Toronto 2001

These are notes on my family's trip to Toronto, July 26th - July 29th, 2001. A little background on my family. I'm 35 and my wife is 37. We have three kids: two daughters, ages 5 (Sierra) and 7 (Alyssa) and a son age 3 1/2 (Alexander).

We chose Toronto because it is an excellent place to take kids. We had originally planned to stay longer, but couldn't work it out schedule-wise. We decided to visit the Lion Safari and Centreville Amusement Park, although there were several other places that we wanted to visit but didn't have time for. On a longer trip, I would suggest visiting the Royal Ontario Museum, the Science Center (800 touch/push/pull interactive exhibits), the Children's Own Museum and Ontario Place. As you can see, Toronto has a lot to offer for families. And while I cannot speak directly to the places that we didn't visit, I can say that we extensively researched the Children's Own Museum and that seems to be an excellent place to go. Also, we met another couple with children the same ages as ours who said that the Science Center entertained their kids for seven hours straight!

If you are from the US, now is also an excellent time to visit Canada because of the exchange rate. If you don't live within driving distance, check out Air Canada. They have excellent fares right now.

Please note that all prices listed below are in Canadian dollars. With an exchange rate of about 65%, you'll see these prices are dirt-cheap. You can find current exchange rates here.

The Lion Safari was the highlight of our trip. I have been to others like it, but this was definitely the best. It is located about 1hr southwest of Toronto (or 1hr northwest of Niagara Falls). The park is divided into three areas, and the admission covers all three. Costs are $19.95 for adults, $13.95 for children. Children under 3 are free and they give a discount for CAA and AAA memberships.

The first area of the park is the safari itself. This is a drive through area where the only thing separating you from the animals are your car windows. Note, you can take a tour bus ($4.95 Adults, $4.45 kids), but it really isn't the same. Driving yourself you can go at your own pace and stop wherever you want for as long as you want (there are two lanes for driving so things don't get jammed up). Note, you can drive through here as often as you like. We went about 30min. after the park opened (10:30am) and again in the afternoon around 4:00pm. The morning ride was definitely better as the animals were more active.

The safari is divided into seven areas depending on the types of animals there. Each of the sections are detailed below:

1. Nairobi Bird Sanctuary - Ostriches are the highlight here. A so-so section, but it's the first you come to and it's a good way to ease into the drive.
2. Simba Lion Country - The name says it all. Lions, lions, and more lions. There are probably close to 20 lions here and they mill around and walk right up to your car. It's pretty scary being a few inches away from one of these guys.
3. Sher Tiger Terrain - Three tigers, two of them white. They pretty much stayed to themselves and did not come close to the car.
4. Wankie Bushland Trail - This is the money shot. Monkeys and Baboons. This is also the place that people worry about because the monkeys can, and will, destroy your car. The place is littered with side view mirrors and weather-stripping. Note that we went twice (and had a baboon on our car the second time) and suffered no damage. You can also bypass this area if you want. So, you could take your car through once, bypassing this area and then take a bus through and see this area. There are really too many monkeys to count, and they are all ages from newborn to adult. It's really an amazing site to see them running around and jumping on everything. When one jumps on your front windshield and you are face to face with it, the whole trip will be worth it.
5. Rocky Ridge Veldt - Zebras, Giraffes, Rhinos, and Mountain Goats. And yes, the Rhinos do sometimes get right next to your car. We saw this on our second drive through. The goats and zebras pretty much stay to themselves, but the giraffes come right out to you. They are very large animals! We were driving a mini-van and the top of our car came to about the top of their legs. And they'll bend over and stick their faces right on your window, sometimes even licking it. They are amazingly beautiful animals.
6. Eurasia - Deer. All varieties. Pretty boring section.
7. The Americas - More deer and buffalo. So-so.

The second area of the park is a water park. This is divided into two sections, depending on the height of your children. Children over 48" can go into both sections, while children under 48" are restricted to the first section. The under 48" section is like a rolling hill and valley area (it's pretty big - maybe 60+ feet in diameter), with water in the valley sections. Maximum water depth is about 6 inches, so you can let your kids run around and play. There are also fountain/sprinklers scattered around and a small water slide. There are lifeguards standing all around here. The over 48" area is a more traditional water park with slides, ropes, etc. There's also a huge bucket that fills with water every few minutes and spills onto all the kids below (this was a huge hit...whenever it was time for it to spill, all the kids would stop what they were doing and run to the splash zone). There are multiple lifeguards here too.

The third and last area is a little hard to categorize, so I'll just state some of the things that are there. Note, only the first two cost money, the rest are included in the price of admission.

1. Elephant rides. $5/per person...adults can ride with kids and 4 can get on at once. The guy leading the elephant around stops for you to take pictures.
2. Pony rides. Ditto above except $4/per person.
3. Petting zoo. You can walk around amongst a herd of goats. You can also pet llamas that are kept behind a fence. Outside the zoo are horses, rabbits and birds.
4. A train that travels around the park and shows off a pretty lake, multiple types of fowls, and foliage.
5. A boat that's just like the train except it goes on water.
6. A "jungle playground" where kids climb ladders and ropes, go down slides, play in balls, etc.
7. A bird show.
8. An elephant show.

The second place we went to was Centreville Amusement Park. It is located on Centre island, which is one of 14 islands about a 10min. ferry ride from downtown Toronto. An interesting side note is that the islands used to be a peninsula and were made into islands by fierce storms in the late 1800's.

The ferry ride is $5 for adults and $2 for kids. The ferry holds 800 people. I'm not sure how often they run, but I believe it is fairly frequently (e.g., every 15-30min). Both times that we took the ferry (coming and going) there was no wait (other than the wait to load and unload everyone).

The Amusement park is spread throughout the island, which is one big park. It's really beautiful with lots of trees and a stream. You could just come here to hang out and not even go to the Amusement Park if you wanted to.

Centreville is a very unique Amusement park.

1. All of the rides (19 of them) are for children. This is good in that there are no teenagers running around.
2. The rides are spread out throughout the island. This gives it an open and uncrowded feeling.
3. If at least one of your children is 48" tall, and they ride with your other children, there is no need for you to get on any of the rides except for two - the Sky Tram and the Ferris Wheel. Of course, if you want to ride with your kids you can.
4. You can buy an unlimited ride pass ($13.55 children 48" and under, $19.40 all others, $15.90/per person for a 4- pack), or buy individual tickets ($0.65/ea.) for the rides which are between 3 and 6 tickets each.
5. If you buy the unlimited ride pass, the only ride that costs money is the miniature golf, which is 1 ticket for 9 holes.
6. There are two types of boat rides - power and "bumper". Since the kids get to drive the boats, this is a big attraction.
7. They have the "normal" rides like a roller coaster, spinning things, log/flume ride, etc.
8. They have pony rides. A few rides on this alone will cover the cost of an unlimited ticket since you'll normally pay $4-5 for each ride. Here, with the unlimited ticket, your kids can ride as often as they like for free.
9. They have a "wading" pool where kids can splash and play.

Centreville is an excellent place to spend the day. You can bring food for a picnic, or buy food there at the park. I would recommend this for your last day in Toronto, as it is very relaxing for you and fun for the kids.