A Photographer’s Trip To Toronto Ontario Canada
March 22, 2026
Visiting Toronto For The First Time
In 2025 we visited Toronto, Canada, for the first time. This city is only about 7-8 hours from home. I cannot believe I had never been to this amazing city. Our Airbnb was 10 miles outside of the city, so we experienced the suburbs and the city core. The suburb we were in was very much like where we live in Ohio. The city. Wow. If my immediate family was there alone, we would have spent every day exploring the city streets. With the extended family, we spent short bursts of time in the city.
The CN Tower was amazing for an observation deck. We went early on a Monday morning, so there were no crowds. We then walked through Union Station because I love trains. Later in the trip, a few of us rode the beautiful Toronto subway. This was easy and efficient for us.
We also visited Casa Loma north of the city. This castle was awesome because there was a ton of movie history there. Highly recommend!
Downtown Toronto – A Newer Version Of London
The best way I can describe Toronto Canada is a new London England. We went to London in 2024, and Toronto reminded me of it. The downtown area has a great mix of historic buildings and new skyscrapers.. There were small parks scattered throughout which is always cool. The markets such as St. Lawrence Market are filled with local foods, flowers, and art/crafts. We spent a lot of meals at the markets where I had a lot of meatball subs. These were fantastic!
The city has a beautiful waterfront area on Lake Ontario. It was summer and everyone was out enjoying the weather. As we did in London, we took a boat tour in Toronto. This took us out into the lake to see the entire Toronto sky line from the water. It gave us a great perspective you can’t get while right in the city.
The Traffic In Canada’s Largest City Is Awful
During my extensive research on Toronto before our trip, I heard that the traffic was bad. This is an understatement. I live 50 minutes from the Ohio River in Cincinnati, and it can regularly take 90 minutes to go 50 miles. In Toronto, it took us no less than 1 hour to go about 10 miles. This is a newer city with a ton of roads. I can’t figure out why the traffic was bad. Traffic in the core of downtown should be bad. But what really got me was the terrible traffic management heading out of the city. I felt like we got stuck at each of 100 stop lights on the way to our amazing Airbnb.
Creating memorable but beautiful travel photography is always exciting for me when on vacation.
