When you think of Toronto, generally a few things come to mind.. Hockey, shopping, CN Tower, Niagra Falls etc.. but there are actually quite a few other great sites and activities to consider if you’re in town for longer than a few days, that make for a different Toronto experience. Ok so it’s no Rome, there’s no Colosseum or Ancient ruins to explore, yet the city has far more to offer guests than it’s shopping, food and Canadian culture (which are all awesome BTW), it’s just that there is more to the city than the usual tourist shenanigans..

Getting to Toronto is easy I flew with Emirates and they were fantastic, but it’s just as easy to shoot up from the US in a car or bus for a short stay in the capital of Ontario (not Canada, that honour belongs to Ottawa).

Toronto is known for its spectacular food culture, and with such a diverse number of ethnicities in a relatively small space (almost 50% of the cities’ residents were born outside Canada) it’s not really a surprise. Toronto boasts over 8,000 restaurants… which is a lot; everything from Chinese to Moroccan, South East Asian to Greek food is here, so which one do I recommend you head to? Well how about the only restaurant in the city where you can’t see your food.. or in fact anything at all… Have you ever tried eating your food in pitch darkness? With an entire wait staff that are blind.. yes blind, O.Noir, on Church Street, shares it’s staff’s lack of sight with its patrons, allowing you to experience eating a meal completely in the dark, enjoying the elevated senses of taste and smell that go hand in hand with the absence of sight.

The Distillery District is a small village built from red brick and includes many Victorian style industrial buildings, it reminded me a lot of parts of Portland for some reason. It’s pretty cool to see and there are lots of top spots to both eat and drink, the area also includes galleries as well as fashion and jewellery boutiques, bakeries and tiny cafes. All within a few minutes’ walk (or via the street car), from downtown Toronto. Its charm is best enjoyed in the summer months as the majority of the festivities and events that happen there are reserved for the warmer months of the year.

If you find yourself near West Bloor St why not stop in at the Bata Shoe Museum? It’s a rather epic collection of (you guessed it) shoes.. spanning over 4,500 years of footwear, it’s collection of 10,000 shoes is really worth a quick look. You don’t need an Imelda Marcos type infatuation with footwear to get something out of it and yep even the guys will enjoy this one; it is actually a male friendly museum despite the fact that it’s 3 whole floors filled with shoes…

While you’re on Bloor st, you can’t miss (literally you can’t miss it) Honest Ed’s, probably the world’s most well lit department store (it takes 23,000 light bulbs to light up the store front). It’s about as tacky as Vegas on a bad hair day in knee high boots and a wig yet does have a sort of old school charm. The store itself is a bit like a maze and actually covers 2 separate buildings connected via walkways. What does it sell? Well, kind of everything… while I was there I picked up a travel mouse for my notebook, a pair of headphones, shampoo, a towel and some hand sanitiser..

If street art is more your thing, head to Rush Lane which runs parallel with Spadina Ave, you might encounter some interesting ‘characters’ so perhaps do this one during the day but there are some great murals well worth a look if you’re into that sort of thing. Otherwise for something completely different, sneak a peek at the car sticking out of the building at 299 Queen St for an interesting memento of the city between visiting the many individual boutique stores in the area.

All in all, it’s a great city to go exploring, Canadians are perhaps the friendliest people on the planet so you really can’t go wrong, wander the streets and between eating, drinking and watching a hockey game take in a few of the less common tourist sites.