Stickytape said:
Bullfrog said:
My favorites are walking up Roncesvalles and the Distillery District. I'm in the architecture field, so I just love looking at the buildings and spaces in the Distillery District; just gorgeous. For shopping, I like west Queen Street; very eclectic.
I can second this stuff.
I actually kind of dislike Roncesvalles (Dundas and Roncy) seems a bit scuzzy to me.
Depends where you want to go and what you want to do. If you want to explore nice little neighbourhoods then I could recommend a few. However, it's probably going to be pretty cold, I wouldn't really recommend walking around unless you're bundled up for it.
Neighbourhoods: High Park - I used to live near the park and it's absolutely beautiful. If it's in the winter it's still quite nice - especially if there's snow on the trees. If not you can skip. Bloor West Village (closer to Runnymede) is cool, and the Runnymede Library has a bit of a cool story.
Leslieville/The Beaches area: Lovely spot of the city, you can walk down with a lot of small boutique shops, some good food
Liberty Village: It might get a lot of flak now, but it's quite trendy and is getting gentrified. I would check it out if you can.
Distillery District: Great little spot, feels like it's out of Europe. Wish we had more of this. My sister's wedding was held at one of the restaurants here and IIRC one of them is actually owned by Shayne Corson.
Ossington, Bloor and Southward - More or less the outskirts of Liberty Village. Starting to become trendy, lots of small pubs down to Queen. You'll also intersect with Little Portgual, which is kind of cool.
Little Italy - I'm not a fan of Corso Italia. Little Italy is Bathurst and College. You will find bar none, some of the best Gelato places here and Italian food if you're on a budget - they're not super expensive. Cafe Diplomatico is a staple.
Leaside: More of an upscale neighbourhood right off of Davisville. Somewhat old school, again lots of unique shops and restaurants.
Simpler Walks: Bloor from Bathurst or Spadina to Yonge (Shopping semi-downtown).
Queen from Spadina to Yonge (Shopping downtown)
King Street from Spadina to Yonge (Restaurants)
Pubs: I really like C'est What? and Bar Volo. For a more Bohemian pub experience I also recommend The Only on Danforth. All have great Cask conditioned ales and draught beers.
Food: Salad King is - in my opinion, one of the best spots for Thai food. Terroni is the perfect spot if you like Italian food - it's a bit expensive but just fantastic. If you like Sushi just take a walk along Bathurst/Bloor, there's a ton of them there and all pretty good quality.
Stuff to See: AGO is my favourite. ROM isn't bad. Try to get out to a live music event if you can - the TSO at Roy Thompson Hall is fantastic. Tafelmusik is also held at Trinity St. Paul's. STEAMWHISTLE FACTORY! Go here. If you don't you will regret it. You get a cool tour and beer glasses for $12-14. Also, if you stall at the main entrance, they will keep feeding you beer until you're hammed enough to dole out the cash for the tour (they also continue to give you beer during the tour!) And you'll already be downtown.
Kensington Market: Depends how down and dirty you want to get. It's considered a vibrant community, but it's also kind of poor and dingy. In my view, this place is more for people who've lived here for a while and not really for tourists.
St. Lawrence Market: Why the hell not, do your research on this one. Basically a place where you can buy all sorts of local foods and cheeses. They also make a great chicken parm at a few of the shops inside.
Walk through the Royal York Hotel if you're already down there, it's a cool, old building.
I'll have more recommendations later on. Let me know what you and your wife are into and we can tailor it better
