Visiting Toronto

Lots of uncut cock.

There is a gigantic park out on an island somewhere, I remember riding a ferry to it when I was 8 or so. Had a GREAT day out there.

A big dick in your tight, pink asshole.

The male strip clubs, of course! Not as famous as Montreal, but still decent.

You realize that Remingtons is closed right r4?

For FOUR YEARS

Jeez eldergays have no concept of time

I never suggested Remingtons.

Most of my references of Toronto are gone because the whole city has been trashed in the last 10-15 years by a massive development boom. Most of the old fun places are gone, because every fucking inch of every space in town has to have a fucking 20 story condo or 80 story office tower on it.

I'd stay away from the CN tower - it's a tourist nightmare.

The island R2 mentions is (no surprise) Toronto Island. It *is* a nice experience, if only to take the ferry over and walk around the park. It has an airport at one end of it, if I remember correctly?

If you want the fat waddling tourist experience with fast food, cheap tacky souvenirs and the like, you'll want to take a long walk down Yonge Street. It was/is a big business thoroughfare but it's super touristy.

Church/Wellesley was the Gayborhood for many years but like Boystown in Chicago, that's mostly dissipated and shifted. Yes, you can find some gay places there (I believe Glad Day Bookstore is still here). There are still some bars here and there, but as with many cities, some of the more fun places slipped into the sands of history (RIP, The Toolbox).

Queen Street West is kind of quirky/arty, while Queen Street East can be similar but with a little more of an edge. I also liked the Yorkville neighborhood in the city - not the similarly named suburb - there are some nice restaurants there - one I remember is Sassafraz. Dining is one of the best things about Toronto - there are still a number of ethnic enclave neighborhoods with good food (Koreatown, Greektown)

The customs officers are always big, muscly and hot. Good thing they don't wear RCMP drag or I'd burst into flames and/or jizz in my pants.

I know a great local whore with a (almost) 9” dick. I can hook you up.

There’s an indoor food market that was good. Maybe cruisy.

Say hey to Justin for me.

Reding r8 is depressing... but they're right. Toronto has lost so much in the last 20 years. When I moved to Toronto in 2001, I absolutely adored the city. But it's changed a lot and it feels like so much of its heart has been pulled out for more condos, condos, condos. All the places I liked to visit - Sam the Record Man, HMV, The World's Biggest Bookstore, The Hard Rock Cafe - all closed.

High Park is nice but I'm sure the cherry blossoms will be a tourist nightmare. Scarborough Bluffs. Royal Ontario Museum. AGO. Massey Hall was just renovated.

Also, it was just announced that many museums will be free starting this month.

A good Saturday is breakfast at the St. Lawrence market then a ferry or water taxi to the islands.

Kensington market has many quirky shops and a wide array of food choices and is right next to Chinatown (more shops and restaurants).

Allen gardens near Jarvis and Carlton has a very nice public greenhouse/conservatory that is free to enter after that walk from there to parliament street and hit House on parliament restaurant for a good pub lunch.

The Paradise cinema near bloor and ossington has been having interesting shows/screenings lately. Try some Ethiopian or Indian food in the area beforehand.

Wait you are upset by a HARD ROCK CAFE closing?

"The Organ Grinder" is a pizza restaurant where you LITERALLY sit inside a genuine Wurlitzer pipe organ. It is awesome!!!!! I hope it is still open and functional.

I've never been, but always thought it would be boring compared to Montréal. Having been to Paris & having loved it, I've always had Montréal at the top of my "Canadian Cities To Visit" list. But I'm not opposed to seeing Toronto.

Resident Torontonian here and I loathe the place so not defending it out of loyalty where I appear to but:

[quote]It has an airport at one end of it, if I remember correctly?

Yes, the Island airport is a smaller commuter sized airport... only twin-props can land... it's regional connection service to parts of Canada and the U.S. One runway. The nude beach is adjacent to it. The original nude beach is right next to it. When I was young and Queen Victoria was on the throne you could see the lake from it but over the years the sand dunes have built up and changed it so the bushes, where the young would take the air and enjoy one another's company, are now block from lakeview. Though I suppose they saw more of the sky or the ground most of the time anyway. The cruising at the now southern end of the beach is aggressive and, even for a gay man, pretty brazen, but if that's your thing you'd have to be pretty bad at cruising not to get some. Though Torontonians are not especially more friendly naked than clothed.

