Choose Your Own Adventure: Yorkville

For our first "Choose Your Own Adventure" column, we'll start local.  Yorkville is near both the Marriott and Intercontinental.  It was a hippie haven in the 60s, but is now home to some of the most upscale shopping.  

The basic boundaries of Yorkville are Bloor Street to the south, Davenport Road to the north, Avenue Road to the west and Yonge Street to the east.  

Bloor Street has many pricey chain retailers, such as Tiffany's, Rolex, LuluLemon, Roots, and Holt Renfrew (Canada's Saks Fifth Avenue).  If it's too hot or rainy, you can seek refuge in one of the indoor shopping arcades, such as the Manulife Centre or Holt Renfrew Centre.  Many of these arcades are connected at the cellar level, so you can travel along Bloor Street between Bay Street and Yonge Street underground!

North of Bloor Street, the blocks are smaller and most of the shopping is boutique-y, with vintage stores, galleries, and places to spoil your dog.  You can window-shop here to your heart's content.  There are also many nice restaurants and several pubs/clubs in this area.

The Village of Yorkville Park, located on Cumberland Street is a really great example of an urban parkette.  If it's sunny, eat out here or just hang out on the giant rock.  

Here are some of our favorite locations in Yorkville:

Bar: Hemingways (142 Cumberland Street).  Really chill, decent bar food, and a rooftop patio.

Restaurant (Casual): Eggstasy (1255 Bay Street).  Great breakfast spot with plenty of egg options - plus you get to pick your own sides!

Restaurant (Fancy): Sassafraz (100 Cumberland Street).  Okay, we've never eaten here as it's REALLY fancy and expensive.  But it's a Toronto landmark.  Great for a big splurge.

Shopping: Roots (100 Bloor Street West).  Most of their clothing is either athletic wear or lounge wear.  Kind of pricey because it's sweatshop-free, but they have great sales.  And you can return to the States with a snazzy "Roots Canada" hoodie from their flagship store.

Boutiques in Yorkville.

Village of Yorkville Park.

Another picture of the park.

Cumberland Street, including Sassafraz (Yellow Building).

Get to know the TTC

For those of you coming from out-of-town, here's a primer on the TTC.  This is the public transportation system in Toronto, and we think it's a pretty good one.  Yes, the subway system isn't nearly as comprehensive as New York's.  However, it's clean, reliable, and there are streetcars too!

A ride on the TTC is $2.75 CAD.  If you're going to be taking more than 3 trips - or are traveling with others on a weekend - we suggest the $9 day pass.  On Saturdays and Sundays, that one pass will provide unlimited public transportation for up to 2 adults and 4 children.  Pretty good deal, eh?

The subway system (see image below) is basically a big loop (Yonge/University/Spadina line) with a line across (Bloor/Danforth line) and a pretty much unused line (Sheppard) along the top.  The "host hotels" both have easy access to the Yonge/University/Spadina line and the Bloor/Danforth line.  These two subway lines will get you to all of the major tourist destinations - downtown, nightlife area, theatre district, CN Tower, and some hip neighborhoods (Annex, the Danforth).  In the downtown area (even where the hotels are), there isn't much distance between the "University/Spadina" part of the loop and the "Yonge" part - maybe a 10 minute walk, tops.  So if you're on Bloor Street or south, it may be more useful to just walk to the station that's a bit further rather than looping around the south part to head north (i.e., getting on southbound at St. George to head northbound to St. Clair).

As you can probably tell, there isn't much in the way of east-west subway coverage.  However, there are many east-west streetcars - pretty much along every major east-west roadway.  In some cases (like St. Clair Avenue) there is a designated streetcar lane, so the transit service is still speedy.

There are also plenty of bus lines... unfortunately we don't know too much about them, since the subway and street car have always been sufficient for us!

As we continue to blog, we'll include information about great areas and attractions to check out and how to get there.  By the time you arrive in Toronto, you'll be a pro on navigating the TTC!

And - just a nuance - most of the stations have a station operator (where you can pay in person or just flash your day pass).  However, the Bay Street station, located equidistant from the Marriott and Intercontinental, does not have an operator, so you can only get through using tokens.

Toronto's subway map. For an interactive map, click here.

Don't forget your passport!

For those of you coming from the States, just remember to have a valid passport.  Up until a couple of years ago, a driver's license was enough to get you to Canada, but now they require a passport.

Also, our best man Dan has confirmed that you can, indeed, rent a car in Buffalo and drive across the border.  This is a good option only if the flights to Canada are uber-expensive.  We've found the fares to be comparable if you book at least a month in advance, but if you're looking for a last minute flight then Buffalo is cheaper.  Even if you drive across the border... don't forget your passport!

Toronto: How to Get There

We realize that a lot of you will be coming to our wedding from outside of Toronto, so we wanted to provide some information about how to get to the City. Luckily, Toronto is a major Canadian city, so there are many transportation options.

There are 2 airports in Toronto - Toronto Pearson International Airport and Toronto Centre City Airport.

Pearson Airport is the major airport in Toronto, and is located a little west of the City in Mississauga. Most large airlines (Air Canada, American, Delta, United, etc.) fly into Pearson. A flight from New York is about an hour long, and a flight from California is about 4-5 hours long. Customs is done at Pearson. There is public transportation (a bus to the subway) from the airport and a cab would cost about $50CAD to the downtown hotels. There are car rentals available at Pearson.

City Centre Airport is a small airport located just south of downtown Toronto on one of the islands. Porter Air is the only commercial airline that flies into City Centre - there are flights from Boston, Montreal, New York, and other regional locations. From the airport, Porter supplies a free ferry every 15 minutes that will drop you off near Union Station in downtown. Union Station has a subway stop, and a cab would cost about $10-15 to the host hotels.

If you insist on flying Jet Blue or Southwest, you can fly into Buffalo International Airport, which is about 2 hours from Toronto - not including time spent at the border. You can rent cars there, but we're not sure whether you can take the car up to Canada (we'll investigate that further). 

Generally speaking, if you book a month or more in advance, you can get pretty good fares to Canada. If you're coming from New York City or upstate New York and don't want to fly, there is an Amtrak train that travels between Penn Station and Toronto Union Station with several stops in upstate. The train usually costs $80-90 each way and takes about 13 hours between NYC and Toronto. 

VIA rail provides service throughout Canada. A train between Montreal and Toronto will take about 5 hours.

If you have any questions about travelling to Toronto, please feel free to contact us and we'll do our best to help!

Wedding Venue

We think we gave it away in the last post, but we're going to be getting married in Toronto.  So for those of you coming from the States, make sure to have a passport, as Canada now requires them for entry.

We will be having both the ceremony and reception at the Rosehill, which is located near Yonge Street & St. Clair Avenue in midtown Toronto.  The venue is easily accessible by public transit, cab, and (since Yonge Street is the longest street in the world) by automobile.  

The Farias (Jon's parents) helped us tremendously in picking a venue, since we're out here in LA.  They snagged us a few pictures of the Rosehill, which we are happy to share with you!

Some of the lighting at the venue.

The table setup at another wedding.  I don't think we're going to be going for the big pink centerpiece aesthetic.

The ceremony section of the venue (before it was fully set up).

Welcome!

Welcome to our wedding blog!  We are looking forward to updating this page with information about stuff to do in Toronto, news about our wedding planning activities (from 3,000 miles away), and provide you with information about our big day.  With just under a year to go, we are very excited about spending the day with you!  

If you have any questions, comments, or advice we'd love to hear it:

Jon - jon@jonandtamar.com

Tamar - tamar@jonandtamar.com