Do you know to see great art, listen to fantastic music, eat delicious food, and mellow out over a beverage with friends?  Do your friends ask you for suggestions about what to do on the weekend?

If you have a passion for your city, and would like to share it with others, The Toronto Traveler wants YOU!

We’re hiring a blogger to take over duties here, so if you’re interested in taking over those duties email me expressing your interest and providing links to other relevant writing.  Convince me that you’re the right person for the job.

Knowledge of Word Press and photo editing is preferred.  Blogging experience is nice, but is not as important as passion for the topic.  Pay is a monthly base plus traffic bonus.

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The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE) can easily claim to be one of the oldest annual traditions within the City of Toronto.  It’s certainly one of the oldest contemporary traditions, with 2008 being the 47th year in which the exhibition is being held.

One of the reasons that people tend to find the TOAE so special is the fact that it is a rarity not just in Toronto, but across all of Canada as well.  It is an exhibition taking place completely outdoors, allowing people to walk around one of the biggest outdoor squares in Toronto, taking in the great weather as well as the beautiful works of art.

The TOAE takes place in Nathan Phillips Square, which is located in the heart of downtown Toronto.  It’s about equidistant from both the Queen and Osgoode Subway Stations and is around many other Toronto attractions, allowing you to easily combine a visit to the TOAE with other events you might want to visit on the same day.

Admission to the TOAE is completely free and the exhibition will be held on Friday July 11 (10 AM to 8 PM), Saturday July 12 (10 AM to 7 PM) and Sunday July 13 (10 AM to 6 PM).

Overall, it’s expected that around 500 different artists will be showcasing their works at the various displays available around the square and the styles of art are expected to encompass everything under the Sun.  Many of the artists will be recognizable to people that follow the art industry whereas many of the others will be complete unknowns or alternatively students looking to make some cash to help pay the next year’s tuition.  It’s this melding together of the known and unknown that is one of the reasons that this year’s exhibition is expected to draw over 100,000 visitors during the 3-day event.

More information about this event is available on the TOAE 2008 website, including a list of artists, gallery of past events and contact information.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

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Spring

Spring is a rather weird season in Toronto.  Weather wise, the snow is starting to melt and while floods can get into the city from time to time, the receding layers of white can be beautiful for photography.  The warming weather combined with the regular breezes from Lake Ontario can create heavenly weather for those that enjoy weather ranges between 5 and 15 Celsius and breezy conditions.

In terms of the attractions, all of the major city attractions are available around the calendar, so you’d be able to see them regardless of when you choose to travel.  However, special events at places like The Canadian National Exhibition usually don’t start until the summer, so if you’re visiting the city in the hopes of going to a lot of events, this is not the best season to do that.

Summer

In my rather humble opinion, Summer has the worst weather of all four seasons in Toronto.  Of course, I’m partial to cold weather and vacationing in a tropical paradise isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.  If you’re partial to warm weather, then Summer is a great time to visit Toronto because the moderating influence of the nearby lake creates temperature ranges that frequently break 25 Degrees Celsius.

Summer is also the high period of tourism in the city, which means that all of the major and minor attractions will be in full swing.  The baseball season is well underway by the time summer comes and the football season is not too far off.  There’s usually extra public transit service in anticipation of higher traveller numbers, but by the same token finding transportation to and accommodation in the city can be harder and end up costing a lot more money.

Fall

Fall is a lot like Spring, except without the great view of melting snow.  Towards the end of Fall however, snow will start to fall on the ground and provide a wholly different set of photographic opportunities.  The weather ranges are about the same as they are for spring, although you can expect more wind in the Fall months.

Fall is a great time to visit Toronto if you’re looking for deals, because it is right after all of the Summer tourism peaks have passed.  Attractions are looking for people to sustain themselves and many airline and hotel companies are doing the same thing.  Rates in a lot of the city’s hotels tend to fall during this period and many of the attractions are silent enough that you can enjoy them alone.  For the various parks, water bodies and beautiful religious structures in the city, this can really make all the difference in your overall experience.

Winter

As a Canadian for the last two decades, I’ve really developed an affinity for cold weather that makes me prefer winter over all of the other seasons.  In terms of weather, you can often expect conditions that are below freezing, with a wind chill factor that can often make temperatures seem like they’re 20 to 25 below zero on the Celsius scale.

