East Canada - Toronto and Montreal

[Yossarian]

Train to Montreal is more like 5 hours at the fastest and usually closer to 6.5 hours, unfortunately, which kind of rules it out as a day trip - Ottawa is nice in summer but train takes a similar amount of time.

There's a lot of great stuff to see in the area but it's not that well set up for train travel - services to places like Guelph are designed for commuters, with trains only arriving in Toronto in the mornings and only departing in the evenings. But VIA Rail does stop at plenty of towns along Lake Ontario on the way to Montreal, maybe Kingston or Cobourg could be worth a look?

There's always a lot of stuff happening in Toronto in the summer anyway, and the weather is likely to be hot and sunny - the whole Chinatown/Kensington Market/Queen Street West area is great to wander around. There should be some outdoor concerts happening at Ontario Place, Toronto Island is also definitely worth a day trip, as is the Beaches area.

I used to suggest Casa Loma to visitors, then I thought "Why the fuck would somebody coming from Britain want to see a castle that was built in 1911? Their local pub is probably older than that."

 

[Yossarian]

There's also a really good network of hiking trails along ravines etc. all over the city.

Or if you want to pretend you've gone on holiday to somewhere more tropical, you could try Bluffer's Beach out in Scarborough.

 

[flypanam]

Train to Montreal is more like 5 hours at the fastest and usually closer to 6.5 hours, unfortunately, which kind of rules it out as a day trip - Ottawa is nice in summer but train takes a similar amount of time.

There's a lot of great stuff to see in the area but it's not that well set up for train travel - services to places like Guelph are designed for commuters, with trains only arriving in Toronto in the mornings and only departing in the evenings. But VIA Rail does stop at plenty of towns along Lake Ontario on the way to Montreal, maybe Kingston or Cobourg could be worth a look?

There's always a lot of stuff happening in Toronto in the summer anyway, and the weather is likely to be hot and sunny - the whole Chinatown/Kensington Market/Queen Street West area is great to wander around. There should be some outdoor concerts happening at Ontario Place, Toronto Island is also definitely worth a day trip, as is the Beaches area.

I used to suggest Casa Loma to visitors, then I thought "Why the fuck would somebody coming from Britain want to see a castle that was built in 1911? Their local pub is probably older than that."

Kingston is definitely worth a visit, pretty small but the population is pretty young due to the uni. Lots of bars and stuff happening.

 

[Chz]

best bookshop i found in toronto was in the university, although the indigo in the eaton centre's good for fiction. there's a science fiction / fantasy bookshop not far from the university bookshop but i can't for the life of me recall what it's called.

Sci-fi bookshop is Bakka ("the weeper who mourns for all mankind" in Fremen). When I was little, they had a humongous used section full of just about everything you could want. Change of location and floorspace means it's much reduced now.

When you've grown up there, and then moved to London it's hard to get worked up about anything. But I do remember many happy hours in Bakka.

 

[bcuster]

Bars open 24 hours

This popular weekend getaway from New York will soon allow bars to remain open 24 hours a day: ‘It’s like madness’

The City That Never Sleeps could be facing some stiff competition.

nypost.com

 

[Serge Forward]

My son's favourite bookshop in Montreal.

L'Insoumise (librairie) — Wikipédia

 

[petee]

saw some canadiens fans, accent and all, heading to LI for the islanders game this afternoon.