serendiptiously walked past the dog-fountain at Berczy Park. The girls almost went nuts about it. They needed to sit on all the dogs and marvel at this fun fountain from every possible angle. This is the perfect example of how little it takes to make children happy. Take a fountain, through in some dogs (and the occasional cat) and you have your kids entertained for at least an hour or two – and it’s free!

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• We decided to take a walk through some neighborhoods to get a better idea of the city’s different faces. Starting in Old Town Toronto we walked to Yorkville, which we found very posh. From there we went to Koreatown, a very young and hip neighborhood with many restaurants, cafes, tattoo parlors etc. . From there we strolled to Trinity-Bellewoods and ended up where Dundas Street meets Ossington Avenue. These two very lively streets are worth going to when looking for food and drinks. I had marked some Restaurants around this area as possible go to’s (In the end we went to Pizzeria Libretto on that evening):
  • Julie’s Cuban Restaurant
  • The Lakeview Restaurant
  • Cote De Boef
  • Oddeseoul
  • Union Restaurant

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• Another must do is to go on top of CN Tower for a fantastic view over the city and far beyond. The queueing went rather fast and the view up there was fantastic. Had I been there alone, I’d done the edge walk outside (for some additional adrenaline) but also looking around inside was already very impressive. There is a rather nice Bar/Bistro and who wants to go even further up can do so by taking another elevator. This requires you to buy an extra ticket, though but you can decide on observation deck wether or not you want to do that. For those without fear of heights, there is a glass floor on the lover level of observation deck. I consider myself unconcerned by heights but this was somewhat scary even for me. The girls did not care though and jumped around on the glass as if there were no tomorrow.

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• With older children, consider a day at Centreville Theme Park on Centre Island. My Neighbor in Montreal was there in summer with her 7 year old son and said they had a blast!

• We always like to go to markets, so we couldn’t miss out on Toronto’s famous St. Lawrence Market. You’ll find it in an old hall, where a variety of stalls offer food, crafts, household equipment and souvenirs. Since we went there straight after breakfast and it was pretty packed, we did not eat anything but I bought some cookie cutters in a mickey mouse shape, knowing that Christmas cookie baking was going to be on our agenda soon.

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• And of course we went to Niagara Falls. It takes a good one and a half hours to get there from Toronto by car. My friend went there in summer with a guided bus Tour, which means you don’t have to drive but you are bound to their program.
  It is important to know that Niagara river marks the border of Canada and the U.S. and therefore there are also two „parts“ of Niagara Falls: On the Canadian side you’ll see the horseshoe falls, the famous very impressive half-round shaped falls, whereas on the U.S. side you’ll see a smaller, straight and I would say less famous part of the falls. We parked on the Canadian side and took a walk along the roaring water. Maybe I should mention that I’m no fan of waterfalls in general. It’s just falling water to me and once you have seen some you have seen them all. But this was a whole new level. I was in total awe of the size and force nature displayed here – WOW! The highlight and a must(!) was the boat ride which gets you rather close where you can really feel the enormity of these waterfalls. This was definitely worth the effort and a great experience.
  A bit less impressive was the restaurant next to the Falls. The view was fantastic, everything else was not worth mentioning. My tip: go in summer and bring your own food (trust me on this one!).

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Thank you for a short but intense weekend, Toronto, and see you again one day (possibly during summer season)!