Kelly Robertson
We could also call this article “Toronto for newbies” as it talks about some of the most memorable things to check out on your first visit to Canada’s largest city. Toronto has a lot to offer and here we’re picking the 5 sights which should find their place in your “must-see” list. Let’s roll…
1. Rogers Centre / SkyDome
Formerly known as SkyDome, Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose stadium, located in Downtown Toronto, near the shores of Lake Ontario. It was opened in 1989, and it’s home to the Toronto Blue Jays of MLB and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Aside from hosting sport matches, Rogers Centre is also used for other large-scale events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, funfairs and monster truck shows. The venue was noted for being the first stadium to have a fully retractable motorized roof, as well as for the 348-room hotel attached to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field.
2. CN Tower
The signature icon of Toronto’s skyline is CN Tower (Canada’s National Tower). It is a communications and observation tower that stands 553.33 metres (1,815.4 ft) tall. When it was completed in 1976, the CN Tower was the world’s tallest free-standing structure and world’s tallest tower, two spots it held for full 34 years. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, attracting more than two million international visitors every year.
In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers, where it holds second-place ranking.
3. Royal Ontario Museum
Founded in 1912, Canada’s largest museum of world culture and natural history is also one of the largest museums in North America, attracting over a million visitors every year. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is located north of Queen’s Park in the University of Toronto, with its main entrance facing Bloor Street.
The museum has more than six million items and forty galleries, including notable collections of dinosaurs, fine arts, minerals and meteorites, Near Eastern and African art, East Asian art, European history, and Canadian history. It also houses the world’s largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale with more than 150,000 specimens.
4. Toronto Eaton Centre
If you’re into shopping, you must check out the Toronto Eaton Centre, which is a huge shopping mall and office complex located in downtown Toronto. More than 230 stores and restaurants have their place in the centre, which is also served by two Toronto subway stations: Dundas and Queen. You can spend an entire day wondering around the Eaton as its interior passages form part of Toronto’s PATH underground pedestrian network. Remember – this isn’t “yet another shopping mall.”
5. Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario has an impressive art collection with more than 80,000 works spanning the 1st century to the present day. The gallery has 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of physical space, making it one of the largest galleries in North America. You’ll be able to see the largest collection of Canadian art, an expansive body of works from the Renaissance and the Baroque eras, European art, African and Oceanic art, and a modern and contemporary collection. The photography collection is a large part of the collection, as well as an extensive drawing and prints collection. Moreover, there are many significant sculptures and other forms of art like historic objects, miniatures, frames, books and medieval illuminations, film and video art, graphic art, installations, architecture and ship models.
