The back story
Where Toronto sleeps: Yorkville, downtown and the west end
The Four Seasons, the Hazelton and the Park Hyatt in Yorkville, the Royal York opposite Union Station, the Ritz-Carlton, the St. Regis and Nobu downtown, and the Drake and the Gladstone on Queen West: where to stay in Toronto.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © DXR · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsToronto’s hotels gather in three places. Yorkville, north of Bloor Street, is the quiet, polished quarter of the Four Seasons, the Hazelton, the Park Hyatt and the Windsor Arms, within a walk of the Royal Ontario Museum. Downtown, between Union Station and the theatres of King Street, are the Fairmont Royal York, the Ritz-Carlton, the St. Regis, the Shangri-La and Nobu. West along Queen and King, the Drake, the Gladstone House, 1 Hotel and Ace are the design hotels, closer to the galleries, the bars and the city’s best neighbourhood restaurants.
Yorkville
Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, the Hazelton, the Park Hyatt, the Windsor Arms, in its words a hotel of “classic Victorian era elegance”, and the Kimpton Saint George are all north of Bloor Street, in the streets of boutiques around Yorkville Avenue.
Downtown
The Fairmont Royal York has been, in its own words, a stately landmark since its opening in 1929, facing Union Station across Front Street. The Ritz-Carlton stands near the Rogers Centre; the St. Regis and the Shangri-La are in the Financial District; Nobu Hotel Toronto, Le Germain Mercer and Bisha are in the Entertainment District, and Hotel X looks over Lake Ontario from the Exhibition Place grounds.
Queen West and the west end
The Drake Hotel on West Queen West and the Gladstone House a few doors along are the city’s art hotels; 1 Hotel Toronto, in King West Village, calls itself a sustainable hotel; Ace Hotel Toronto has Alder, listed in the MICHELIN Guide. East of the Don River, the historic Broadview Hotel is the address for Riverside and Leslieville.
Stay in Yorkville for the museums and the shops, downtown for the theatres and the trains.
Our advice: in winter, a hotel joined to the PATH underground walkway or near the subway saves a lot of cold walking.
Why it's on our list
- Yorkville
- Downtown
- Queen West and the west end
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