Toronto: Hotel Guides

Toronto’s centrally located Five-Diamond hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, is in the heart of the city’s bustling financial and performing arts districts, offering stunning city and lake views from floor-to-ceiling windows in its elegant guestrooms. Alongside such facilities as the spacious outdoor terrace at DEQ Lounge and the fine dining TOCA restaurant is North America’s only Spa My Blend by Clarins. A constant ‘best spa’ list fixture, the Ritz-Carlton spa has 16 treatment rooms, a fully dedicated salon, three large and comfortable relaxation rooms, a fun Champagne nail bar, sauna, vitality pools and a city-view lap pool. Clarins is a Paris-based spa company, and the signature treatment here is an amazing personally tailored 60-minute facial “My Blend”.

181 Wellington Street West

The Hazelton’s boutique feel and relatively intimate size (just 77 bedrooms) make it a popular choice with holidaying couples, and the Yabu Pushelberg-designed interiors combine thoughtful lighting with rich layers of textures and materials to create a suitably romantic backdrop. Enjoy Canadian celebrity chef Mark McEwan’s crowd-pleasing menu of French, Italian and American classics on the candlelit terrace of ONE restaurant or take a dip in the glamourous, mosaic-tiled pool at Spa by Valmont. Then go cocoon in your super-chic room, where the Hollywood-glam bathroom, clad top to toe in glossy dark granite, comes complete with deep soaking tub, heated floors and fragrant L’Occitane amenities.

118 Yorkville Avenue

Locals and visitors alike love dining and drinking at the Four Seasons, Toronto, in the upscale Yorkville neighbourhood. The street-level d|bar is one of the places to see and be seen, especially in summer when outdoor terrace tables make for prime people-watching. The food here and in the second-floor restaurant is masterminded by renowned chef Daniel Boulud, who took culinary inspiration from his French roots in creating a seasonally-changing menu of bistro classics and contemporary dishes. Particular favourites in Café Boulud include the fresh shellfish and succulent rotisserie chicken, and there’s an extensive choice of wines and creative cocktails to accompany them.

60 Yorkville Avenue

This enduring landmark in the heart of downtown is just minutes away from Toronto’s biggest family attractions, including The CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, Air Canada Centre, Rogers Centre, the Eaton Centre and Meridian Hall, as well as the new Union Pearson Express which speeds from the airport to downtown Toronto in just 25 minutes. The big, historic 1,363-room hotel just completed the latest phase of its multi-million-dollar revitalisation plan. Updates included a newly renovated pool and health spa complete with brand new exercise equipment. Their large 500-sq-ft signature rooms work perfectly for families.

100 Front Street West

Even if you’re here to work you can still stay somewhere fun. The business-friendly Bisha Hotel Toronto doesn’t just have a flexible 43rd-floor event space with state-of-the-art AV and sweeping views; it also delivers sexy good looks and plenty of options for after-hours unwinding, with a rooftop infinity pool, 24-hour fitness centre and choice of restaurants. The design-conscious bedrooms have blackout curtains to help you get a good night’s sleep and Nespresso coffee machines for a morning kick-start. Meanwhile, the location, at the heart of the Entertainment District, puts you within easy walking distance of the Financial District and Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

80 Blue Jays Way

When it’s glamour you’re after, The St. Regis Toronto delivers. This sophisticated Financial District hotel was designed to impress and impress it does, from the high-gloss lobby to the sleek 32nd-floor lap pool. In Louix Louis restaurant the dramatic décor is as much of a draw as the contemporary American cuisine, with a soaring ceiling and two-storey-high backlit bar. Bedrooms are spacious and quietly opulent, with soft shades of grey and lavender, crystal wall sconces and deep beds topped with fine Italian linens. Bedside controls operate lights and curtains and nifty techno touches in the bathroom include a heated marble floor and a TV in the bathroom mirror.

325 Bay Street

Built in 1903, The Omni King Edward was Toronto’s first luxury hotel and today retains all the features you’d expect of such an historic property including a prime downtown location, grand public spaces, top-notch spa and fitness centre, fine-dining restaurant and bedrooms that have been sleekly made over to meet 21st-century demands. There’s also a commitment to corporate social responsibility: like other Omni properties, the hotel strives to conserve resources and support its local community by, for example, converting to energy-efficient lighting, using more ecologically friendly laundry processes, sourcing food and drink items close to home where possible and making donations to local food banks and shelters.

37 King Street East

Given the Shangri-La’s location in one of Toronto’s tallest towers, it’s not that surprising that the bedrooms at this high-end hotel get a great view thrown in along with all the normal five-star luxuries you’d expect. Even the entry-level rooms enjoy a good vantage point over the downtown streets below, while upgrading to the higher-floor suites opens up yet broader vistas across the metropolitan skyline. The fifth-floor fitness centre gets in on the act, too, thoughtfully lining up its Technogym treadmills in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows so you can watch the outside world while you work up a sweat.

188 University Avenue