Canada - 4 days in Toronto & 4 days in Montreal

-I’ve never been to Toronto or Montreal.

- I’m traveling with my GF

- I’ll be 26 and she will be 23

Please give me ideas! we like art, music, sports, city views and food!

Day 1 (YUL)

Day 2 (YUL)

Day 3 (YUL)

Day 4 (YUL)

Day 5 (YUL / YYZ) - CN Tower

Day 6 (YYZ) -Blue Jays game

Day 7 (YYZ) - Niagara Falls day tour (Should we spend the Night?)

Day 8 (YYZ)

What time of the year? It makes a big difference

Re Niagara Falls, you should stop and maybe overnight at Niagara on the Lake, a quaint town with olde charm and a few destination restaurants on the main street.

You can save some time and do the CN tower and the Jays' game at the same time. Rogers centre is a right-field throw to home plate from CN Tower.

Since you pick CN tower for city view a must do in Montreal is go up Mount Royal( Mont Real) for a view of the city.

Food, Toronto's got good food from almost all food culture on earth. Montreal's food scene is more French and French colonies.

Actually the YUL food scene is very diverse and very good but it has a heavy French influence. For YUL take in a Canadiens game which is very hard to get tickets to. Try to get a table an Au Pied de Cochon before going and then try for one of the great places in Old Montreal. You can spend a day looking around Old Montreal take in the Basilica Notre Dame du Montreal. Even if you aren't catholic it is an amazing site. Other foods to try are Portuguese Chicken and Smoked Meats.

Try some Poutine, Dunns Famous is pretty good for first entrant. YUL is very much like a European city with many different areas and is great to see just by walking around. Arts wise you could spend a day in the Beaux Arts precinct.

1. Niagara on the Lake is much better than the Falls (stay @ N-O-T-L overnight and drive to the Falls late evening when the sun is setting -- about 20 minutes.) The traffic won't be as bad as the day-time. Traffic from Toronto to Niagara can be terrible on a week-day; that's why I recommend overnight rather than a gruelling trip there & back in one day. There's theatre and great food on the Lake.

2. Monteal is great just wondering around. Rent a bike and pedal along the Lachine canal. The downtown area has lots of shopping but not too much else. Pick an old neighbourhood like Notre-Dame-de-Grace or Mount Royal and walk. You mentioned Blue Jays so I'm guessing summertime: Montreal has a series of greast festivals ranging from jazz to comedy.

Read all pages of this previous but excellent and still-useful thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/canada/835972-montreal-quebec-city.html

For the arts scene in Toronto, I would recommend the Art Gallery of Ontario (http://www.ago.net/)(AGO) and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

ROM has a Mayan exhibit until April, while Chagall is the feature du jour for AGO. The mainstays of the AGO are the Old Masters, Thomson Collection and a bazillion Henry Moore sculptures (they also have a photography gallery). There are other smaller niche galleries like the Bata Shoe Museum and the Gardiner Museum (http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/) (Ceramics)

Toronto has a pretty vibrant theatre scene ranging from small productions to big musicals a la Broadway.

Depending on the time of the year, there is a jazz festival, Shakespeare in the Park, lots of parades.

Outdoor things include Centre Island, Metro Zoo and High Park, but being from the NW, only the Zoo should be considered.

Food adventures should include Dim sum (there are a few threads on that), souvlaki on the Danforth (also called Greektown), restaurants in Little Italy and Little Portugal. If you wish to mix food and city views, I would suggest the CN Tower 360 restaurant -- its pricy, but on a clear day, its not a bad view. Another place with a bird's eye view of the city is the Manulife Centre's 180 Panorama restaurant and bar on the 51st floor.

I would recommend the Niagara-on-the-lake for the ambience. In the vicinity is the Shaw Festival (http://www.shawfest.com/plan-your-visit/). Another theatre town near Toronto is the Stratford Festival (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/) which is devoted to Shakespeare.

I like Niagara Falls at night, they light up the falls, sometimes have firework shows, and the casino can be fun (and sometimes has decent musicians, comedians etc in the theatre) and there is also a nightclub in the casino complex. It's a tacky town, but fun in limited doses. Niagara on the Lake is much prettier, but also a lot more sedate. I'd stay at the Falls overnight then drive up through the wineries and NOTL on the way back to Toronto.

CN Tower will take a couple of hours or so - if you have some flexibility, pick a clear day as the quality of the view can vary dramatically. You can certainly do something se the same day - perhaps tower in the morning, jays for a 1pm game, then your evening free for a show / dinner etc?

If you're going to go up the CN tower, have lunch at the sit-down restaurant (not the cafeteria) so admission to the main viewing level (where the glass floor is) is free ;) However, if you'd like to go higher up to the other viewing platforms, there is an additional charge. The price of admission to the main viewing platform is approximately 2/3 of the price of the lunch, so if you're going to eat anyways, the lunch is a good deal.

Just below the tower, is Steam Whistle Brewery next to the Roundhouse Rail Museum. Drop in for a tour and complimentary 1/2 pint of pilsner :)