Toronto Travel Forum

My husband and I will be traveling to Toronto early summer 2009. We are looking for a small neighborhood hotel as opposed to many large hotels that I see on various internet sites. We don't mind--and perhaps even prefer--staying outside of the Toronto center area, so long as there is relatively convenient access to public transportation, preferable subway. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm not sure what you define as a 'neighbourhood' hotel but the The Hotel Novotel, North York, is about 20 minutes north of central Toronto on the Yonge Street subway line and is situated in an area full of restaurants, shopping, transportation, theatre, walks, and pleasant residential areas. I've not stayed at this hotel so can't comment as to quality but mention it as the area is convenient and would seem to fit your requirements.

http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-0910-novotel-toronto-north-york/index.shtml

Googling North York Hotels will offer you more options.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel, Eglinton Ave. East is approx. 20 minutes by bus (TTC) from the subway (plus 15-20 minutes on the subway) depending on time of day to get into central Toronto, as is the Westin Prince Hotel on York Mills Road which is approx. 15 minutes by bus to the subway. Both are fairly large hotels.

I hope this helps.

I was also going to suggest Novotel at North York Centre. I have no idea about price (as I only walk by to go to the library) but it's very convenient as it's located right on the subway line. In fact, you don't even have to walk outside as it connects underground straight to North York Centre subway station. The entire North York centre area is a little mall of its own. There is a grocery store (Loblaws) across the street. The immediate neighbourhood (5-10 minutes walk) has a number of restaurants, there is a movie theatre across the street and a real theatre for performing arts 2 minutes from the hotel. During the summer, they sometimes hold public events at Mel Lastman Square (literally just outside the hotel).

Are you trying to avoid hotels completely? There are some some great alternatives you may want to check out, like www.iStopOver.com which looks pretty good.