city guides: toronto

Toronto is, first and foremost, a green city, with lush parkland generously spread throughout. In addition to High Park in the western section of the city (the equivalent to New York’s Central Park, complete with its own summer theater, zoo and fishing pond), there are many other great green spaces downtown. Allan Gardens has beautiful manicured lawns and an Edwardian conservatory, which is maintained by the University of Toronto. Queen’s Park, a lush midtown oasis, also contains the rose-tinted, sandstone-and-granite building that houses the Ontario Legislature. But Toronto’s waterfront holds the most unusual park: the Toronto Music Garden. Designed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy, the swirling pathways are intended to evoke Bach’s “First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello.”



Toronto’s finest museum, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), is presently mid-renovation. Some of its collections are not on view while the new crystal galleries designed by Daniel Libeskind are being built. To compensate, the ROM is hosting a series of special exhibits in its ground-floor galleries. One on the origins and splendor of pearl has just wrapped up; another on feathered dinosaurs will be on view till fall 2005. (The renovation will be completed in 2006.)

Across the street from the ROM is the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. Almost double its original size, the museum has enough room to display its vast collections, which include pre-Columbian Olmec and Maya works, fine 18th-century European porcelain and ceramic art by Picasso. Frank Gehry’s ambitious renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario is just beginning, but its notable collection of Group of Seven works (paintings of Canada’s wilderness by its greatest landscape artists of the 20th century) will be on show throughout.

Toronto’s CN Tower—the world’s tallest freestanding structure—is the city’s most overrated attraction. Don’t bother visiting if the day is gray; if it’s bright and sunny, the sight of Niagara Falls, 100 miles to the south, is worth a visit.

A little-known fact about Toronto is that the city’s spa culture is cutting-edge. Some of the best places to indulge include the Victoria Spa, which is famous for its stellar service and gifted massage therapists; the Stillwater Spa, which specializes in water-based therapies (think shiatsu in a sunken room filled with water); and the Estée Lauder Spa, which has a special Jet Lag Recovery treatment for frequent flyers. All spas cater to male and female clients.

Here’s one more indulgence, if you have the time for a day trip. Just south and west of Toronto is the Niagara region, the best wine country in Canada. Follow its Wine Route to discover for yourself why local vintners such as Inniskillen, Henry of Pelham and Pillitteri are winning international competitions. Niagara’s wineries use imported European vines, and because the region lies on the same latitude as France’s Burgundy region, this meeting of Old and New World results in bottles of Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon that are consistently excellent.