Toronto & Montreal Story

I feel like I’m a bit late with this sharing post but I have just been so busy ever since I got back from Canada! But I had some time this weekend to sit down and write this about my trip FINALLY. A few weeks ago, my family and I went to Canada and our itinerary consisted of Montreal and Toronto. Essentially, the purpose of this trip was to go visit my cousin in Toronto and go to his graduation, but we wanted to make a whole trip out of it and explore the cities while we were out there (and especially because it was our first time there).

Rings: the2bandits

We flew into Montreal first and spent three nights there. Before arriving, so many of our friends and family mentioned how beautiful the city was. “It’s a mini Europe” is basically what everyone said. From all the great things we heard, I was expecting to like Montreal better than Toronto, but by the end of our trip, that wasn’t the case. I really did love Montreal, but there honestly was not a whole lot to do. It was very pretty and Old Montreal definitely did resemble Europe but as far as things to do, I feel like there wasn’t as much happening as I would have liked. Also, the weather wasn’t the best and the fact that we pretty much were stuck indoors all day on our last day due to an intense rain storm definitely put a damper on our time there. But overall it is a beautiful city and a place to see, but I don’t see myself going back anytime soon 🙂

PLACES TO SEE IN MONTREAL:

• Old Montreal (lots of good food here)
• Notre-Dame Basilica
• Old Port of Montreal
• Mount Royal (gorgeous views of the city)
• Montreal Biodome
• Saint Josephs Oratory
• Montreal Olympic Stadium (nothing really to do here but it’s a place to see and it’s right next to the Biodome)

View from our room

Wearing: Alpha Omega  Top | Topshop Jeans | Henri Bendel Bag

Old Montreal

Notre-Dame Basilica

Biodome

Wearing: Parker Smith Jeans | Noisy May Jacket | Gucci Bag | THEY New York Shoes

Favorite spots to eat: Bevo Bar & Pizzeria in Old Montreal & LOV

Favorite bar: Atwater Cocktail Club

Bevo Bar & Pizzeria

Atwater Cocktail Club

There are definitely some other places to see, but this is all we did. I would have loved to drive to Quebec City for a day but we just didn’t have the time.

After spending a few days in Montreal we packed up and drove to Toronto. It took about 6 hours and it was pretty long and tiring, but for us, it made the most sense to drive because we needed a car. We stayed at a beautiful AirBnb right in the heart of the city. It was seriously the most ideal location. We had an amazing view of the city and it was located right on King Street, which is known for all its great restaurants and nightlife. I absolutely LOVED Toronto. Everything about the city was great. It was clean, the weather was beautiful, the people were so nice, and there was just a lot to do overall! We really enjoyed our time in the city and I wish we spent an extra day here rather than doing three days in Montreal.

THINGS TO DO IN TORONTO:

• Explore the city, walk around and check everything out
• Visit the CN Tower, seriously the most gorgeous view of the city. Be sure to walk over the glass floor, it’s so scary! They also have a restaurant at the top, which is perfect for a sunset dinner.
• Go to the Distillery District for beer and wine tasting
• Visit Yorkville – so many shops and you can find all the designer stores here as well
• Visit Chinatown
• Visit City Hall (you’ll find the famous “TORONTO” sign here, perfect for a photo op)
• Check out the Toronto Islands (we didn’t get to do this because parts of them were flooded, but if you can do this while you’re there, I’ve heard great things about it)
• DRIVE TO NIAGARA FALLS – this is a total must if you’re in Toronto. I can’t stress this enough! It was the highlight of our trip and you don’t want to miss it (more on this below).

View from our AirBnb

Wearing: Alpha Omega Top | Topshop Jeans | Gucci Bag

City Hall

View from the top of the CN Tower

Wearing: Emory Park Bomber | Blank NYC Pants | Ego Shoes | Gucci Bag

Fam 🙂 Congrats Cuzzy! 

Some of our favorite spots to eat:

• Oretta (delicious Italian food)
• Frings (a little bit of everything, the ambiance is so cute)
• Spice Route (Chinese food with big portions – perfect for sharing!)
• Cibo Wine Bar (super hip spot with a huge selection of wine)
• Wilbur (probably the best Mexican food I’ve had in a while.. the burrito is to die for)
• Amsterdam Brewery

Amsterdam Brewery

Oretta

NIAGARA FALLS:

I also want to share with you guys a little bit about our time visiting Niagara Falls. I was contemplating on doing an entire separate post for it just because I feel like I could talk about it foreverrrrrr. But I’ll try to keep it short and to the point here haha. We only had a day to spend there so we made sure to wake up early an get a head start on our trip there. Side not – make sure you wear something comfortable and something that can get wet, because if you do any of the activities, you will get pretty soaked! If you watched my Stories, you know what I’m talking about haha. Anyways, it only takes about an hour and a half to get to Niagara Falls from Toronto, which makes it super convenient to get there. If you’re coming from Toronto, you’ll obviously be on the Canada side of the Falls, which is like 3278418 times better than the American side. You get the full view of the Falls, from the front, and it is so spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like it before!

After taking a few photos and admiring the view, we wanted to do some of the activities. There are so many to choose from but we decided to do the Journey Behind the Falls and Maid of the Mist boat ride (which seem to be the most popular attractions). Journey Behind the Falls is basically a very close up view of the Falls from below. In order to get there, you descend down an elevator about 150 feet and explore 130 year old tunnels which eventually lead you to an observation deck at the bottom of the Falls. Make sure you wear the poncho they give you because it gets pretty wet and misty down there! It was so gorgeous and you can really feel the vibrations and intensity of the falls as you stand right under it. Afterwards, you can continue through the tunnels to find a huge cut out in the rocks which gives you a glimpse of the Falls from behind it. I totally recommend this attraction, it was really cool to see the Falls from this perspective!

After Journey Behind the Falls, our next and final attraction was the Maid of the Mist Boat Ride. We were told that we would get pretty wet on the boat so we made sure to put away all our cameras/electronics and other things we didn’t want getting soaked. Luckily my phone is waterproof, so I was able to get a lot of the fun on camera lol! I can not even begin to explain what a fun experience this was. It was something we will never forget. It was unreal! The view of the Falls was so stunning from the boat ride and there is no other way you will ever get that close to the Falls. The boat slowly made it’s way toward the Falls and we were slowly getting wet but before we knew it, we were practically what felt like, completely under the Falls. SOAKED. We got SOAKED. Everyone was screaming but having so much fun. At one point we had to just run inside the closed off area of the boat because it was too much to handle lol! It literally felt like I just took a shower. But it was SO worth it and I wanted to do it over and over again. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. My sister filmed the entire boat ride on her GoPro and I am just waiting for her to make the funniest video.

We only did these attractions, but there were so many other ones, I wish we had time to do it all! But for the time being, we had such a great time and I can not wait to go back and visit again! If you are limited on your time there, I highly recommend doing these two attractions. And if you only have time for one, do the boat ride!

Lunch with a view 

View from the bottom of the Falls (Journey Behind the Falls)

 

I wish I could post all the videos I took of this trip on this post but if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw them all! Overall, this trip was so much fun (tiring, but fun) and it was great to spend some time with my family. I definitely want to go back to Toronto ASAP. It’s probably one of my favorite cities I’ve visited so far! Have any of you guys been to Montreal or Toronto? Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

As always, thanks for reading! Xo, Sami

 

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