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1 hour ago, ArabGaz said:

 


A few years back me and the wife were at a gig at the Phoenix Centre. For a change in scenery we decided to walk back to the hotel (Sheraton Centre) via Sherbourne Street. I’m not sure if that area has a reputation or not but it seemed like an episode of the Wire. Never bothered to go back in daylight to check it out again.

 

This was the first area that came to mind for me, it certainly does have a reputation. Go a couple of blocks east from the touristy Yonge Street and you are in crack town. Parts of Sherbourne and Jarvis Street are as you say,  like a scene from The Wire. George Street may be the worst street in Toronto. Also downtown has the delightful Moss Park area which seems to have taken over from the revitalized Regent Park as the shittest area  downtown.  A little further a field there are ghettos to suit everyone's tastes, from Somalian and Filipino  gangs to Yardies fresh from Jamaica, Toronto has it all! 

In Buffalo's defense, I actually quite like it.  It has some decent bars downtown, it's a lot cheaper to watch NHL hockey there and the tram is free in the downtown core. 

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3 hours ago, Torpar said:

This was the first area that came to mind for me, it certainly does have a reputation. Go a couple of blocks east from the touristy Yonge Street and you are in crack town. Parts of Sherbourne and Jarvis Street are as you say,  like a scene from The Wire. George Street may be the worst street in Toronto. Also downtown has the delightful Moss Park area which seems to have taken over from the revitalized Regent Park as the shittest area  downtown.  A little further a field there are ghettos to suit everyone's tastes, from Somalian and Filipino  gangs to Yardies fresh from Jamaica, Toronto has it all! 

In Buffalo's defense, I actually quite like it.  It has some decent bars downtown, it's a lot cheaper to watch NHL hockey there and the tram is free in the downtown core. 

I stayed at the Grand Hotel in 2016 which seems to be pretty much in the area you describe and don't recall it looking too dodgy. Definitely didn't have any problems and never felt unsafe, even when I went out running on my own (although that was first thing rather than late on night).

Was nowhere near as bad as the brief view of the Tenderloin in San Francisco I accidentally ended up in last year.

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I have the option to go to one of - Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto. It would probably be a 10 day trip so staying in the city with loads to do is all I would be looking for jsut now anyone got any recommendations of the 4 cities, i'll be there late September early October :)

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I have the option to go to one of - Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto. It would probably be a 10 day trip so staying in the city with loads to do is all I would be looking for jsut now anyone got any recommendations of the 4 cities, i'll be there late September early October [emoji4]


I like Toronto, it’s a nice city but 10 days in it is probably too many. Only stopped briefly in Calgary and Montreal so cant comment on them.

I spent a few days in Vancouver and is probably your best bet if you have 10 days with more things to do, plus you can have a trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island or even a trip down to Seattle.
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On 2/8/2018 at 14:58, Adam101 said:

I have the option to go to one of - Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto. It would probably be a 10 day trip so staying in the city with loads to do is all I would be looking for jsut now anyone got any recommendations of the 4 cities, i'll be there late September early October :)

Montreal, go to Montreal it's the best city in Canada (IMHO).  There is always lots to do, the nightlife and dining is fantastic and it is a beautiful city in general.  If you have 10 days you may be able to swing Toronto as well (it's about 5 hours from Montreal by train or car) but Montreal would be the top of my list.  

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10 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

Montreal, go to Montreal it's the best city in Canada (IMHO).  There is always lots to do, the nightlife and dining is fantastic and it is a beautiful city in general.  If you have 10 days you may be able to swing Toronto as well (it's about 5 hours from Montreal by train or car) but Montreal would be the top of my list.  

Thanks for the advice I'm flying into and out of Toronto in early October and I was thinking of taking a few days in Montreal, are they really big on only speaking French as my French is pretty basic and would struggle if the locals don't like speaking in English.

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1 minute ago, Adam101 said:

Thanks for the advice I'm flying into and out of Toronto in early October and I was thinking of taking a few days in Montreal, are they really big on only speaking French as my French is pretty basic and would struggle if the locals don't like speaking in English.

English is no problem in Montreal, at least in the areas that anyone would want to visit as it's a pretty bilingual city.  You may have problems in some of the scummy areas in the east end but anywhere worth visiting will not cause problems.  The whole French/English conflict is really blown out of proportion except maybe in some of the small out of the way cities.

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11 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

Yup!  It's only a couple of hours from Montreal, you can pop in and say hi!

There ye go you can save yourself a hotel bill for the night :lol:

But seriously i did something similar on one of my first trips to Canada.3 nights in Toronto/Ottawa and Montreal and used the excellent train service between them(loved the guy coming round and taking orders from the buffet )

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12 minutes ago, doulikefish said:

There ye go you can save yourself a hotel bill for the night :lol:

But seriously i did something similar on one of my first trips to Canada.3 nights in Toronto/Ottawa and Montreal and used the excellent train service between them(loved the guy coming round and taking orders from the buffet )

Excellent  Service is not something normally associated with Via Rail trains lol, they are slow and frequently late.   Comfortable though, especially in Business Class where your wine glass never needs to be empty

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17 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

Excellent  Service is not something normally associated with Via Rail trains lol, they are slow and frequently late.   Comfortable though, especially in Business Class where your wine glass never needs to be empty

No delays for me so must have been lucky

Edited by doulikefish
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/02/2018 at 18:44, Adam101 said:

Thanks for the advice I'm flying into and out of Toronto in early October and I was thinking of taking a few days in Montreal, are they really big on only speaking French as my French is pretty basic and would struggle if the locals don't like speaking in English.

Tell them in French that you can't speak French and most Quebecois will immediately switch to English and be quite friendly about it in my experience. They only usually have an issue, if you make no effort whatsoever given you are in their part of the world and keeping Quebec francophone is a huge emotional issue for them.

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1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Tell them in French that you can't speak French and most Quebecois will immediately switch to English and be quite friendly about it in my experience. They only usually have an issue, if you make no effort whatsoever given you are in their part of the world and keeping Quebec francophone is a huge emotional issue for them.

Yeah, but even in Montreal that's not a problem.  If you were in Quebec City or other more Francophone parts of Quebec it could be a problem but Montreal is pretty bilingual, especially in the places where visitors want to go so you shouldn't have a problem if you don't speak French.

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On 2018/03/03 at 18:10, senorsoupe said:

Yeah, but even in Montreal that's not a problem.  If you were in Quebec City or other more Francophone parts of Quebec it could be a problem but Montreal is pretty bilingual, especially in the places where visitors want to go so you shouldn't have a problem if you don't speak French.

Any time I have been in Montreal I tend to stay in the francophone areas in the east part of the island as you seem to get a better price on hotel rooms that way.  It's definitely almost always French first with French expected in reply there unlike downtown and the more touristy areas where there is usually no problem using English all the time. Used to quite enjoy using my O grade French and twenty years back could almost sustain a simple conversation but as the years pass I forget more and more of it.

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