1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (124 page)

Meanwhile, in its existing galleries, the already significant collections of the AGO remain open for viewing. The museum’s European collection includes works by Tintoretto, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, while its contemporary collection includes pieces by Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, and Claes Oldenburg.

The Canadian collection represents more than half the museum’s holdings, with works ranging from before Confederation to the present day—including 19th-century landscapes and scenes of early Canadian life by artists such as Cornelius Krieghoff and Lucius O’Brien. Also marvelous are pieces by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, early 20th-century Canadian artists whose work celebrates the country’s natural splendor. The collection of Inuit art is one of the finest in Canada.

Founded in 1900, the AGO now has more than 40,000 works in its collection.

In 1974, British sculptor Henry Moore was moved when the citizens of Toronto pitched in to purchase his sculpture
The Archer
for their new city hall after legislators had refused to provide funds. As a result, he donated more than 800 works—bronzes, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings, plasters, and drawings—to the museum, which now maintains the world’s largest collection of his art.

W
HERE
: 317 Dundas St. W. Tel 416-979-6648;
www.ago.net
.
W
HEN
: closed Mon–Tues.

A Temple of Northern Chic

Toronto, Ontario

For years, Toronto was a tradition-bound bastion of conservative Britishness. However, all that changed during the 1990s as Toronto swiftly transformed itself into one of the continent’s most exciting cities, filled with gleaming
skyscrapers, world-class arts institutions, vibrant emigrant communities, and of-the-moment restaurants.

But when the subject is hotels, tradition is a good thing. The Four Seasons Hotel Toronto has the kind of well-heeled glamour and savoir faire that comes from a long and distinguished history. It’s the flagship property of Four Seasons hotels, based in Toronto, the gold standard of luxury hotels worldwide. It’s the favorite of visiting celebrities and boldfaced names—especially during the important Toronto International Film Festival (see p. 1007), when Toronto becomes Hollywood North. The marble-floored lobby and other public areas mix clean modern lines and classic parlor style. The spacious guest rooms and suites follow the same aesthetic, with a quiet, restrained
elegance. Some rooms offer views of the city skyline, with its 1,815-foot Canadian National (CN) Tower, the world’s tallest freestanding structure.

The Four Seasons is in the Yorkville neighborhood, northwest of the city’s modern business district. Once an independent village and later the Haight-Ashbury of the North, Yorkville is now the gentrified home of all things Toronto-chic.

The Four Seasons’ main restaurant, Truffles, is a must-dine, frequently cited as a leader among the best restaurants (and without doubt it’s the best hotel restaurant) in Canada. Avenue Bar and Lounge is all modern elegance and chic sophistication, with innovative cuisine and award-winning cocktails.

W
HERE
: 21 Avenue Rd. Tel 800-268-6282 or 416-964-0411;
www.fourseasons.com/toronto
.
Cost:
from US$263/C$295; Truffles 5-course tasting menu US$76/C$85.
B
EST TIMES
: June–July and Sept for weather; last 2 weeks of July for Caribana, the largest Caribbean festival in North America (
www.caribana.com
); Sept for the Toronto Film Festival (
www.tiffg.ca
).

Temples of Canadian Culture

Toronto, Ontario

Canada’s largest museum of natural history and human culture, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) opened to the public in 1914. Since then, the institution has grown immensely, both in size of collection and also
in scope. With over six million objects in its collections, today’s ROM preserves an overview of natural history from the dawn of time, and the arts and artifacts of human cultures from around the world. The exhibits are diverse and fascinating, ranging from a remarkable selection of Chinese art, a wing dedicated to European decorative arts, dinosaur skeletons, a Canadian heritage gallery, and a whole lot more. Kids love the Bat Cave, a walk-through miniature replica of Jamaica’s St. Clair cave, with 3,000 very lifelike bats darting about.

Given such a broad mandate and a burgeoning collection, it’s no wonder the museum outgrew its original exhibition space. A recent major revitalization restored the museum’s former buildings to their period glory and built a new, architecturally daring structure, which added 300,000 square feet of new and renovated space to the museum. The new structure, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, designed by Daniel Libeskind, is in the form of a multifaceted crystal, creating unusual architectural forms that offer terrific views over downtown Toronto’s Bloor Street. The added exhibition space, which opened in 2007, will allow the museum to display never-before-seen collections and to reintroduce many museum favorites from the past. The top floor, in the apex of the crystal, is a stylish restaurant and bar—just the place for reflection after a day viewing Egyptian mummies, medieval armor, and displays on Canadian history.

For insight into a whole other sort of Canadian culture, visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, a shrine to the nation’s most popular
sport. This C$35 million facility devotes 57,000 square feet to exhibits on the history of hockey, the great Canadian hockey rinks, and the sport’s most legendary players. The Stanley Cup, professional hockey’s top prize, also resides here—hockey fans stand in line to have their photo taken with it. Most exciting are the interactive exhibits: Ever wonder what if feels like for a goalie to face a shooter like Wayne Gretzky? Simulator games allow you to suit up and tend goal against video images of legendary hockey stars, while sponge pucks are fired at you at speeds up to 70 mph. Many Canadians profess that you’ll never understand the country until you understand hockey—here’s the perfect window into the national psyche.

