5 Things to Explore in Toronto

By Emily Smith, University of Toronto (Scarborough), Canada

Term time in University of Toronto Scarborough was pretty intensive and I didn’t have as much time to explore as anticipated, but if you do get the opportunity to take some day trips I have a few recommendations:

• Niagara Falls! About 1.5 hours away from Scarborough Campus by car, I remember the university offering a day trip. Apart from the waterfall itself (which is absolutely stunning!), there are a variety of other touristy activities to do in the area such as taking a boat up to the waterfall, and (my personal favourite) Bird Kingdom! If you get the opportunity I cannot recommend this one enough.
• Rouge National Park. One of the many joys of my exchange was the increased exposure to nature on the regular as opposed to the bustling city environment of Manchester. There are multiple parks local to the area such as Morningside and Colonel Danforth Parks, but Rouge National Park is definitely recommended to anyone a fan of getting lost in nature. I was fortunate to get to go just as summer was turning to autumn and it was breathtaking.
• CN Tower and the aquarium. Located in the main city centre, the CN Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in Toronto, offering a top-of-a-skyscraper view of the city. The aquarium was also beautiful. You can get a ticket to both CN Tower and aquarium in one go as they are directly next to each other. 
• Pingles Farm. The UTSC international office arranged a field trip to a local farm which proved to be a lot of fun. As well as a maize maze, pick-your-owns, a farm shop – and was genuinely just a lovely autumnal atmosphere with hay bales and pumpkin patches and wagon rides 🙂
• Curve Lake Powwow! This is an indigenous Canadian festival open to non-tribe members and was such an incredible experience. As well as traditional dances in regalia, there were also a lot of independent stalls of hand-crafted items and food. Everyone was incredibly friendly and I had a lot of interesting conversations.