4 Attractions To See In Toronto
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In January I went to Toronto for the 3rd time. I’ve done a lot of the big attractions on past trips, like the CN Tower, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). For this trip I visited 4 attractions in Toronto I hadn’t been to. Here’s what I thought about each of them.
Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada
I arrived at Toronto Pearson airport late Friday night and stayed at a hotel out by the airport. Saturday morning I went to visit family in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. By the time I got to my hostel in Toronto it was about 5pm, dark outside, and it was starting to snow. I didn’t want to call it a night, so I decided to lookup Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. I knew I could take the subway to Union Station and then walk the PATH (an underground pedestrian walkway) to avoid being outside (except for a brief few minutes). I was hoping they’d be open until like 7 or 8pm, but turns they were open until 11pm that day. Most days they’re only open until 9pm, but check online before you go as some days they might be closed early for special events.
Ripley’s Aquarium is downtown besides the CN Tower and Roger’s Centre, which makes it easy to find. It’s not what I’d call an obscure or lesser known attraction. It’s also not cheap at $44 for an adult. I live in Alberta (a landlocked province) and aquariums aren’t something I get to visit often, so I was okay with splurging on a ticket. I also paid the $3 coat check because I didn’t want to carry around my winter coat, and that was money well spent to me. It was very busy, even at night there were lots of kids and families. Maybe if I was there on a weeknight rather than a Saturday it’d be a bit quieter. This is an aquarium right downtown though, so I feel like this place is pretty busy no matter what.
I enjoyed Ripley’s Aquarium, but my favourite part was the dangerous lagoon, which has sharks, but also non-dangerous sea creatures like manta rays, a sea turtle, and of course lots of different types of fish. This part has a moving sidewalk (the longest in North America apparently). The aquarium tank is on both sides of you and above you so you can see the sea creatures swim above your head, which was pretty cool. There were a lot of tanks and displays about Canadian marine life, and a section on shipwrecks including information about the Edmund Fitzgerald (with song lyrics for “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by late Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot). I thought it was great how the filtration tanks were included in the design to educate people how they work, rather than hiding them in a staff-only basement area. I will point out that all the shows (like the dive shows) take place before 3pm. If those are something you’d like to see you’ll want to plan your visit accordingly. I don’t know if I’d rush here again on my next visit to Toronto, but I certainly don’t regret going to Ripley’s Museum of Canada.
Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is located at 288 Bremner Blvd, Toronto. It’s about a 12-minute walk from St. Andrew’s Station or a 13-minute walk from Union Station both on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. You can walk inside most of the way from Union station using the PATH (just follow the signs for the Ripley’s Aquarium/CN Tower). Here’s more information for transit and driving directions to Ripley’s Aquarium.
Little Canada
This was not on my list of places to visit in Toronto. After seeing The Great Comet on Sunday I was trying to get to the Optical Illusion Museum (which I didn’t get to) when the streetcar I was on had to go out of service. Long story short I got lost (as I do), ended up at Eaton Centre (a mall downtown) to warm up, walked to the other end of the mall and ended up at Dundas Square. It was there that I saw signs for Little Canada.
Little Canada is a museum featuring miniature displays of some places in Canada. It’s quite expensive at $40 for an adult (or $36 if you book ahead and get a timed ticket). They’re open until 6pm most days except Fridays, Saturday, and Sunday when they’re open until 7:30pm. I had visited Miniature World in Victoria years ago and loved it. The displays they had in Little Canada were gorgeous, and I know a lot of work goes into making the models, getting the details right, and painting them, so kudos to all the artists. I also liked how the lighting would change periodically in the rooms to reflect sunrise, day, sunset, and night time.
However I was a bit disappointed with Little Canada. Admission is expensive, and the displays aren’t Canada-wide. As of my visit in January 2024, there are no provinces west of Ontario (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, or British Columbia) and none of the territories (Yukon, Northwest, and Nunavut). In the Petite Quebec part the Montreal displays were under construction. The Ontario display didn’t have anything much for Northern Ontario (it was mostly Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe, Niagara Falls area, and Ottawa). Plus the Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador) were all packed into one room. There were coming soon signs for Little Prairies, Little Rocky Mountains, Little West Coast, and Little Arctic, but to pay $40 (plus tax) for a museum of miniatures with only half of Canada represented was underwhelming. Personally I probably wouldn’t visit Little Canada again if I’m back in Toronto unless I knew all the displays were completed. That said the work that goes into making these miniature models is impressive.
Little Canada is located at 10 Dundas St E Basement2, Toronto. This is in the Tenor Shopping Centre, just take the escalator to the basement. The closest subway station is Dundas on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Depending on where you exit from Dundas Station you may have to walk outside, but you should be able stay inside and use The Path. It’s only a couple minutes walk either way. Don’t get confused and go to Dundas West Station (Bloor-Danforth line) because that’s 7km from Little Canada.
