Toronto flights and travel guide

Toronto, sitting on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, is Canada's largest city, a cosmopolitan, clean, hip city to which immigrants – Germans, Italians, Chinese, Russians, Poles, Irish, Greeks – have flocked for centuries. This modern, buzzing city pays tribute to this diversity with distinct communities (Little Italy, Little Greece, Chinatown) fused cuisine and a plethora of cultural festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Gay Pride Parade and the Caribana Festival.

Finding cheap flights to Toronto are just the starting point for savvy travellers. For picking up bargains and browsing, Yonge Street, Queen Street and the Church Wellesley Village (one of Canada’s most vibrant communities) are the places to go.

The Royal Ontario Museum, renovated and expanded under Daniel Libeskind’s guidance, is a fascinating place. It has more than six million artifacts. The Art Gallery of Ontario, the tenth-largest art museum in North America, has more than 40,000 works in its collection, from 100 AD to present day.

When the city gets too busy, Dundas Square or the Beaches offer a respite. A ten-minute ferry journey from the Harbourfront will deliver you to the Toronto Islands, full of lakeside charm.

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Toronto Climate

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When to Fly to Toronto

Peak Season: The best time to look for Toronto flights and to visit is from June to early October. During this time there are numerous festivals and events taking place. In July and August the city can be muggy and humid. Autumn is a nice time to visit when temperatures are mild and the sun is still shining.

Off Season: Although winters are cold, the city is still active playing host to numerous holiday festivities and cheap flights to Toronto are easier to come by.

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Getting Downtown Toronto

Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
Distance: 16 miles
Drive time: 30 mins

Toronto City Centre Airport (YTZ)
Distance: located on Toronto Islands
Drivetime: a shuttle links to the city centre. 
 
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is Toronto’s public transport system. It includes a subway system, numerous buses, and street cars. You can travel anywhere in the city on a single fare transferring between subway, streetcar, and bus if you get a transfer (a slip of paper) when you first pay your fare. Exact fare is required on buses and streetcars and TTC day passes are also available.

Go Transit is Ontario’s inter-regional bus and train service linking Toronto with outlying areas of the Greater Toronto Area. There is a frequent schedule throughout the day for GO Trains and buses departing from Toronto’s Union Station.

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Getting Around Toronto

Getting around Toronto is easy since public transport is fast, safe and reliable and consists of an integrated system of subways, buses and streetcars that reaches every part of the city. There’s also a light rapid transit (LRT) line extending to the Harbourfront. With only two major lines, the subway is simple to use, and buses and streetcar stations are located next to every major stop. Fares are standard and a single fare will take you anywhere on a single trip; tokens can be used to avoid the hassle of having to pay with exact change.

Changing from one form of transport to another is easy. Get a transfer slip while paying for the fare. Operating times for the subway are from 6am to 1.30am and the buses and streetcars from about 5am to 12.30am (both start at 9am on Sundays) while the Blue Night Network services main street routes after 1.30am. Women travelling on their own late at night can get off the bus anywhere in between stops thanks to the Request Stop Program. Taxis are readily available and ferries travel to the Toronto Islands. Traffic can be unbearable and parking is expensive so driving not recommended.

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Toronto Insider Information

• One of the top film festivals in the world - the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) – begins on the Thursday night after Labor Day. In around 23 venues in downtown Toronto up to 400 films are screened. 
• Visit the Canadian National Tower, the highest freestanding structure in the world. Walk along its glass floor or book a table in its revolving restaurant and look out at the 100 miles of the city.
• Travel along Yonge Street which stretches 1,178 miles from the heart of the shopping district through the campus of University of Toronto and all the way from the lakeshore in Toronto, north to Rainy River, Ontario, near the Minnesota border.
• Try the new InfoTOgo visitor system that makes getting around Toronto extremely easy. You’ll find maps specifically designed for the area each “pillar” located at more than 20 sites at various points around the city. Historical locations and public transportation stops are highlighted on the map.
• Yes castles do exist in North America. Casa Loma is Canada’s famous with 98 rooms and set on five acres of manicured estate gardens that are in full bloom from May through October.
• The "Biggest Underground Shopping Complex" according to the Guinness World Record is Toronto's underground city, PATH. The ‘city’ has more than six miles of indoor pedestrian walkways linking hotels, shopping, dining and major attractions all underground.

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Toronto Airports

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