Anyone been to Toronto?:)

[Jillian]

So myself, my husband and son(he'll be 4 at the time) and another family are going to Toronto August 22-25 to catch a Red Sox/Blue Jays game or 2. I have never been there, been to Montreal a few times and Nova Scotia, but never Toronto.

There looks to be a really nice zoo there that the children would enjoy.

We are probably going to stay in downtown Toronto close to stadium.

Has anyone ever been (or live) there? Any suggestions on things to must see/do, restaurants?

It's going to be quick and if we are going to 2 games we won't have that much time to look around.

[PlayaLove]

We use to live 60miles west of Toronto and made many trip to Blue Jay Games. Toronto is a huge city and very very busy. To much to see if you are only there for a week,but the zoo is awesome and I am sure you would really enjoy it. Be prepaired for hot humid weather and lots of misquitos.

[Jillian]

Originally Posted by PlayaLove

We use to live 60miles west of Toronto and made many trip to Blue Jay Games. Toronto is a huge city and very very busy. To much to see if you are only there for a week,but the zoo is awesome and I am sure you would really enjoy it. Be prepaired for hot humid weather and lots of misquitos.

Well thats Yuck! I don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) that the dome opens at the stadium so the squitos won;t bother us there at least

[redhed]

Actually, the dome is always open unless it's raining or extremely cold. Mosquitoes shudn't be a problem at the dome in August. Even waaay up here in Northern Ontario the mossy's have settled down by then.

I've never been bothered by skeeters at any time at a Jay's game.

As PlayaLove said it's a very busy city. By the time you get where you're going and get back again your day is often done. Better to just plan one thing a day.

Lots to do there......Ontario Place is wonderful for adults and kids alike and everyone enjoys the Spagetti Factory.....a fun place for din din.

So much to do....so little time.

[Jillian]

Originally Posted by redhed

Actually, the dome is always open unless it's raining or extremely cold. Mosquitoes shudn't be a problem at the dome in August. Even waaay up here in Northern Ontario the mossy's have settled down by then.

I've never been bothered by skeeters at any time at a Jay's game.

As PlayaLove said it's a very busy city. By the time you get where you're going and get back again your day is often done. Better to just plan one thing a day.

Lots to do there......Ontario Place is wonderful for adults and kids alike and everyone enjoys the Spagetti Factory.....a fun place for din din.

So much to do....so little time.

Oh thats great to hear! I was a little disapointed when I found out about the trip because I couldn't picture a baseball game in a closed dome. Well that just brightens my day!

The Spagetti factory sounds like a great place for dinner, seeing as though it's my son's favorite thing to eat and who really wants a crabby kid out at dinner! Is there one downtown do you know?

[redhed]

Yup...it's actually called the Old Spaghetti Factory...it's address is 54 The Esplanade.....just east of Young Street.....Baseball Stadium is on Front Street West of Yonge Street.....very short cab ride.

Great fun spot!

[bba2]

Originally Posted by Jillian

So myself, my husband and son(he'll be 4 at the time) and another family are going to Toronto August 22-25 to catch a Red Sox/Blue Jays game or 2. I have never been there, been to Montreal a few times and Nova Scotia, but never Toronto.

There looks to be a really nice zoo there that the children would enjoy.

We are probably going to stay in downtown Toronto close to stadium.

Has anyone ever been (or live) there? Any suggestions on things to must see/do, restaurants?

It's going to be quick and if we are going to 2 games we won't have that much time to look around.

We were there with our 3 year old son last spring..'07 and had a great time.

There are TONS of great restaurants so it really depends on what type of food you are interested in...I bet a web search would give you a list of recommended places to eat based on genre

The area by the stadium is really cool...the CN tower is right there...Hard rock Cafe....if you are into that sort of thing...My wife and I were in Toronto for our 5th anniversary many years ago and we discovered by accident something pretty cool. We had gone up the CN tower and were wandering around looking for a place to get a drink. We found the Hard Rock Cafe and while we usually are not into things like that we figured what the hey...lets be tourists..and in we went. Well we walked in and realized...unknowingly that it overlooks center field of the Blue Jays dome...whatever it is called now we got a table right by the glass had a few, and we had fun watching the folks scampering around down below on the field not really thinking too much about it. Well next thing we notice is that the hostess is putting up a velvet rope thing blocking off the area we were sitting in and they start charging people to come in. When we asked the waitress what is going on and she said, "The Jays are playing." I was like WHOA Sweet!! My wife was pretty enthuiastic as well being as how by this time she had had 3 or 4 drinks so we decided to stay and watch the game...BTW the Blue Jays are now her favorite team

