Great Things To Do In 12 Hours In Toronto

I had just arrived to Toronto from Calgary on a red-eye flight, so little sleep unfortunately. I had 12 hours to enjoy the city, but I could no see myself powering through it before my flight back to New York City, even though I had done it many times before in my travels around the world. My return flight was at 8:00 PM, so I decided to go to a day hotel booked on Hotels By Day. After a long wait in a very run down area hotel, the Holiday Inn Toronto Airport East, I finally got into my bedroom. And even though, my plan was to sleep until 2:00 PM, oh surprise, there was construction next to my room, ugh!

1) A little nap

Despite of the loud noise of the construction site, I managed to get some sleep, and woke up to get ready to go out and explore. I took an Uber to Downtown Toronto, and finally grabbed a Tim Hortons’ coffee, the Starbucks of Canada.

2) Making my way downtown

I had been to Toronto before but only to the airport, and was excited to finally explore this city. The street level surprised me so much. For a downtown it looked very clean and organized.

After a couple of blocks walking, I went to St. Lawrence Market. A real jewel located in the center of Toronto.

3) St. Lawrence Market

Inside it was magnificent, with dozens of food places and stores. But I was looking for one of the famous treats of Toronto, the peameal bacon sandwich.

Went to the basement to also get some sweet treats for later, and saw some pastel de natas, a tradicional pastry from Portugal. I also got some maple cookies, because it seemed just right being in Canada.

And in Carousel Bakery, I finally got the precious sandwich. It was gigantic, so I only had a couple of bites and saved the rest for later.

The next destination was CN Tower, and decided to walk the few blocks in between just because I wanted to see of the downtown.

I had gotten CN Tower tickets in advance and the whole process to go up was worst than going into a Disney park.

4) CN Tower

After passing security and doing a long line, we finally got into the elevator. The view going up 346 m (1,136 feet) was impressive. I could not believe I was finally visiting this legendary tower.

The views from the main Observation Deck were impressive. Love seeing Toronto and made me want to come back for a longer time and visit more things.

The Observation Deck was crowded but big enough to walk and hand around.

After a bit, I went to even higher to the Skypod, the little ball you see up in the tower, at a height of 447 metres (1,465 feet).

If you are scared of heights, do not come up here lol.

The space is a bit claustrophobic but definitely worthy to visit. Tickets are separate from the main observation deck.

After some minutes I came back to the Main Observation Deck where there are bathrooms.

Coming down was way easier, after that long wait trying to go up. And got a glimpse of the tower from down there, wow.

In all this are you could find the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre, the Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada and the Roundhouse Farmer’s Market.

The Roundhouse Farmer’s Market had a museum for the trains and the railway.

5) Back to New York City

My return flight time was coming and took an Uber to the hotel to pick up my suitcase, and then went to the airport. Tip: If you are taking an Uber from this area, make sure to first leave it. I took the Uber right in front of the CN Tower area and took forever to get out because of the traffic. Got through security doing the Customs and Immigration process for USA in Canada, so when we would get to New York City we did not have to do that process anymore, just walk out and go home.

The sunset was just so beautiful on this 4th of July evening.

After sometime, we finally departed and I could see the Toronto skyline in the distance. The CN Tower was very prominent.

Finally, I was in NYC and guess what? There were fireworks everywhere. I loved landing seeing these fireworks for 4th of July, Independence Day celebrations.