In this huge country where cities, landmarks and world-famous places of all kinds are often hundreds or thousands of kilometres apart, Toronto has always been the easiest getaway option for us. After all, it’s only a five-hour drive from Ottawa, which is “basically next door, eh” in Canadian.

Toronto was my introduction to Canada in 2002—plot twist, I stepped out of the airport in February and I didn’t have any warm clothes because we were coming from South America and I hadn’t planned to explore any place that far north. Toronto is where we saw REM, Soundgarden, Bryan Adams, the Rolling Stones, and a Blue Jays game, and where we celebrated a rare rainy New Year’s Eve in Canada. Hell, a few times, we even ended up in Toronto without planning it because we (or I) had missed the connecting flight to Ottawa.

Toronto is one of these love-it-or-hate-it kinds of place. The rest of the world often assumes it’s the capital of Canada but many Canadians claim the city is hardly Canadian at all. Good or bad, it’s pretty unique. It’s big and overall less friendly than your average Canuck town but it’s always an exciting place to explore. Despite the number of $1000 Canada Goose jackets sold in Toronto, the weather is warm by Canadian standards. “Bilingual” here means English plus Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, you name it—you’ll get the chance to meet the world wherever you go and various interpretations of Canadian culture. It’s not a great place for hockey games—the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967 and tickets are among the most expensive in the NHL—but there’s always something else going on.

Toronto may not be the heart of Canada but this city will always have a special place in my heart.

We used to go to Toronto at least once or twice a year. But like everything else, Toronto got stupidly expensive.

In 2018, we lived the (mortgage-free!) fancy condo life for a few days in one of the pricey Ice condos on York Street—we simply booked the apartment on Airbnb. In 2019, we stayed in another very affordable Airbnb in Chinatown. In 2020, we scored a lovely condo for a week, although I suspect this one was only cheap because Toronto was just emerging from the first lockdown.

We’ve been trying to go back to Toronto ever since but even shitty airport hotels are $300 a night. And forgot about affordable Airbnbs—last year, when Feng checked again for opportunities, staying in Paris on Bastille Day would have been cheaper. Come on, Toronto…

This year, we really wanted to go see Crowded House so we looked for a plan B, C, D… and we ended up with plan E, a suite at Seneca College in North York, a 30-minute drive from downtown Toronto. The student residence was newer and cleaner than we expected and for $110, we had two bedrooms, a (noisy) fridge, a microwave and a private shower.

It was a good deal but we quickly discover that the area isn’t really walkable—it’s mostly residential dotted with strip malls kilometres apart. Some of them were fun, like mini Chinatown with very Instagrammable food options but you have to know what you’re looking for otherwise you waste a lot of time driving, parking, driving parking, etc.

After this frustrating experience the first night, we just drove to Toronto in the morning and came back late at night.

Surprisingly, despite long COVID lockdowns and two years of restrictions, it looked like small businesses bounced back better in Toronto than in Ottawa. Downtown Ottawa is a ghost town these days, I don’t even bother going there anymore. On the other hand, Toronto was crowded, lively, and I didn’t see too many places closed for good.

We grabbed take-out from various places in Chinatown and I was also shocked to see that on average, food was much cheaper than in Ottawa. There are more options, I guess, more competition too. We filled up our student residence fridge with sweet and savoury buns, steamed buns, scallion pancakes, noodles and more—not exactly breaking the bank and it was delicious.

The yearly Doors Open Toronto gave us the chance to explore Osgoode Hall for free and wandering around various neighbourhoods kept us busy for three days before and after the concert. The weather was gorgeous too.

Moral of the story, once you find an affordable place to stay, you can still enjoy Toronto without spending too much!