[quote]If you want the fat waddling tourist experience with fast food, cheap tacky souvenirs and the like, you'll want to take a long walk down Yonge Street. It was/is a big business thoroughfare but it's super touristy.

I think that's understating it. From Front to Queen it's typical financial district downtown core. Queen to Dundas is anchored around the megamall with a mini Times Square that attracts a lot of les miserables from the sketchy streets to the east.

North from there is becomes various combinations of not very special high rise condo living, stretches waiting to be developed into high rise condo livings and typical retail. It is interesting how many Starbucks were killed by the pandemic. A lot of vacated retail but maybe that happened everywhere. Toronto has very little of the charm of Montreal. Pockets but nothing consistent. It's not a very old city, most of the Victorian stuff, if you could stand it, was knocked down, so nothing feels old. Toronto was never meant to be important - it boomed in modern times after the separatist movement killed the corporate headquarters dominance of Montreal. Until then it just sort of plodded along. You will be struck by how poor the planning for land use was. It was just meant to be Canada's second city - but Canada being so Presbyterian and staid, it's no Chicago in any respect.

[quote]Church/Wellesley was the Gayborhood for many years but like Boystown in Chicago, that's mostly dissipated and shifted.

All I can think of that are gone are Fly (dance club) and The Barn. Otherwise it's pretty much as it always was. Woody's is like the Vatican of gay bars. There are other choices. It's small, though, a couple of north/south blocks, but it feels like the gay village I always knew to me, still.

What's good? In summer there are a lot outdoor festivals and events that are pretty vibrant - a good outdoor art show, a good night fringe festival, a good jazz festival... I know I am forgetting some. The food is good, lots of choice and good restaurants. There's one of everything: one big museum, one big art gallery. If you've never seen Niagara Falls it is reasonably accessible - about an hour away. Tacky tourist town, which is part of the amusement, and it's Niagara Falls. Not small. The Niagara region has a lot of vineyards and Niagara on the Lake is an old town that is developed now for tourism but has a nice enough feel to it. Prince Edward County is a massive headland about an hour and half or two hours east of Toronto that is also burgeoning wine country (Actually probably burgeoned by now.) It's kind of funky and has a beautiful provincial park.

1/2

In Toronto there's a perpetual traffic jam on the highways and now most of the streets are a nightmare - narrow to begin with and now clogged with traffic because they've got bike lanes everywhere that are chronically underused. The lefties on council aid the lefties on staff in putting them everywhere, rather than planning them intelligently. As a consequence, Uber and taxis are more somewhat more expensive because you sit in traffic so much. The transit system is small but functional. That's actually Toronto, really, small but functional.

If you have a specific interest you could make it interesting, I guess, but you'd have to research deeply and plan intensively. I honestly don't know why anyone would come here. It's fine and safe but I feel like for a weekend away from somewhere else you'd leave disappointed.

The Organ Grinder closed in 1996.

Arcadia Bookstore is a nice used bookstore; when I visited there Crispin Glover was in there buying books. I was in Toronto a few years back to see Guillermo del Toro’s exhibit at AGO; the lady in Arcadia told me del Toro shops there for books to and is very nice. He lives in Toronto part time.

See what plays or musicals are around; maybe you’ll catch something good.

Sorry that is Acadia Books not Arcadia!

Try to meet Auston Matthews?

Umm I would hit the OG Degrassi tour, given by cast members! Oh and then maybe Chinatown and then a search for Maltese pastizzi pastry.

take the train to Vancouver, it's supposed to be a gorgeous ride! Takes three days, though.

You can see Drake from your window there!

Go to Muskoka.

This was mentioned upthread but the one touristy thing I *would* do is hit St Lawrence Market.

Get a Peameal Bacon sandwich. (it's not quite bacon as most Americans know it, but it's a nice breakfast sandwich.) A few places sell them there. It's sort of fun to look around....it's a market with various food booths. More for locals but it does have a few tourist friendly spots.

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You forgot all the Asians and South Asians and their compulsive obsession with status - material things and white cock, even if a legit 2 out of 10.

And expensive AF.

Any tour of Toronto should begin in Nathan Phillips Square. Then head west on Queen St. on the north side, stopping to get a tribal tattoo or piercing as a memento of your trip, then picking up some weed at a weed store. At Spadina Ave turn north, pass Dominion Voting Systems on the right, where America's elections are decided (heh heh) and continue north past Dundas to the heart of Chinatown. Kensington Market is buried on the left side of the street, but there is no particular need to cross. Continue to the right and turn right on College St. Stay on the north side, which belongs to the University of Toronto, one of the world's best and largest universities. They have bookstore good for both books and merch. Then continue east on College until you see the Ontario Parliament on the left. Canadian provincial parliaments are typically smaller than US capitols, but more powerful and more luxurious and tasteful, as a rule.

What about the museums?

I enjoyed wandering around Brookfield Place (especially the Hockey Hall of Fame) and taking a harbor tour. There was an aquarium down by the CN Tower that I didn't get to visit, but that might be fun. Sadly the Coloured Stone closed shortly after my vacation there, or I'd recommend it for playing pool and the best bison steak I've ever eaten.

The Distillery District is said to be nice but I haven't been yet.

The Floating Mansions of Lemonville

r11 Justin lives in Ottawa.

Toronto has Doug Ford.

r9 link please

They also have a cheap massage chain called "The Great American Backrub" which has outlets all over. (No, it has always been Canadian)

Remember though, most shit is closed on Sunday, a legacy of Presbyterian anal retentiveness from olden days

^ Entirely wrong.

The Toronto Sunday was legendary for boredom. It's all better now, they say, but if you're a US citizen traveling, you notice the difference.

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The Art Gallery of Ontario. Make sure to spend time on the hall devoted to the Group of Seven, 20th-century Canadian painters.

Royal Ontario Museum is the one to see. It's the largest museum in Canada.

The group of seven are so fucking lame

The Aga Khan museum has some cool stuff, although it's not clear why it was put in Toronto. However, it is a new collection, so perhaps best appreciated for its architecture and experience than for anything really mesmerizing.

Gardiner Museum has an outstanding gift shop with ceramics by local artists.

Are there any neighborhoods to avoid in terms of crime?

Cirque de Soleil is at Ontario Place right now

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R46, there's pockets of sketchy on the east side of downtown... Sherbourne and Parliament streets north of King, south of Gerrard but the odds of you going there are low and if you did it's mostly homeless, mentally ill and drug addicts... a handful can be annoyingly persistent but not menacing... there's nothing particularly nice or interesting in these areas. The only other trouble spot is the northwest and there is nothing that would take you there. Sometimes people have been shot on a weekend night in the club district but it's not Chicago by a long long way.

I saw an AirBNB advertised in Moss Park which warned about the homelessness in the area

Thanks R48 and R49

My hot British daddy friend James is in Toronto.

Looks like a younger, thinner Colin Firth, has a beautiful obscenely large cock and can fuck for hours.

R49 and R50 are correct. The Moss park area is filled with crime, prostitution and homelessness and has been for decades.

[quote]Lots of uncut cock.

He said Toronto, not Montreal.

It's a city with great food and great art--the Group of Seven paintings in the Art Gallery of Ontario are unequalled except only by the collection of paintings by them in Ottawa.

You'll get the best Asian food you'll get just about anywhere outside of Asia. Wonderful Thai, Indian, Vietnamese restaurants.

The crime rate in Toronto is nothing to be sneezed at, but I find it still much safer than most major American cities (especially NYC, LA and Chicago).

Here's Princess Margaret, in a wheelchair, looking perfectly presentable and deceptively sober. There's no reason the Queen couldn't top that.

LOL.. such a wrong thread... ^

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R20 Noted.