Toronto's PATH

I recently met a couple from Manhattan, New York who sat beside me during a dinner out downtown Toronto.  I started chatting with them and they told me they had come up to Toronto to visit the city for a few days.  I had overheard the woman ask our waiter what the large tower we could view from the restaurant was called (the CN Tower…once known as the largest free standing structure in the world), so I knew they hadn't done a lot of research on their vacation destination before travelling.  They asked us what we would recommend seeing in Toronto – and I was stumped.  I absolutely love giving out travel advice, and thought bragging about my hometown would be easy but when the New Yorkers asked…I sat there like a deer in headlights. 

Stumbling over my words, and naming random places I've read about in recent blogs, I thought of Kensington Market, Toronto Island, and Bloor Street shopping.  I was truly embarrassed I didn't have a readily available list, and worse so…hadn't visited many of the attractions I later thought to mention well after we had already left the restaurant and the couple. 

I've never thought of blogging about my hometown – it's tough behaving like a tourist in a city you just think of as home.  So, between adventures abroad, I am planning to blog about my favourite city of all – Toronto.

The PATH

Truth be told, I never considered the PATH a tourist attraction.  I work as a 911 dispatcher, and I only considered the PATH to be a nightmare location for an emergency call.  The PATH is a complicated series of underground walkways which run throughout the downtown core, that seem to spin everyone who visits there in circles having them forget direction, and location. 

But as a tourist, the PATH is pretty fantastic, especially if the weather is rainy, snowy, hailing, or just unpleasantly cold or hot.  Our journey started off at Union Station – Toronto's major transportation hub, located on the southeast corner of Front Street and York Street.  Toronto's subway, as well as GO trains (local commuter trains) and VIA Rail trains (national railway trains) all come into Union Station, so by far the best place to begin any downtown adventure. 

From Union Station, we headed north towards the Brookfield Plaza. Our ultimate goal was to eventually get to an Outdoors shop close to where the PATH ends on the west side by Metro Hall.  A weekday off of work, we had no exact time to get there so we began, Amazing Race style, and tried to navigate our way through the walkways.  According to the City of Toronto website, there are over 60 decision points where a pedestrian has to decide between turning left, right or continuing straight.  Adding to the "thrill" of getting lost, there are very few maps guiding the way.  To be fair, signage has improved drastically over the last few years but unless you are familiar with the routes, it is an easy place to get turned around. 

Interesting facts about the PATH:

·         According to the Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 28km of shopping arcades. 

·         There are approximately 1200 shops and services in PATH, and it employees about 5000 people

·         The first underground path in Toronto originated in 1900 when T. Eaton's Co. joined its main store and its bargain annex by tunnel.  By 1917 there were five tunnels downtown, and when Union Station opened in 1927, a tunnel was built to connect the Station with the Royal York Hotel across the street. 

With only a few wrong turns, (that led to discovering a few fun stores to shop in I wouldn't have found otherwise), it didn't take long to reach our first destination.  It's easy to see why so many commuters and tourists alike use these underground tunnels daily.  There are over 50 buildings connected directly with the PATH, 5 subway stops, six major hotels and major attractions such as the CN Tower, Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thompson Hall, and the Eaton’s Centre.  Although getting lost can be half the fun, if you do need to find your way out all staff are used to "Where am I?" questions – and Toronto's a pretty friendly city, so never hesitate to ask a local.