Customer Reviews

Frommer's Toronto 2003: Including Niagara Falls

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Resourceful, handy, and full of important travel reference, "Frommers Toronto" by Hilary Davidson is a good book to have when traveling to Canada's largest city. Full of maps, suggested itineraries, and the names and addresses of many local establishments, this book came handy when I traveled to Toronto back in October 2000.

While I consider this book a good buy and reference, I am more biased when it comes top travel guides, I highly recommend Lonely Planet's guide to the city. Lonely Planet is an excellent series because it is full of information that not only will benefit you during your stay in Toronto, but also comes in handy when preplanning your trip. Whether you want to learn about entry requirements or more about the city's history and culture, Lonely Planet in my opinion ranks supreme in the travel book industry. Frommer's is a great series, but I feel that it is geared more to travelers 35 years and above, whereas Lonely Planet covers the young adult market.

Still a good book, Frommer's will make your stay in Toronto a pleasant one. Try it, you won't be disappointed.

The usual reason to buy a travel book like this is to get some insights about places to visit and use the map to figure out how to get to those places. Unfortunately, the maps in this book aren't always correct. We had tickets to Mama Mia at the Royal Alexandra. The book justs insists that the RA is on the wrong side of Simcoe. Luckily there were plenty of banners hanging along King Street to guide us in the right direction. Still, I was a little more gunshy about all of the Frommer's recommendations after this. Some of the dining recommendations were good but some just made no sense (a highly recommended seemed mediocre and overhyped). The layout of the book means that there is never a single map to show you where both the restaurants and attractions are. Each is relegated to its own section. Due to the Royal Alex mishap, Frommers got relegated to the hotel room and we just used the freebie Hertz map we got when renting the car. And tripadvisor.com got consulted for all attaction advice.

Luckily the book is cheap so I wasn't out much money. But with the wealth of web resources, I would either just rely on the web or buy one of the other travel companies books.

I just got back from a trip to Toronto and I found this book incredibly helpful. I bought it mainly for the restaurant and shopping chapters (which were great) but the best parts were the walking tours. There are three days of complete itineraries plus several walking tours of different neighborhoods, and they were so interesting that I ended up spending most of my trip following them. I feel like I really saw the city, not just the touristy highlights. Some of the places I wouldn't have found on my own, and others, like the University of Toronto Campus, I wouldn't have thought of visiting (there are two art galleries on the campus though so it's definitely worth a visit).

The other thing I really loved about the book was that there were sections about restaurants that are good for people with food allergies. This is always an issue for me when I travel, so it was fantastic to have a list of places that I could eat at without worrying.

There were a lot of great things about this book, so I'd highly recommend it. Also, Toronto is a great city so I'm planning another visit!

I give "Frommer's Toronto 2007" high marks for directing me to such attractions as the Royal Ontario Museum (a smaller but still impressive version of the British Museum) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's small but charming museum. Its restaurant recommendations were generally on the money too, particularly those for Le Select and Le Papillon. The book does, however, seem somewhat skimpy for such a complex and vibrant city as Toronto, and it didn't give me as much information as I wanted on such decidedly important subjects as the Toronto Subway. (A complete subway map, not just one for downtown, would have been extremely useful.) I noted the complaints about the book's inaccuracy with interest, because I found at least one place where the book was inaccurate; it gave the address of Second City as 56 Blue Jays Way, instead of the correct address of 51 Mercer Street. I wonder what other mistakes it contained that I didn't have the chance to check out. In any case, the book contains adequate information, and Hilary Davidson's writng style is breezy and enjoyable. But maybe I should have used Fodor's instead, as other reviewers suggested.

....there's so much to do and see in Toronto, you are going to need a guide like this one from Frommer's. You aren't likely to miss the big tourist sights--the CN Tower, the Jetsons styled City Hall, the Sky Dome and Ontario Place--but the little secrets like shopping districts where you can get more from your dollar (that is, more than what you get on the daily currency exchange), Frommer's take you there. Also there are superb breakfast places and diners that you can get meals on the cheap. Frommer's helps you find them. You can wander in the historic glory of Casa Loma and it's famed gardens or you can get a dig on the daily downtown hustle and bustle...heck, I don't know if they still do that kinda thing nowadays, but you can even ride Lake Ontario, if you're so inclined. Frommer's will give you the details so's you get the best bang for your buck. Trolley rides, jazz shows, art museums, places to get film developed in an hour, Frommer's got the buzz about. While the CN Tower is a must see, (the glass floor at the skyview scared the bejesus outta me) it isn't the only thing to see and do in this great city. This guide will be indispensible to your enjoyment of Toronto. Trust me.

I was very puzzled. A number of hotels were not listed, nor were quite likely the majority of restaurants. In the former category I would offer the Raddison Admiral which I like mostly for its location. Of the latter, for instance, only 4 Indian restaurants were listed: standing in front of one of them I counted 7 (in about a block).

Makes me wonder: What gets an establishment into a guide book?

I LOVED the pull out map with places to visit on it. However, two of the restaurants we tried to visit weren't there anymore- and one of them hadn't been open "in years", according to a local. Fodor's Toronto was better.