[jocat]

Our first taste of Canada - Toronto and Niagara Falls

Index here

Introductions here

Last Day here

Post-trip thoughts

We really enjoyed Toronto, and I think the brilliant weather definitely helped with that. I’m not sure we’d have had quite the same experience visiting in the Winter months, but it was lovely to see the city transforming before our eyes, with all the many outdoor patios starting to open during our visit.

City breaks for many people seem to involve long days out exploring, eager to cram as much into a short space of time as they can, and we’ve certainly experienced lots of breaks like that before – after our first trip to New York we were shattered! It didn’t feel like that for us this time though. I think we’ve adapted in the last couple of years and prefer to take our time a bit more now, enjoying soaking up the atmosphere, whilst relaxing over the odd glass of wine! If we’re honest, we could have probably ‘done’ Toronto in a 4 night stay, but the extra night and day allowed us to slow the pace down a bit.

As Bonzo observed in his trippie, there is a lot of construction work going on in the city. Have no idea what they’re building, but it didn’t really impact on us. And while I’m on the subject of Bonzo, I want to thank both him and Alison again for their recent trippie. There seemed a real shortage of Toronto reports on the Dibb while I was in the initial planning stages of our trip, so to have one posted just a few weeks before we travelled was a fantastic help.

Without exception, all of the Canadian people we met and spoke to were very polite and friendly and it’s certainly whetted our appetite to visit Canada again. Vancouver is definitely on the list, as is the Rockies, but we would happily visit Toronto again for a short break, perhaps tagging in onto other destinations, for example if we wanted to break up the long flight to the West Coast of Canada.

So, let’s finish this with our High and Lows:

Highs:

• Niagara Falls - simply breathtaking
• Weather - we couldn't believe our luck with the weather, despite the original forecast of 4 days of rain.
• Our room at the Delta Toronto – it was well worth the extra money for a corner room with a view.
• CN Tower
• Toronto Islands - well worth a trip.
• Distillery District - lovely for a wander.
• Mostly fabulous meals

Lows:

• Le Neuf Café meal
• That horrible plane landing, that wasn’t a landing, on our arrival day!

Thank you to everyone who has been reading along and commenting. And for those of you who have Toronto trips in the pipeline, I hope you've found something useful to help with your planning, and that you have a great holiday there too. I’d love to read all about it.

We’re lucky enough to have a trip out to Florida in the Summer, so we’re on countdown for that now. A slightly different trip this time, as after just over a week in Orlando, we’re spending the rest of our time in the Keys and Marco Island – I’m envisaging even more relaxing with a cocktail or two!