Restless Explorer | Travel Blog – Tips, Reviews & Destination Guides

Toronto has many things to do, and you can’t read through a Toronto Travel Guide without hearing about the CN Tower.  Standing 550 m, the CN Tower, once the tallest building in the world, now holds the title of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.  For our trip to Toronto, we planned to visit the CN Tower and decided to pay a little bit extra to visit “The Top”.  The Top is 33 stories higher than the main observation deck so we decided to check it out.  The CN Tower was a perfect place to visit on our Spring Break trip to Toronto, especially since two years ago on Spring Break, we checked out the next tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, The Willis Tower in Chicago. How would it compare? And was the experience worth it?

Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, and this is something you can really notice through the food. You can go from street food and busy markets to high-quality restaurants; all serving just about every type of cuisine you can think of. And you can experience most of this all within a few blocks.  That’s what makes going out to eat in Toronto so fun. There’s always something different to try. Before our trip, I did a lot of research and while exploring, talked to some locals.  Because of this, we ended up checking out some amazing places, unfortunately we didn’t get to eat everywhere we wanted to, so those spots will have to wait for our next visit.  Here are a few spots we checked out around Toronto, including Aloette, Chengdu Street Food, Pai Northern Thai, and Gusto 101.

What is it like to attend a Toronto Raptors game at the Scotiabank Arena, or hang out in front of the arena at Jurassic Park? When travelling, if possible, I like to attend a professional sports game.  So, when heading to Toronto I had to attend a Raptors game.  I went expecting a great atmosphere but ended up witnessing the wildest run I’ve ever seen!   In the past, I’ve been to two other NBA games, a Chicago Bulls game and a Minnesota Timberwolves game, so how did the Raptors game compare and was it worth it?

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and has the third biggest skyline in North America.  So, if you’re wondering what it’s actually like to visit Toronto, here’s the full experience – from downtown vibes to the food scene and getting around. 

A high-rise condominium in downtown Toronto, located next to Scotiabank Arena sounds excellent, right?  Toronto is a global city getting a nice hotel downtown can be pricey.  That’s why when we came across RivetStays on York Street, we were shocked by the price.  RivetStays are high-rise condo in the heart of downtown; and our stay only cost us $200 a night during spring break! While we booked through Hotels.com, the stay felt very similar to a modern Airbnb.

To explore far and cool places, flying is usually inevitable — but let’s be honest, flying these days can be long, painful, and uncomfortable. The whole experience gets even worse when fellow passengers act like first class jerks (even in economy).  So, don’t be a douche bag and help make everyone’s flight a little better.  No one wants to fly with someone who:

I love travelling, but dislike flying.  I get claustrophobic, antsy and bored easily.  But to travel to cool and distant places, there’s no escaping it, you need to fly, and usually for longer flights.  I’m no stranger to flying on long flights, whether it was Europe (twice), Asia and South America, I’ve been on some long flights and had some nasty layovers.  I always try to make my experience as comfortable and entertaining as possible. 

We wanted to have a fancy dinner for my wife’s 40th birthday dinner; we originally thought about one of the many beach restaurants in the hotels on Palm Beach, but most had limited reservations available or looked too expensive.  Aruba has good food, but it’s mostly westernized.  The meat is okay, but the specialty of the island is seafood; so that’s what we knew we had to get.  We decided to go with Pinchos Bar & Grill in Oranjestad.

Aruba is famous for good weather, beaches, the flamingos and the Fofoti Trees.  But Aruba is more than beaches, a lot of people don’t realize Aruba is a desert, so there are lots of cool things to do that involve exploring the island’s landscape. 

I’ve always been a fan of beaches, after visiting Flamenco Beach in Puerto Rico, I knew I wanted to visit more of the world’s best beaches.  I had always heard about Aruba and knew Eagle Beach has been rated as a top 10 beach on TripAdvisor, but Aruba was never really on my radar.  But last month we ended up heading to Aruba, and I knew we had to spend some time on Eagle Beach.  We ended up staying at Eagle Aruba Resort, so it’s safe to say we spent a lot of time on Eagle Beach.

Aruba is synonymous with Flamingos.  But it’s not actually Aruba that is known for iconic Pink Flamingos strolling along the beach, it’s Renaissance Island.  Unless you are staying at the Renaissance Hotel or book a day pass to Renaissance Island you won’t see a Flamingo on your entire trip.

When travelling to Aruba, there are a few main areas to stay in.  There’s Palm Beach, Arashi Beach, Oranjestad and Eagle Beach.  Palm Beach and Arashi are expensive, Oranjestad is nice, but I’d rather be on a beach. Then there’s Eagle Beach, a top 10 beach in the world, with more affordable low rise hotels.  It was a no brainer.  We found Eagle Aruba Resort for a good price of $250 CAD a night.  It was on sale and I thought the hotels.com sale would last forever… turns out it didn’t.  The price went up to about $350 a night, so instead I booked with my Aventura Points and saved about $800.  It was totally worth it.