The major attractions are all still open, although the number of events that tend to be hosted during this time dips slightly.  However, if you’re a big fan of photography, then getting the chance to take pictures of all of Toronto’s most beautiful buildings when they’re covered by snow might definitely be worth the colder weather.

As I said in the introduction, visiting Toronto is ultimately a personal choice.  There are good points and bad points in visiting the city at different points during the year, but aside from personal opinion there is really no season that is better than the others.

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In honour of the most recent b5media Travel & Culture Theme Day Post, I’ve decided to do a quick run through of the alphabet with a Toronto flair added onto things. 

This post is a continuation of T is for Toronto, the post I wrote for that particular theme day post.

A is for the Argonauts, Toronto’s Canadian Football League Franchise.

B is for the Blue Jays, Toronto’s Major League Baseball Franchise.

C is for the Canadian National Exhibition, which makes its home within the City of Toronto.

D is for the Don River, one of the many beautiful pieces of flowing water in the city.

E is for the Entertainment District, which counts among its numbers some of the hottest bars and nightclubs on the continent.

F is for Family Vacations, which are very easy to create in Toronto, a city of excellent family venues.

G is for overall guest accommodations that are available all over the place and at price ranges that give tourists a lot of choice.

H is for High Park, one of the most beautiful natural locations within the city.  It happens to also play host to one of the most celebrated Shakespeare festivals in the country every single year.

I is for India Town, where you can get authentic Indian food, drink, clothing and other items as well.

J is for jamming, which various local and international artists do in Toronto at dozens of different musical venues.

K is for Kensington Market, a fantastic place where you can get almost anything you want below its normal retail price.

L is for Lover’s Lane, a walking pathway that covers a good amount of distance across the city.

M is for the Maple Leafs, Toronto’s National Hockey League franchise.

N is for North York, one of the suburbs of Toronto.

O is for outstanding food that is both affordable and authentic.

P is for Parties, which happen all over Toronto every single day.  Many of them are located in the Entertainment District and are great once you get a chance to experience them.

Q is for Queen Street, a place where many of the most happening places in the city are located.  Whether you`re into eating, partying or just simply people watching, you can definitely find what you`re looking for on Queen Street.

R is for the Raptors, Toronto’s National Basketball Association franchise.

S is for the Subway, your ticket to making your way around the entire city at a price that is more than reasonable.

T is for Toronto, the city that is the focus of this blog.

U is for underground.  There are many underground walkways in downtown Toronto that you can use to access different places, allowing you to get around to where you want to go even if the weather sucks.  It’s also for Union Station, one of the most historic sites in the whole city.

V is for Victoria Day, a holiday well-celebrated in the city.

W is for weather that can be cold during the winter, warm during the summer and quite temperate in both the spring and the fall.

X is for Xavier and the rest of the X-Men, whose novels, books and movies you can easily obtain from any of the nerd stores in downtown Toronto.

Y is for Yorkdale, one of the bigger shopping malls in the city.

Z is for the Zoo and all of the wonderful things that you can see when you go there.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

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Hot Dogs and Meal Trucks, Oh My! - While no fast food option is particularly good when it comes to getting a good and nutritious meal, there are certainly ways to save time while improving on going to a fast food restaurant.  This post discusses some options that you can pursue along that road.

The Toronto Traveler Celebrates World Cocktail Week - Have you ever had a Toronto Cocktail?  How about the fictitious, yet hilarious Toronto Toddy?  Check out recipes for both in this post!

The Toronto Traveler’s Submission to the b5media Travel & Culture Theme Day - Take Toronto’s best known landmark and combine it with a well placed ambulance in order to get a picture that captions itself, no editing needed!

Happy Victoria Day from The Toronto Traveler - Victoria Day’s a very important holiday in Canada, so naturally no post about the City of Toronto would be complete without an acknowledgement of this great holiday!

Start off your day with Free Pancakes in Toronto - Pancakes are delicious and posts about them are fun to read ;)

Well, the above five posts certainly represent my most memorable experiences with The Toronto Traveler in May.  What about you?  Do you agree with the above choices?  Disagree with them?  Have other suggestions that you’d like to put forward?  Feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you liked about this month and what you’d like to see moving forward into June.  The more feedback I get, the better I can make the blog for my readers.

