Solo Trip To Canada

I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Canada. A solo trip to Canada in the middle of December. Did I mention that this was my first time traveling alone? It was an absolutely amazing trip. I spent five days in Toronto and I can’t wait to go back.

City Sight Seeing Tour

I bought a ticket for the street car trolley that gave you a tour of the city. I rode the trolley through the entire tour to get a feel for the city and also to figure out which tourist attractions I wanted to do first. The guide on the trolley was very knowledgeable about the city of Toronto. After I rode through the entire tour I decided to go to the CN Tower. As I exited the trolley the guide told me that my ticket was good for 48 hours.

CN Tower

The CN Tower was definitely a sight to see. The CN Tower is a concrete communications and observation tower. Its name CN stands for Canadian National, from the railway company that built the tower. It was constructed in 1976 and took over 40 months to complete. Over 1500 workers worked 24 hours a day, 5 days a week for 40 months to construct the CN Tower.

Outdoor Sky Terrace

After I purchased my ticket I took a glass elevator that rocketed 58 seconds to the look out level. Where I saw the most amazing view of the Toronto skyline, with floor to ceiling panorama windows. As I was enjoying the view I came across a revolving door that led to an outdoor terrace. Boy was it cold and windy out. There was a protected guard rail around the edge but you look out and see the entire city. It was absolutely beautiful.

Glass Floor

The Glass Floor at the CN Tower was the world’s first when it opened on June 26, 1994. Since then the CN Towers glass floor has inspired other see through floor experiences around the world. As I was walking around looking for the glass floor, I actually walked right past it. It was a really cool experience. When you look at the view it’s 1,122 ft straight down. When I visited Chicago the Willis Tower had a similar feature.

The Distillery District

After exploring the CN Towner I recalled from the trolley tour that a Christmas Market was nearby in the Distillery District. According to my map of the city it was about a 20 minute walk. I was so excited to be in Canada and wanted to see more of the city I decided to go for it I have never been to a Christmas Market before and this did not disappoint. They had these cute cottage style shoppes throughout and a maze of pink Christmas trees you could walk through. After walking around for a while I took refuge in a cute coffee shop where I got some hot chocolate.

Saks Fifth Avenue

While I was on the trolly tour we drove past Saks Fifth Avenue and I briefly caught a glimpse of this beautiful window display that they had. It was of mannequins dressed in these gorgeous dressed themed for the holidays. I will include a few photos below. After walking around the Christmas Market I decided to walk back to my hotel so I could take in more sights of the city and secretly take a detour back to Saks Fifth Avenue so I could see the window displays. I am so glad that I did. They were absolutely beautiful.

Poutine

A famous dish of Canadas is Poutine it is French fries with cheese curds and gravy. The first night that I was in Canada the bartender at the local bar near my hotel recommended it but I said no because it honestly didn’t sound appealing. We have French fries in the U.S. However after my first day out exploring in Canada other people made references for me to try Poutine and I caved in. Before heading back to my hotel I stopped back in at the bar near my hotel and had some Poutine. It was good I’m not going to lie I just had to add a little bit of ketchup.

Teaching Winery

One morning, I had a driver waiting for me downstairs at my hotel to take me to the bus station. At the bus station I met my tour guide and group that I was going to travel with to Niagara Falls. Before we got to Niagara Falls, we made two stops. The first was at the Teaching Winery, a vineyard. While we toured the vineyard, we sampled three different kinds of wine. It was actually a winery of the local college where they teach students how to make wine.

Niagara Falls

The second stop we made before the falls was lunch at the Sheraton hotel. It was directly across from the falls and while eating lunch I had the perfect view. It was absolutely amazing. Included in my trip to Niagara Falls was, Journey To The Falls. Where I got to walk through underground tunnels and get a closer view of Niagara Falls right as the water flows down. The view, the mist, and the sound of it all was just breath taking. For more on Niagara Falls see this post.

Casa Loma

Since my street car trolley ticket was good for 48 hours I hopped on the trolley the following day for another go around and made my way to Casa Loma. Sir Henry Pellatt built this castle for his wife Lady Mary in 1911. This is the only full sized castle in North America resting on five acres. I enjoyed every minute of this tour, the castle was beautiful. They gave me a hand held device that I could use for a self guided audio tour. Every area had a number attached to it and when I input the number in the device and listened it gave me a brief history.

Nathan Phillips Square

The day I was scheduled to leave, I woke up early and took a Taxi to Nathan Phillips Square. Where there was a known display of huge letters spelling out the words Toronto and an ice skating rink. Before then I had only ice skated once on a school field trip in Tennessee. I waited in line and got my skates and sat in the locker room for about 10 minutes as I struggled to get them on and tie them tight and double wrapped the laces around my ankles. After I was able to get the skates on I managed to wobble my way out of the locker room and onto the skating rink.

I was so nervous to go out on my own at first that I waved down one of the workers on the rink that was observing everyone for safety and they let me hold on to their arm until I got the hand of it. They event took a photo of me in front of the Toronto sign. It was so much fun to go ice skating everyone was so happy you would of thought we were in Disney World. Everyone was laughing and crying out loud for fear of almost losing their balance. I ice skated for about 30 minutes before heading back to the hotel.

Allan Gardens Conservatory

Before heading back to the hotel I decided to check out this green house that I noticed across the street from my hotel. As I walked up to the building I found out that it was a conservatory that was open to the public. As I entered it was warm and I welcomed a break from the cold outside lol. It was like I had stepped into a rain forest all of the flowers and plants were so colorful and exotic some that I had never even seen before. They had a whole room dedicated to cactuses and a beautiful display that depicted a woman standing next to a swan. As it was getting close for me to leave I left the conservatory and made my way back to the hotel so I could check out and make it to the train station to head to the the airport.

I vlogged the entire trip and created videos for my YouTube channel to compliment this blog post. I recorded so much footage that each day has its own vlog. There are six videos in total. Click the link below to watch the first video.

Don’t forget to “Like” this video and “Subscribe” to my YouTube channel. So you can keep up with my latest videos. I upload new videos every Sunday & Thursday. I hope you enjoyed reading about my solo trip to Canada. If you have any questions feel free to comment down below.

Solo Trip To Canada