R
OYAL
O
NTARIO
M
USEUM
: 100 Queen’s Park. Tel 416-586-5549;
www.rom.on.ca
.
H
OCKEY
H
ALL OF
F
AME
: Yonge St. Tel 416-360-7765;
www.hhof.com
.

The Hockey Hall of Fame’s beaux arts building was a branch of the Bank of Montreal from 1847 to 1983; it has since been restored to its 1885 period.

Hollywood Glam on Lake Ontario

Toronto, Ontario

Begun in 1976, the Toronto International Film Festival is a relative upstart in the film festival circuit. However, as the top film festival in North America and widely considered to be second only to Cannes on the world
stage, offering more than 300 films from nearly 50 countries, the festival is now regarded by many filmmakers as the premier platform for launching new films.

Toronto’s reputation as a center of cinema doesn’t derive just from its increasingly must-attend festival. Canada in general and Toronto specifically has become Hollywood North, where U.S. filmmakers come to make films more cheaply than in California.

The festival, held in early to mid-September, began as an assemblage of films from other festivals, a “festival of festivals,” but quickly became a showcase for film premieres, idiosyncratic retrospectives, and the introduction of international films to North America.

For ten intensive days, the films are screened in 23 different venues in downtown Toronto. The presence of so many filmgoers, Hollywood executives, and movie stars in a relatively compact area makes for a real
People-
magazine-goes-to-the-carnival atmosphere.
Rooms at the Four Seasons (see p. 1005) are harder to come by than Oscars, and the trendy clubs in town are delighted to serve Nicole, Heath, Uma, and Reese all in the course of one air-kissed evening.

W
HERE
: various venues in Toronto. Tel 416-968-3456;
www.tiffg.ca
.
C
OST
: from US$18/C$20 for individual tickets to US$465/C$522 for a festival pass.
W
HEN
: 10 days in early–mid-Sept.

Island Birthplace of Canada

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island’s (PEI) capital, Charlottetown, is a delightful small city with a deep sense of history enlivened with a youthful spirit and postcard looks. With a beautiful waterfront location and an abundance
of handsome 19th-century redbrick structures and shady squares, Charlottetown is PEI’s one true hub—it’s the economic, governmental, cultural, and shopping center of the province. With a population of 35,000, however, it feels more like a well-heeled and friendly small town.

On a protected harbor and between the mouths of two rivers, the city was established as a port in the 1760s and maintains a distinct seafaring atmosphere. The water-front, with Peake’s Wharf at its center, is a lively place to visit, with its brick warehouses converted to shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and open-air cafés. Above the waterfront, the old town center is more stately, with Georgian-era homes and storefronts lining the narrow cobbled streets. Wander up Great George Street, lined with old churches, majestic maples, and trim brick homes, for an especially evocative glimpse of Old Charlottetown. Several of the historic buildings on this street are part of the Great George, a unique set of lodging options with a variety of guest rooms that range from stylishly modern to traditionally authentic.

Charlottetown is called the Cradle of Confederation and served as the Philadelphia of Canada; this is the place where the Fathers of Canadian Confederation met in 1864 to discuss unifying the country. Take a crash course on events leading up to (and following) confederation at the new waterfront Founders Hall. Province House was the site of the meeting, and today you can visit the Confederation Chamber and several other rooms, all restored to appear as they did in the 1860s.

Adjacent to Province House is the Confederation Centre of the Arts, PEI’s top performing arts center and home to the Charlottetown Festival, which offers five theatrical productions each summer, including the perennial favorite
Anne of Green Gables—The Musical
(see next page).

Most of PEI’s original settlers came from Ireland, Scotland, England, and France, and today you can hear their descendants playing traditional Celtic and Acadian music at any of the summertime festivals or at a number of places in Charlottetown, including the Irish Hall and the Olde Dublin Pub. Charlottetown celebrates its renowned fishing heritage during September’s PEI International Shellfish Festival, one of the largest in the Atlantic provinces. Those prized Malpeque oysters shipped worldwide taste twice as sweet here just plucked from the bay in the midst of the revelry.

W
HERE
: 210 miles/341 km east of Fredericton, NB.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-955-1864 or 902-629-1864;
www.visitcharlottetown.com
.
T
HE
G
REAT
G
EORGE
: Tel 800-361-1118 or 902-892-0606;
www.innsongreatgeorge.com
.
Cost:
from US$106/C$119 (off-peak), from US$151/C$179 (peak).
F
OUNDERS
H
ALL
: Tel 800-955-1864 or 902-368-1864;
www.foundershall.ca
.
When:
daily mid-May–early Oct; check website for off-season hours.
P
ROVINCE
H
OUSE
: Tel 902-566-7626;
www.pc.gc.ca/lhnnhs/pe/provincehouse
.
C
HARLOTTETOWN
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 800-565-0278 or 902-566-1267.
When:
late May–mid-Oct.
P
EI
I
NTERNATIONAL
S
HELLFISH
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 902-566-2549;
www.peishellfish.com/sf
.
When:
3rd weekend of Sept.
I
RISH
H
ALL
: Tel 902-963-3156.
O
LDE
D
UBLIN
P
UB
: Tel 902-892-6992.
B
EST TIMES
: June–Sept for summer weather.