Gardiner Museum
My last full day in Toronto I had two museums I wanted to visit; the first being the Gardiner Museum. I got there when the museum opened and was the only one there (for a bit; it was also a Monday so not a busy day). If you have a Presto card (the transit card for Toronto) you can save a few dollars on your admission. I think it ended up being $12 with the discount. They also have free lockers so I could store my coat. There’s a limited amount of lockers, and they’re available on a first come first serve basis. Since I was there on opening and it wasn’t busy I was able to get a locker right away. Most days the Gardiner Museum is open until 6pm, but they do close at 5pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and holiday Mondays. They also have free admission Wednesdays from 4pm to 9pm.
The Gardiner Museum is all about ceramics and pottery from around the world. They also had a temporary exhibit from Kenyan artist Magdalene Odundo. It’s funny how sometimes I’ll pick a museum to go to not really thinking much of it beforehand, but I really enjoyed the Gardiner Museum. There was lots to see with artifacts from every continent (except Antarctica, not much pottery there). While I enjoyed the entire museums I really liked the displays of ceramics and pottery from Central and South America. I appreciated that the museum had lots of signs and information cards for the items (some displays had more information than others). Most items are behind glass (some are are from BCE time period, so it’s understandable). I found it interesting to see how ceramic and pottery design could vary in every country, even between neighbouring countries in Europe. The Gardiner Museum also offers classes, which would be fun to check out if you’re more local to Toronto. I’d visit the Gardiner Museum again if I went back in Toronto.
The Gardiner Museum is located at 111 Queens Park, Toronto. The closest subway station is Museum on the Yonge-University-Spadina line, which is about a 2-minute walk from the Gardiner Museum. St. George Station (on the Bloor-Danforth line) is about a 6-minute walk. The Gardiner Museum is in the area of the University of Toronto campus so there are plenty of bus stops and streetcar stops nearby. Check My TTC for more transit information.
Bata Shoe Museum
After my time at the Gardiner Museum I walked to get lunch at The Daily Dumpling Company on Bloor for lunch (highly recommend the pork, shrimp and chive dumplings with peanut sauce). Then I headed over to the Bata Shoe Museum. It’s only a 10-minute walk from the Gardiner Museum so you can easily do both museums in a day. Admission is $14 for an adult. The Bata Shoe Museum is open from 10am to 5pm most days, except Sundays when they open at noon (admission is also free on Sundays).
Like the name implies this is a museum that all about shoes, but not just shoes you’ll find while shopping. The Bata Shoe Museum has shoes from all around the world, and showcases (or maybe I should say shoecases) the history of footwear. It was really interesting to see the variety of footwear and how they’ve changed through history (also made me very grateful for my Keen runners and inserts for high arches). They also have a couple of temporary exhibits, but my favourite was definitely Dressed To Impress, which was all about footwear of the 1980s. They had the room done up like an 80s mall and had a little theatre playing clips of footwear ads (like Air Jordans) and movies from the 80s. It made me feel nostalgic, but also old because several of the shoes I looked at and thought “these shouldn’t be out of style, they’re so cute.” A great thing about the Bata Shoe Museum is they put their past temporary exhibits online, so you can check those out from home. This was a fun museum to wander through and definitely one I’d check out again if I’m back in Toronto.
The Bata Shoe Museum is located at 327 Bloor St W, Toronto. The closest subway station is St. George Station on the Bloor-Danforth line, which is about one-minute walk from the Bata Shoe Museum. You could also go to Museum Station on the Yonge-University-Spadina line, which is about a 10-minute walk on Queens Park and Bloor Street. Check My TTC for more transit information.
While I was a bit disappointed with Little Canada not having Canada-wide displays I did enjoy the other museums I visited in Toronto. Especially with the Gardiner Museum and Bata Shoe Museum being in the same neighborhood it was nice to visit those in the same day. I’m glad I was able to visit a few of these new-to-me attractions when I was in Toronto.
Things To Know
While in Toronto I stayed at The Only Backpackers Inn on Danforth Avenue. This is a hostel, but I booked a private queen room with a private shower, and sink. The toilet (and sink) was shared with just one other room (and there was never a point where I had to wait to use it). The room I booked also had a shared kitchen and living space (again with just one other room). The hostel was really nice, on Danforth with lots of great restaurants (Greektown is a block away) and a 2-minute walk to the Donlands subway station. There are lots of hotel options in Toronto that you can book here.
Have you been to any of these attractions? Are there any other places in Toronto I should have visited?