Anyway we had a blast and it was really cool to watch the game especially since we 1) weren't expecting to see anything and didn't realize the Hard Rock was attached to the dome (still not sure how we didnt notice) when we went in and 2) didnt have to pay because we got there so early and drank a TON...we ended up spending about 7 hours there...ate 2 meals and snacks before we stumbled our way back to our hotel.

Ontario place is really cool another one is the ontario science center...they have some pretty cool things for kids to do...it might be a good "rainy day" type thing to plan on.

The Zoo is a really cool zoo...but lots of hills...be warned...fantastic though. Our son loved it but wanted to be carried going up the hills. They have some awesome habitats for the animals.
bba2

[Eileencc]

Originally Posted by bba2

We were there with our 3 year old son last spring..'07 and had a great time.

There are TONS of great restaurants so it really depends on what type of food you are interested in...I bet a web search would give you a list of recommended places to eat based on genre

The area by the stadium is really cool...the CN tower is right there...Hard rock Cafe....if you are into that sort of thing...My wife and I were in Toronto for our 5th anniversary many years ago and we discovered by accident something pretty cool. We had gone up the CN tower and were wandering around looking for a place to get a drink. We found the Hard Rock Cafe and while we usually are not into things like that we figured what the hey...lets be tourists..and in we went. Well we walked in and realized...unknowingly that it overlooks center field of the Blue Jays dome...whatever it is called now we got a table right by the glass had a few, and we had fun watching the folks scampering around down below on the field not really thinking too much about it. Well next thing we notice is that the hostess is putting up a velvet rope thing blocking off the area we were sitting in and they start charging people to come in. When we asked the waitress what is going on and she said, "The Jays are playing." I was like WHOA Sweet!! My wife was pretty enthuiastic as well being as how by this time she had had 3 or 4 drinks so we decided to stay and watch the game...BTW the Blue Jays are now her favorite team

Anyway we had a blast and it was really cool to watch the game especially since we 1) weren't expecting to see anything and didn't realize the Hard Rock was attached to the dome (still not sure how we didnt notice) when we went in and 2) didnt have to pay because we got there so early and drank a TON...we ended up spending about 7 hours there...ate 2 meals and snacks before we stumbled our way back to our hotel.

Ontario place is really cool another one is the ontario science center...they have some pretty cool things for kids to do...it might be a good "rainy day" type thing to plan on.

The Zoo is a really cool zoo...but lots of hills...be warned...fantastic though. Our son loved it but wanted to be carried going up the hills. They have some awesome habitats for the animals.
bba2

We did the Red Sox-Blue Jays trip a few summers ago and, I'm gonna second all that bba2 said... it was a real blast. We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, which is attached to the dome (didn't get one of the rooms facing the field, but it was great to be "right there!") We went to the Hard Rock one night, and we visited the Hockey Hall of Fame (which was unexpectedly really fun). We went to the zoo too--our kids LOVED it, although it was very hot, and we were exhausted by the end of the day. We also had a great dinner in Chinatown one night. There's just so much to do there, you will definitely have fun. We live in the Boston area, so we drove up through Niagra Falls, did the tourist thing there, hit Toronto for a few days, and then drove back through Cooperstown and saw the Baseball Hall of Fame on our way home. Umm, yeah, sports fans in the family. Hope you have a great time!

[Loreeiam]

lotsa cool stuff about Toronto
there is a part of Toronto called "Chinatown" that is awesome
"Leslieville" is another part of the city that is really artsy
my favorite part of Toronto is the "St. Lawrence Market"
stay at the King Edward Hotel.....they have bidets
take a cooler if you're driving..........you'll bring home some cool stuff
Cuban cigars and great prices on perfume also