ilovetotravel29

So, including food and transportation, can one be comfy off of 40 bucks (US dollars) a day in Toronto?

I am on a budget and will primarily be using public transportation. I may buy only a few small souvenirs and I have set aside money for that.

MikeT

Does that include housing or does that exclude housing? Sure, you can do Toronto for $40 a day. It may not be much fun and you won't see much, but it can be done.

How about scrapping the money for souvenirs and spending a little more to treat yourself.

BAK

Easy enough to do, although the problem might be filling time in the evenings without staying in the hotel room watching tv.

One factor is where you stay. If you're downtown, you can walk to lots of places of interest, but if you are in the sticks, atleast five bucks a day will be devoted to transit tickets.

Check out which days museums, etc. have lower admission fees, and, depending on the time of year, outdoor lunches of food bought from grocery stores is a big saving over buying indoor restaurant meals.

And there's lots of good cooked / prepared food you can buy at many grocery stores and eat outdoors or sneak into a food court.

Drink $1.70 coffee at Starbucks, not $3 lattes, etc.

BAK

toedtoes

Here's my plan. Get the City Pass for $46. That includes:

Royal Ontario Museum
CN Tower (not Sky Pod)
Ontario Science Centre
Art Gallery of Ontario & The Grange
Casa Loma
Toronto Zoo

I have 5 days, so that breaks out to $9.20 per day for sightseeing.

Then I'll get day passes for transit at $8.50 per day. That makes it $17.70 per day. Eat breakfast at the free hotel buffet. Add $5 for a veggie burger & soda at Harvey's each day and I've still only spent $22.70, leaving me $17.30 per day for souvenirs, etc. (I'm addicted to those veggie burgers and I can't get them here in the States, so I go hogwild!)

My current schedule adds in Ontario Place, High Park and Toronto Islands (add $6 for ferry trip). I have 2 places scheduled per day except High Park - I'm balancing that with a shopping afternoon. For me, it's the food that can throw you over budget. I usually pick one or two meals during the trip to "splurge" and go to a nice restaurant, otherwise I keep it simple and inexpensive. I also bring granola bars or similar with me (great for the plane ride) so I'm not spending a lot of money on snacking. I also plan on "photography days" - these are days where my purpose is to just take photos. That will be my Ontario Place/Toronto Islands day. Lots of walking, relaxing and nature (I'm big on nature photography), and nothing to spend money on.

I also calculate all this in USD (even though the amounts are in CAD), so that gives me a few extra dollars each day when the conversion is done.

ilovetotravel29

thank you so much, everybody! I am definately going to check out the city pass! and I am going to take a ferry and see the islands as well....

I am staying on Bloor street, if I am not mistaken

SallyCanuck

Royal Ontario Museum - Admission is free one hour before closing from Saturday to Thursday, except for specially ticketed exhibitions.
Admission is free after 4:30 pm on Fridays. Closes at 9:30 pm.
Discount coupons or vouchers may not be accepted for special or separately ticketed exhibitions

Art Gallery of Ontario: Free from 6 to 9 Wednesday evenings - but a lot of the gallery is closed due to renovation still you'd see something.

Parks are free - and there are some lovely ones - the Islands are mostly park but you'd have to spring for the fare on the ferries.

The Music Gardens on Queen's Quay are beautiful and often have concerts.

http://www.toronto.ca/parks/index.htm

High Park has Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors as pay-what-you-can http://www.canstage.com/2006-2007/season/dream.asp

Harbourfront on Queen's Quay always as something going on and it's always free.

SallyCanuck

The Chinese Lantern show at Ontario Place is $25 but you can see several of them without setting foot in the place.

toedtoes

Ilovetotravel - here is the link for the city pass: http://citypass.com/city/toronto?mv_source=ago. I just looked, and I quoted the USD price (I pulled it off my notes rather than the website). At any of the attractions, it is $55CAD (approx. $46USD). If you buy it online, it is $52.25USD + s&h. Better to get it when you get there.

I always check for these pass deals. I compare it to purchasing tickets separately and if it's a better deal I get it. Sometimes, I only want to see one or two attractions on the list, so it isn't worth it, but usually I end up saving $5-$20.

Also check out the options for the subway at: http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/schedules/subway/index.htm
I found for my trip, that I'm better off getting day passes. But depending, the weekly pass could be a better price for you.

waahahaha

Bata Shoe Museum which near Royal Ontario Museum is free after 5pm on Thursday as well

Hope this can help ~~

Cheers,
Chuck
http://www.travelbyfood.com
my Street Food website

BAK

Don't eat at Harvey's when Toronto has so many great restaurants.

BAK

toedtoes

BAK - I do try to hit at least one or two real restaurants in each town depending on how long I'm there. It's just when it comes down to it, I'd rather spend my money on something to bring home with me, instead of on something to fill my stomach and Harvey's is under $5 per meal. I know, not very exotic.

SusanInToronto

Lots of good 'ethnic' restaurants in Toronto - I like Vietnamese a lot and you'll find lots of those. A big bowl of pho is really inexpensive.

SallyCanuck

Harvey's has great vegetarian burgers and fries, you could do a lot worse than eat there - and they do breakfast.

katlake

Now Toronto guide has great restaurants suggestions for $5 or less.
My favorite cheap food in Toronto:
For Vegetarian food, try Cafe 668 at 668 Dundas- Asian Vegetarian or Burrito Boyz on Peter Street just south of Trendy Queen Street West for a $3.99 massive burrito made to order. Or head to Kensington Market on a weekend and find one of the 2 Latin grocery stores that sells Pupusas in the back. For $1.50 each, try 3 different flavors! Served with salsa and salad.
If you want to pig out/splurge at Lunch and eat a light meal for dinner, try to find an Indian restaurant (Queen West or King West have several) with a lunch buffet for around $9.

chocaholic

Here are some fast food places during the week in the financial district: (monday to friday only)
at Queen & Bay, the Thomson food court (concourse level), you can have a greek dinner for $5 which includes rice, potatoes, salad, pork or chicken.
at the Bay and Adelaide Centre: Indian food such as chicken byriani for $4
Thai Island at the exchange tower (toronto exchange food court) is good but $7..end of financial district. oh wait, at city hall, the tasty fries truck; you can get a sausage, fries with gravy and a drink for $5. end of financial district.

Carribean Island at the Grange food court (Dundas & St. Patrick) near the AGO for roti for $7, and a double for $1.30
Subway - vegetarian $4
Green Mango-thai- is good at Yonge/Charles near Bloor.

That's it for now...

chocaholic

oh the indian food at the bay adelaide centre is called, the sandwich place.

remember these places in the financial district are closed after 6pm.

oh and the wok is good at first canadian place, for chinese fast food. $6 for lunch.

chocaholic

Oh and Chinatown at Dundas/Spadina:

go to West 88 on 270 spadina / south of dundas for vietnamese/chinese/and thai, you can have pho or pad thai, or cantonese chow mien for $7 but its sit down you would have to pay tip. but i guess you can take it out.

or Kings noodle, a tad more, north or dundas on spadina, for cantonese food. so maybe $10 for noodles and tip, or rice etc....