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One of the major reasons that people tend to visit Toronto is that they enjoy how nice the city looks.  From the creatively built buildings in old Toronto to the beautiful suburbs that have managed to preserve a large section of the natural environment, Toronto has really done more than most cities in terms of preserving its green space.

Now, they’re taking aim at reclaiming some of that space for the green world through the beautification of many areas near the major highways that run through the city.  The Don Valley Parkway is the first candidate for this flowering beautification and specifically, this is happening right where the Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Avenue East meet.

But there are more than just daffodils involved.  There are also rows of Scilla and Muscari flowers along the road as well, all of which are starting to flower for the first time after being planted last March.  This is part of what will eventually be a larger strategy on the part of the city to make its roadways easier on the eyes.  If they have the same amount of success as they did with this first venture, then things should be very beautiful in the city indeed.

So, if you visit Toronto sometime this summer, make it a point to drive past that intersection at least once and take in the view!  In the meantime, I’ll try to see if I can get out there and get some pictures posted sometime before the end of the summer.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

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The Fox and Fiddle is a pub located right in the heart of downtown Toronto, next to the main campus of the University of Toronto.  For this reason, you’ll see a lot of students in there socializing and that gives the overall atmosphere of the place one of local Toronto.  If you want to experience Toronto as the city’s residents do, then this is most definitely one of the places that you want to visit.

Basic Details

Location: 280 Bloor Street West

Contact Information: E-mail (info@bloorfox.com) and Phone (416-966-4369)

Highlights

- There are an amazing 22 different varieties of beer on tap at the Fox and Fiddle

- On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the pub hosts Karaoke events

- The Fox and Fiddle is right next to hotel accommodations

- There is high speed Internet access available for free inside the Fox and Fiddle

Noteworthy Items

Every Monday evening Fox and Fiddle has 1/2 price wings night.  This allows you to nab twice as many wings for the same price and during the same time bottles of beer are on sale for $3.  You can eat the same and save some money or you can gorge yourself!  The choice is ultimately yours.

On Sunday evenings, the Fox and Fiddle hosts free Pool games in their pub and you get a chance to use the tables they normally have without a cost attached.  All domestic bottles of beer are $3 at the same time so you can enjoy a nice evening of beer and pool before the start of the work week.

Menu

The menu at Fox and Fiddle is similar to the menu you’d get at any pub, which can be a good thing (if you just want to grab a burger and watch the game) or a bad thing (if you’re looking for a long sit down dining experience), depending on who you are and what you want.

Fox and Fiddle offers various pub appetizers (like chicken wings), salads, burgers, sandwiches and other pub items such as fish and chips that do not fit into any of the previous categories.  The quality of the food is above average and the price is reasonable (you can get a good meal for under $10, or a really good meal for under $20), which is something unexpected for a restaurant that mainly caters to students.

Photo Credit: Flickr

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One of the excellent things about living in the City of Toronto (and visiting it, for that matter) is the fact that the cultural diversity lends itself quite easily to choice in cuisine.

The fact of the matter is that when you eat in Toronto, you have a choice of different authentic cuisine types not available in many other cities and one of those types is Indian food.  While there are many excellent Indian restaurants in Toronto, one that definitely stands out is Siddhartha.

Basic Information

Siddhartha is located in two places in the city: Coxwell/Gerard and King/Bathurst.  Both of these locations provide the same excellent service, but the first location is in the heart of Little India, making the whole excursion a cultural experience.

Both restaurants are open 11:30 AM to 10:30 PM, with prices that rarely exceed $15.00.  For the most part, the restaurant is a buffet in an all-you-can-eat style, although there are special orders that you can place if you’d like something not normally on the buffet menu.

Menu

The buffet is the signature part of Siddhartha and here are some choice selections from the buffet menu:

Nan: Indian bread that often takes the place of rice in a meal, prepared fresh and tasty at regular intervals throughout the day.

Butter Chicken: Perhaps one of the more famous aspects of Indian cuisine, butter chicken is one of the signature dishes of Siddhartha.  The butter chicken at Siddhartha is absolutely delicious!

Aloo Gobi: An exceptionally tasty vegetarian dish that combines potatoes and other vegetables with Indian spices added into the mix.  Aloo Gobi is just one of many different vegetarian dishes that you can eat when you dine at Siddhartha.

A full buffet menu can be found here, while a full overall menu of what you can order can be found here.

Photo Credit: Flickr

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