The best things in life are (almost) free!!!

By: Barbara Slawek, SLA Toronto Chapter

Big City = Big Bucks, right???  Not necessarily!  Every metropolitan city has its share of free and low-cost ($ = less than $10) activities and attractions for the tourist of “modest means” and you’ll be pleased to hear that Toronto is no exception.  Of course, you’ll probably want to budget for a snack or souvenir and – let’s be honest – no one has ever been known to “windowshop until they dropped”!  But with some insider information, a bit of legwork, and a sense of adventure, you’ll find that you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy the many riches that Toronto has to offer.  Below you’ll find a few suggestions to get you started.  And who knows?  With so much to see and do, you might just have to stay another week!

WALKS and TALKS

• Explore our city of neighbourhoods and discover a diversity of culture, ethnicity and lifestyle.
• Join a ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) Walk (Sun @ 2 pm, Wed @ 6 pm), a series of guided walking tours led by museum volunteers through downtown neighbourhoods of architectural and historical significance.
• Stroll through one (or more!) of Toronto’s 1,500 parks and gardens and enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors without leaving the city.  From the well-established 400-acre High Park to the Toronto Music Garden, our newest two acre waterfront park inspired by the music of J.S. Bach, there are plenty of green spaces where you can take that “pause that refreshes”.  Weather not cooperating?  Step into a conservatory for greenery under glass.
• Take a Discovery Walk, “a program of self-guided walks that link city ravines, parks and gardens, beaches and neighbourhoods”.
• Hike (or bike or jog or rollerblade) the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail, “a 740 km celebration of nature and culture”, and an instrumental part of Lake Ontario’s regeneration.  Toronto’s portion of the Waterfront Trail is comprised of Etobicoke (west), Toronto (central) and Scarborough (east).
• Sign up for a University of Toronto Historical Walking Tour.  Granted its royal charter by King George IV on March 15, 1827, Canada’s leading teaching and research university has a remarkable history and offers daily tours of its St. George (downtown) campus.
• Tour the Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, one of Ontario’s most significant heritage buildings and meeting place for Members of Provincial Parliament since 1893.
• Attend an evening lecture compliments of the University of Toronto Bookstore Reading Series.
• Stroll the Boardwalk, a popular 3-km wood plank located in The Beaches.
• Pay your respects at the Toronto Necropolis and Mount Pleasant Cemetery, two of Toronto’s historic cemeteries and final resting places of many prominent Canadians including former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and pianist Glenn Gould.
• Brush up against the law at Osgoode Hall, a unique heritage building where the Court of Appeal of Ontario, the Superior Court of Justice and Law Society of Upper Canada reside.
• Ride Toronto’s transit system for twenty consecutive hours with a TTC daypass($)

MUSEUMS and GALLERIES

• Enjoy free admission to the Art Gallery of Ontario (Wed @ 6-8:30 pm) and Canada’s largest museum, the Royal Ontario Museum (Fri @ 4:30-9:30 pm).  Note: Surcharged events and ticketed events are excepted.
• View the city’s permanent art collection at the Market Gallery or visit one of many public art galleries and cultural centres
• Appreciate the city’s outdoor art and monument collection and numerous corporate-owned sculptures nestled in the courtyards of the city’s tallest skyscrapers.
• Combine art and architecture and relax in “The Pasture” with a herd of seven bronze cows on the west lawn of the TD Centre, a modernist design by architect Mies van der Rohe.
• Explore historic Fort York($), the 1793 birthplace of modern Toronto, home to Canada’s largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings and a designated National Historic site.
• Visit Toronto’s historic homes and museums($) and step into the past - from a rare Regency picturesque cottage to Toronto’s oldest brick house, from a Greek Revival rowhouse to an elegant Edwardian city mansion.
• Experience a unique museum - the Bata Shoe Museum($) houses over 10,000 shoes representing more than 4,500 years of history an award-winning five-storey structure; the CBC Museum celebrates more than sixty years of Canadian broadcasting; the Design Exchange, promotes awareness of Canadian design through exhibits, design research and education; MZTV Museum of Television presents one of the world’s largest collections of historic television sets and ephemera; the Textile Museum of Canada($) dedicates itself to the exhibition and documentation of textiles from around the world; the Toronto Aerospace Museum($) showcases the aviation accomplishments of Torontonians and the GTA’s long association with aeronautical innovation, manufacturing and technology in the original 1929 home of de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd….

ATTRACTIONS and ENTERTAINMENT

• Feast your eyes at the outdoor summer Farmer’s Market at Nathan Phillips Square (Wed @ 12:30 pm) or the year-round historic St. Lawrence Market.
• Stargaze at the York University Observatory during public viewing hours (Wed @ 9-11 pm).
• Be filled with the sound of choral music in an historical place of worship such as the Cathedral Church of St. James, St. Andrew’s Church, and St. Michael’s Cathedral, home of the renowned St. Michael’s Choir School.
• Pack a picnic lunch and take a 15-minute ferry($) to the Toronto Islands.
• Linger at the Harbourfront Centre.  Attend the Reading Series($), one of the most admired public reading programmes in the world, participate in cultural community festivals or board a visiting ship moored at the public dock.
• Buy a same-day, “pay what you can” ticket for a Monday evening performance of any CanStage production.
• Catch a first-run movie($) at a matinee or reduced Tuesday rate at Famous Players Paramount Toronto in the fashionable Queen Street West entertainment district or treat your rental car to a double-bill for half-price($) at The Docks Drive-In Theatre, the world’s largest downtown drive-in movie theatre.
• Rockclimb a 40-ft wall($), play a challenging 18-hole pro-putt course($), or lounge by an outdoor octagonal pool($) at The Docks Entertainment Complex.
• Wander through or take a guided tour($) of the Distillery Historic District, a National Heritage Site, whose cobblestone paths, grid-street design and well-preserved collection of Victorian Industrial architecture have made it a popular movie and television filming venue, and now, Toronto’s newest centre for arts, culture and entertainment.