Where to stay in Toronto

Downtown takes in the Financial District, the central business district between Queen Street West, Yonge Street, Front Street and University Avenue, and the Entertainment District around King Street West, with theatres, the Blue Jays and Union Station, the rail hub, on Front Street. Harbourfront, along Queens Quay south of the Gardiner Expressway, has turned from a harbour and industrial district into a mostly residential and leisure one, about 1 km from Union Station.

Yorkville, a former village north of downtown between Bloor Street, Davenport Road, Yonge Street and Avenue Road, has homes, offices and the Mink Mile shops on Bloor, about 4 km from Union Station by road. Old Town, the first of Toronto's named neighbourhoods, keeps many 19th-century buildings and St. Lawrence Market, and the Distillery District beside it fills more than forty Victorian industrial buildings with cafés, restaurants and shops.

The Beaches, about 9 km east of Union Station by road, takes its name from four beaches on Lake Ontario.

At Pearson the rental counters are on Level 1 of the Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 garages, and Highway 407 ETR north of the city is an all-electronic toll road whose tolls the rental company bills to the renter with its own fee, according to GetCar's guide Driving in Toronto, which also covers the Ontario rules, the TTC and winter driving.

Green P runs about 21,500 metered spaces on the street, paid in its app with the location number on the sign or at pay-and-display machines by coin or card; single-space meters take coins only. Most spaces allow up to three hours, some from 15 minutes to 24 hours, and Toronto Police enforce them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rates are mostly CAD 1.50, 3.25, 4.50, 5.75 or 7.00 an hour, and Green P warns about fake QR codes stuck on its machines (via GetCar).

Where no sign says otherwise, a public road in Toronto has a three-hour limit. Permit parking serves residential areas where driveways and garages are uncommon; temporary 24-hour, 48-hour or weekly permits are sold where space allows, online up to two weeks ahead, and a car without one can be ticketed in a permit space. The City's number for finding a towed car is 416-808-6600.

On King Street between Bathurst and Jarvis, streetcars have priority and cars must turn off at most intersections (via GetCar); the signs in the photo, at a King Street West junction, ban turns for all but TTC vehicles, the right turn from 7 AM to 7 PM on weekdays. For a stay in the core, a hotel or building garage takes the car off the three-hour clock.

Toronto charges a Municipal Accommodation Tax of 6% on the room, back from a temporary 8.5% since 1 August 2026. It applies to hotel stays of 30 continuous days or less and to short-term rentals, and hotel invoices show it on a separate line. Ontario's 13% HST applies to the room and to the MAT.

A short-term rental is all or part of a home let for less than 28 consecutive days. It is allowed only in the host's principal residence, the whole home for at most 180 nights a calendar year or up to three bedrooms with no cap, and the listing must show the City's registration number in the format STR-0000-XXXXXX. The City tells guests not to rent a listing without it.

During the stay the host must give a contact reachable 24 hours a day and post a diagram of the building's exits in the rental.

Compare totals with the 6% MAT and the 13% HST in, and check the STR number before paying for a rental.

Settle the parking with the booking: a place with its own garage in the core, or, on a permit street, temporary permits bought online up to two weeks ahead.

Visitors from the UK and the EU fly to Canada with an eTA, which costs CAD 7 and is valid for up to five years or until the passport expires. Romanians need an electronic passport for it. US citizens and US permanent residents need no eTA, and nobody needs one arriving by car, bus, train or boat.

Business, theatre and the Blue Jays: Downtown.

The lakefront: Harbourfront.

Shopping on Bloor Street: Yorkville.

Old streets, the market and the Distillery: Old Town.

A lakeside neighbourhood away from the core: the Beaches.