As usual, we were last-minute in looking up what to do in Toronto for our summer trip (all we had planned was the Hockey Hall of Fame) and discovered online that there is a Toronto CityPASS and instantly knew we didn’t really need to do any more research. We are big CityPASS fans and have tried them out in many cities over the years and most recently bought the 3-attraction pass for Chicago for my parents when they went in the spring. We love how easy it is to use a CityPASS and that it saves us money and time on area attractions and also gives us good overviews of the cities we visit. I was really thankful that CityPASS gifted me a few Toronto CityPASS vouchers to try on this trip too.
Our summer trip was an East Coast Canadian Road trip that originated in Toronto, then Ottawa, then Montreal and back to Toronto. Our first day in Toronto was pretty much just landing at the airport and picking up our rental car so we did not have time to sight-see until the last leg of our trip. We didn’t know how long it would take to get back to Toronto from Montreal so we planned on having two full days to adventure in the city and then we found out that the zoo was on our way into Toronto so that is where we started our pass. (if you ever drive between the two cities and love butter tarts you might want to stop at the Kiwartha Buttertart factory, because I did not think to look it up before it was too late and we missed it.)
Using our Toronto CityPASS at the Toronto Zoo
When we pulled up to the Toronto Zoo we realized it is not really a regular zoo-it is supersized. I think it might be one of the biggest zoos we’ve ever visited. Some of the attractions are listed in kilometers so that you know how far you are going to walk and there is a Zoomobile you can take if it feels like exhibits are too far away. The CityPASS covers regular admission which seems to start around $29 CAD but the day we visited the walk-up price ended up being around $40 CAD (if you book farther in advance you can get a discount but then you are locked into the day you are going to visit)
I like that CityPASS has some flexibility- we decided to do the zoo the day before we arrived and the pass lets you use it for 9 days from the start of its first redemption. Parking at the Toronto Zoo is one cost you might not expect and it was $15 CAD to park here for the day. The Toronto Zoo was open until 7pm the day we visited so even thought we arrived later in the afternoon we felt like we still had a lot of time to explore.
The cool thing about the Toronto Zoo is that you can also add a whole plethora of animal encounters to your regular zoo admission. I think it would be really fun to do the Wild Encounter with the Tortoises and I think we did something like this at the Phoenix zoo many many years ago. This zoo also has a Tundra Air ride that would be really appealing for younger kids. And for food options there were some really interesting choices like the popular BeaverTails, a bubble tea place that also sold ice cream macarons and of course there was even a poutine truck.
We spent about an hour and a half at this zoo (and it could have been way longer) and felt like we had a good visit. We really enjoyed the new Orangutan outdoor habitat. It felt like these animals had a lot of space and the exhibit was really beautiful. It was also really fun to see polar bears up close even though they were sleeping. We watched the camels for a while because we do not have them at our local zoo (Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle) and we liked the wombats a lot too.
CN Tower first thing in the morning with Toronto CityPASS
The CN Tower was the second place we visited on our Toronto CityPASS. We made a reservation for the first time available in the morning the night before we visited using our CityPASS app. We didn’t have to wait in a ticket line and we went through security and then they scanned our passes. We went by many roped off waiting areas and I think it can get quite busy here. Another benefit of having the first entry time is that we ended up with the CN Tower almost to ourselves.
I could barely walk on the glass floor of this building. Something in my head could not fathom that the glass would hold me and I had a really hard time looking down when I finally walked it too. My guys and husband on the other hand had no problem. I’m glad that I took the chance and tried even though I know I looked ridiculous and might have almost cried a bit. (I noticed I was not the only scared person near the glass floor, and I think if you want to try and are scared, not looking down through the glass might be the best way to try it.)
Being scared also didn’t stop me from deciding to pay the extra $10 per person to go up to the Skypod. And at this time of the day we actually ended with the whole Skypod almost to ourselves-there was only one other group of two when we got to the top of the tower. Apparently you can see Niagra falls from the CN tower on a clear day-we tried but couldn’t find it. We also think we could see faint outlines of building on the other side of Lake Ontario from the Sky Pod. The sky was clear and the views were incredible. This felt very “worth it” for the price that we paid especially because it added another 33 stories.
Taking the subway to Casa Loma
We had a car but we also didn’t really want to drive in the city to get to Casa Loma so we decided to take the subway because it was pretty much a straight shot from our hotel. It was also raining and thundering the morning we chose to go so not walking the whole way ended up being a really smart choice. If we walked it would be about 45 minutes and taking the subway reduced that time a lot.
The coolest thing about Casa Loma was that I learned that my grandpa went to a dance there during World War II. My grandfather was born in Anacortes, so while he grew up in Canada, he was American and ended up enlisting to serve in the war for the USA when he was in his late teens-his group got chicken pox or something like that so were not able to serve overseas. I had no idea that my grandpa did this until I told my parents about our visit to Casa Loma. I also learned a lot of movies were filmed here and one of them was Cocktail. (Also Billy Madison, Chicago, Strange Brew, X-men…..). There are rumors that Casa Loma is haunted and I did not know that before we visited and there is a very creepy wax statue of Sir Henry Pellatt (the financier that built Casa Loma) that looks way too realistic and that definitely haunted me a bit.
We got a unique view of the city with Toronto City Cruises
I don’t think we would have done the 60 minute boat cruise with Toronto City Cruises if we didn’t have a Toronto CityPASS. But this ended up being a really beautiful way to see the city and we thought we might have a really good chance for a sunset the night we booked. We didn’t get the skies we hoped for but we still had quite a good view of the city line and CN tower and we watched as the lights came on in the city. Learning some facts about Toronto was also helpful and we had walked so much it was nice to be able to just sit and take it all in. We ate dinner about midway from our hotel to where the boat embarked at Amano Italian Kitchen and we were surprised to find a lot of great shops and eateries in Union Station. (This station reminded us so much of being in the train stations in Japan. My guys loved a store where you could make your own Tomica cars in one of the underground malls so we spent a lot of time underground in Tokyo and we had a really good time exploring this Toronto train station too.)
We saved money with the Toronto CityPASS and we didn’t even see it all
I know we missed the Royal Ontario Museum but we went to a bunch of museums in Ottawa and Montreal before getting to Toronto so we were a little museumed out the day we planned to go and skipped it. Knowing that we could miss a couple items on the pass and still get “our money’s worth” is a really helpful feature of getting a Toronto City PASS. And I also really appreciate the fact that you can book times online and then not have to wait in line when you get to different venues on the CityPASS too. Saving time is an often overlooked feature and time can be so precious if you only have a few days in a city to sightsee. I would definitely recommend a Toronto CityPASS if you visit this city.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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