Toronto's Neighbourhoods: Canada's Most Diverse City Block by Block

Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, and its claim to be the most ethnically diverse city in the world is backed by the numbers: more than 200 languages are spoken within its boundaries, and more than half of its residents were born outside Canada. This diversity is not merely statistical — it is visible in the neighbourhoods, the food markets, the festivals, and the faces of the people on the street.

Kensington Market, in the west end of the city, is Toronto's most eclectic neighbourhood — a grid of Victorian houses converted into vintage clothing shops, cheese shops, fishmongers, and restaurants serving food from every corner of the world. The market has been a landing point for successive waves of immigration since the 19th century — Jewish, Portuguese, Caribbean, South Asian — and the layers of those communities are still visible in the architecture and the food.

Chinatown, adjacent to Kensington Market, is one of the largest in North America — a dense concentration of restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores that spills out onto Spadina Avenue in a display of neon signs and hanging ducks that is one of the most visually intense streetscapes in the city. The dim sum restaurants on Spadina are among the finest in North America.

The Distillery District, in the east end, is a Victorian industrial complex of red brick warehouses converted into galleries, restaurants, and boutiques — the finest example of adaptive reuse in Toronto and one of the most atmospheric urban spaces in Canada. The Christmas Market that fills the district in December is the finest in the city.

The CN Tower, at 553 metres, was the world's tallest free-standing structure from 1976 to 2007, and the view from its observation deck — over the city, Lake Ontario, and on clear days the spray of Niagara Falls 130 kilometres away — is the finest in Toronto. The EdgeWalk, a hands-free walk around the outside of the tower at 356 metres, is one of the most exhilarating tourist experiences in Canada.

The Royal Ontario Museum is the largest museum in Canada and one of the finest in North America — a collection of 13 million objects spanning natural history, world cultures, and art, housed in a building that combines a Victorian original with the Daniel Libeskind Crystal addition of 2007. The Egyptian galleries and the dinosaur collection are the highlights.

The best time to visit Toronto is from June to September, when the weather is warm and the city's outdoor life — the patios, the festivals, the waterfront — is at its most active. The Toronto International Film Festival (September) is the finest film festival in North America and one of the most important in the world. The winter months are cold but the city's indoor life — the museums, the restaurants, the theatre — is excellent year-round.