Hi;

Have a look at Grayline’s Hop-On / Hop-Off tour of Toronto.

grayline.ca/tours/pages/graylineca/graylinec…

You can remain onboard for the entire tour, or “hop-off” if you see something that catches your eye. You can then “hop-on” the next bus, and continue the tour.

Best Regards

I am currently visiting toronto and decided to go with the shopdine tour company. I was originally going to go with greyline(as I loved them in Ny city) but here the buses look extremely run down and havent generally looked very full. The company I went with has the yellow buses. Hope that helps.

Forgot to say that this tour company is also hop on hop off and goes to 20 different sites.

Thanks a lot.

MLanders I'm veering towards the shop dine tour.

It appears to have just two tour times -9am and 3pm.

Is this correct ?

From our Hotel (Westin ) is the pick up point nearest to us across from the CN Tower ?

Apart from OnLine where else can we purchase tickets ?

Many thanks

Irishlady, I have just returned from toronto today and we did do the shopdinetour. It was just alright as the buses didnt really run on time in fact the last day we were there we ended up waiting over an hour for the bus to come (they are supposed to run every 1/2 hour). The first tour goes out at 9 am and the last tour leaves at 5 pm. They leave every hour on the hour. I know that they do pick ups at some of the hotels if you ask for one at the tour desk instead of walking to another stop. All in all it was just alright as I am used to the one in NY city that is a lot more efficient than these seem to be. But it works if you want to be able to see different parts of the city. We probably would have done just as well with subway and trolley cars but we never really took the time to figure out the routes.

Forgot to answer your last question. You should be able to purchase tickets at any one of their stands around the city (they have them at most of the stops)and also at the tour desk in your hotel(that is where I bought them)or at stop #1 which is where they start the tour.

Mlanders, you gonna give us a trip report under separate cover??? Sorry to hear the bus trip didn't measure up to New York, but hopefully the rest of the city had something to offer...??

Flyingmom, yes I am going to give a separate report but am just kinda getting my thoughts together as to what i want to say. I will do a trip report in the next couple of days. But yes, Toronto did have something to offer.

I tend to keep quiet on the bus tour questions, as I'm rarely a fan of bus tours anywhere. But I know lots of people find them a good way to get familiar with a city, and you can learn a bit from the narration they have between stops.

But in Toronto in particular, I don't think the bus tours offer very good value. Transit service is much more frequent (subways come every 3-5 minutes, 18 hours a day), and much cheaper, especially on weekends. Transit is an easy way to get around downtown and gets you to all the major sights. Plus, so much of what there is to see and do in Toronto is in between the major tourist attractions. The downtown streetcar routes run through great neighbourhoods; if you see something interesting, you can just get off at the next stop and wander for a bit. It's how locals experience the city and you'll get a much better sense of Toronto for it.

You can ask the fare collector for a free transit map at any subway station, and most drivers (and fellow passengers) are happy to help if you get a bit lost. In terms of cost, on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, one group of two adults and up to four children get unlimited travel all day on a single $9 TTC day pass.

MattinTO, I definately agree with you about the bus tours. If and when I ever get back to Toronto I will definately opt for the public transit. Unfortunately, I got sick the day before we came and pretty much was sick through the week so it was easier for us just to catch the tour bus than try to figure out what routes to take.