Toronto’s Castle, first Chick-fil-A & Movie Magic
We just landed in Toronto, Canada, and one thing was already on our minds – Tim Hortons! Toronto is likely one of the most diverse cities in Canada, not only in culture but also in food. As the largest city in Canada, we knew we were in for a wonderful weekend.
We took the Union Pearson Express train from the airport to downtown Toronto’s Union Station. The cost was only about $12.50 Canadian, which is roughly 10 USD. Not bad at all! From there, we walked to our hotel instead of taking a limo (cheeky grin).
While wandering the streets of Toronto, we even spotted someone we recognized from TV – Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye. We tried to say hi, but it didn’t quite work out.
Luxury at the St. Regis Toronto
We made it to our hotel room at the St. Regis Toronto, a very high-end Marriott-branded hotel. We could only afford to stay at a place like this because of our Marriott Bonvoy points.
The St. Regis Toronto has over 250 rooms spread across more than 50 floors. It’s the third tallest building in the city of Toronto. Our suite featured a little entryway with a half bath that led into a nice living area complete with a fireplace and wet bar. The mini bar had some very expensive items, including Hendrick’s gin that we didn’t even want to price check.
The wonderful bedroom had a fluffy king-size bed, and the luxurious bathroom was impressive. The hotel sits in downtown Toronto, just steps away from the CN Tower, Union Station, and great shopping and restaurants in Yorkville and on Bloor Street.
The hotel has everything you could want – a spa, full-service gym, swimming pool, hot tub, and a very nice restaurant called Louix Louis where we had breakfast the next morning for free thanks to Bonvoy Platinum status.
One unique feature of the St. Regis is that every room gets its own butler. Your butler will typically unpack your suitcase, hang your clothes, and bring you coffee or tea in the monring. It’s a nice little amenity and fun to experience.
World Food Market Adventure
But we came here for more than the hotel! After wandering around the city for a bit, we found the World Food Market – basically a collection of food trucks with different cuisines. You can find Korean, Tibetan, Indian, Caribbean, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Japanese, and even pizza.
We ordered a few things to try including butter chicken with rice and some chicken momos, which are steamed dumplings that might be Tibetan. We slo got an original Korean hot dog with sweet chili sauce and a Brazilian pastel with beef and cheese.
We definitely had dessert too! A crepe with chocolate and peanut butter that was amazing. The food market is definitely worth the stop in downtown Toronto. They’re even open until 1:00 AM on weekends so the theater and bar crowds can grab late-night snacks.
On the way back to the hotel that night, we walked through Yonge-Dundas Square, which is the Piccadilly Circus or Times Square of Canada. It’s not quite as impressive as the originals, but they’re trying, so go Canada!
Casa Loma: A Real Castle in North America
The next morning, after our butler delivered coffee and we had breakfast on the 31st floor at Louix Louis, we took the subway to Casa Loma. This castle sits just north of Toronto and is one of the only remaining real castles in North America.
Sir Henry Pellatt built Casa Loma in the late 1800s. He came from Britain and loved the architecture, so he wanted to rebuild a castle. He was fairly wealthy at the time, but unfortunately lost his fortune in the early 1900s. The bank called in his loans, and he had to sell the property. Thankfully the property didn’t go into ruin, but eventually went to the city of Toronto and is now a heritage site.
The castle has over 200,000 square feet of space with endless passageways and hallways. There are about eight levels, towers, steep and grand staircases, a huge fancy pipe organ, and even an underground swimming pool that’s now a theater.
There’s a fun underground tunnel that connects the main castle to the stables some distance away. They had it decorated for Halloween when we visited, which made the tunnel pretty creepy with cobwebs, eerie lighting, and fake corpses hanging from ropes. The stables looked much better than that spooky passageway.
The grounds at Casa Loma are gorgeous and well-maintained. It really is a cool castle to see in North America. If you’re in Toronto, definitely visit it! Even after multiple trips to Toronto, we had never heard of it until we started researching additional things to do for this trip.
First International Chick-fil-A
We left Casa Loma and headed to a very important lunch spot – Chick-fil-A! This location at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Street in Yorkville is actually the first Chick-fil-A in Canada and the first international location for the chain, period. We were actually here in 2019 for its grand opening.
The menu isn’t really that much different from US locations. They have a couple different sauces and serve Fruitopia and ginger ale, which aren’t available at US locations. Sadly, they don’t serve Diet Dr Pepper like they do in the states, and they don’t even have regular Dr Pepper. But we won’t hold that against them!
We both got chicken sandwiches; one regular and one spicy. No Chick-fil-A experience would be complete without dessert, so we got their seasonal cookie crumble milkshake. It was delicious as always and certainly worth the stop if you’re in Toronto, especially if you’re from America and want to see how it compares.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding Tour
After lunch, we did a mini movie tour of filming locations from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was partly filmed in Toronto.
Our first stop was the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. This is the outside of the church used in the wedding ceremony of Ian Miller and Toula Portokalos. The inside wedding scenes were filmed at a completely different church.
Next, we visited 73 Glenwood Crescent, which was the actual Portokalos house used for the movie’s exterior shots. You can picture it with the Corinthian columns, and the garage was painted like the Greek flag. The house house today was apparently under reconstruction when we visited.
We also walked down to see the house that Toula and Ian bought when they got married in the movie.
Our final stop was in the Greek part of Toronto, the Danforth area west of downtown. Right on the main street is what used to be the Mount Olympus travel agency from the movie, where Toula and Ian met. It’s now a shoe store, which is kind of sad since they don’t sell trips anymore.
After the movie tour, we found dinner at a Greek restaurant in Greek Town, which seemed perfect after spending the good part of the day following a Greek movie’s filming locations.
The Hunt for Beaver Tails
On our third and final day, we had another great night’s sleep at the St. Regis and wandered around the city trying to fit in as much as possible before our flight home.
We visited the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. While we didn’t take a ferry to the islands this trip, we’ll save that for a future visit. We explored the beachfront area of Toronto on Lake Ontario and found Sugar Beach, which gets its name from the nearby sugar plant, not actual sugar on the beach.
The big mission of the day was finding beaver tails, a Canadian pastry treat Joseph had been looking for all over the city. After searching everywhere, we finally found them! Mission accomplished.
Toronto offers such a perfect blend of urban sophistication and friendly Canadian charm. From luxury hotels with butler service to international food markets, historic castles to modern attractions, Toronto has something for every type of traveler.
Thanks for traveling the world with us, and stay tuned for our next destination!
Want to see all our Toronto adventures in action, including the full Casa Loma tour and our Chick-fil-A taste test? Watch our complete Toronto travel video on YouTube:
