Toronto's postcard and Toronto's office in the same square kilometre. Bank towers by Mies van der Rohe and I. M. Pei shading canyon-narrow streets that empty out completely at 6pm on a Friday; the CN Tower and the aquarium drawing every first-time visitor to a two-block cluster off Front Street; and then, ten minutes south, the whole thing opens onto Lake Ontario — ferries, patios, a converted power station full of contemporary art, and a car-free island chain fifteen minutes across the water. It is the least characteristic part of Toronto and the part every visit starts in, and the trick is treating it as two neighbourhoods with a railway viaduct between them.
Who it's for: First-time visitors, who will end up here regardless and should stay a couple of nights: everything on the standard list is walkable from Union Station, and the PATH means you can do a February day without going outside. Families — the aquarium, the railway museum, the Ontario Science Centre's new interim home at Harbourfront and the island ferry are all within twenty minutes of each other. Anyone with a serious dinner budget: three of the city's Michelin-starred and Michelin-listed rooms are here. And anyone who wants the water, which is the part of Toronto most visitors somehow miss.