TTC Trip Planner, Oh Heck Yea!

First and foremost - TTC fares have increased since we first talked about public transit in Toronto. Now it's $3 a ride and $10 for a day pass. Le sigh. Still, much cheaper than driving and paying for parking around Toronto. So we'll still endorse taking public transit while visiting for the wedding.

But here's the point of the post: the TTC is engaging in new technology! Case in point? The TTC Trip Planner. Want to know how to get from the Marriott to the Skydome without consulting our handy dandy map?


View Jon & Tamar's Wedding in a larger map

Then just click here and not only will you know how to get from Point A to Point B - you can also find out what time you gotta head over to the subway station, how long to wait for transfers, and all that good stuff. Maybe there will even be an iPhone app in time for the wedding.

Engagement Party Info

Amanda & Jason (our flower girls' parents) are pretty flippin' awesome and are throwing an engagement party at their house.  If you're in the LA area, you are welcome to come.  Since most of you Angelenos (or LA transplants) live on the West Side, and the party's in Riverside, we would like to arrange carpools for those who can attend.  Please e-mail invites@jonandtamar.com if you need a ride or have extra seats in your car.  See you on November 21!

Spadina WaveDeck

Like many other cities that we've lived in, Toronto's waterfront was perhaps more practical than scenic.  New York City's west coast was once that way too, but over the past decade or so, the City has been turning dilapidated piers into the beautiful Hudson River Park with interesting public spaces.  And Toronto's starting to catch the drift too.  Enter Spadina WaveDeck.

In our years of living in Toronto and the GTA (Tamar: 2, Jon: 19) we rarely ventured to the waterfront.  The waterfront is blocked off in parts by the Gardiner Expressway, and just never seemed like a "place to go."  We would rather walk through Kensington Market or into the Annex.  But now we have a hankering for the waterfront.

An effort by WATERFRONToronto, here's the architect's statement:

"Spadina WaveDeck is the first in a series of timber structures that explore variations of a simple articulation in the change in level between Queen Quay Boulevard and Lake Ontario along the Toronto Central Waterfront.  Responding to the current pinch-points where the streetscape meets the water's edge, a new public space gateway is created where the city kisses the lake, inspired by the sinuous contours of the shoreline of the Canadian lakefront."

Sounds romantic, eh?

Well check out these pictures.  

Can you imagine just strolling around at night?

Or enjoying the sun (and maybe a picnic) during the day?

To get here from one of the hotels, you have two options - both of which involve a subway and a streetcar.

You can head westbound on Bloor (from the Bloor-Yonge, Bay Street or St. George stations) to Spadina station, or just walk there, which will take 10-20 minutes.  From Spadina, hop on the 510 Spadina Streetcar southbound to Queens Quay and you're there.  

Alternatively, head southbound (from either Museum or Bloor-Yonge station) to Union Station and take the 509 Harbourfront Streetcar westbound to Spadina.  Remember - transfers are free on the TTC!

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.

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!