Day 4: Niagara Falls and Toronto Road Trip

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Casa Loma, Little Tibet, CN Tower

A view of Toronto from CN Tower, Toronto, ON, Canada

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Casa Loma • Little Tibet • CN Tower

On our way to Toronto we stopped at Bánh Mì Saigon Bakery in Mississauga, ON. The prices for bánh mì were $5-$5.50 per sandwich and buy ten get one free, which we took advantage of. This is a typical bánh mì restaurant that’s not fancy, but you get tasty, quickly and freshly prepared bánh mì. The sandwiches are a good size and priced well for what you get. We had a small fridge in our hotel room to store them in and an ice chest in our car so that we could pack some each day to have available if we wanted them.

Our hotel was not far from Bánh mì Saigon Bakery, but we couldn’t check-in until later in the day so after eating we drove to Casa Loma.

We had purchased the Toronto CityPASS, which allowed us to visit five attractions within a week or something close to that. We chose Casa Loma, CN Tower, City Cruises Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum and Toronto Zoo. Our other choice was Ontario Science Centre. Currently instead of Ontario Science Centre they offer Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, so they obviously don’t always have the same 6 attractions to choose from, and currently you have nine days to visit your five attraction choices from the day of your first attraction visit.

CASA LOMA

Casa Loma is a castle on a hill in Toronto overlooking the city. It was built between 1911-1914. Several films have been filmed at Casa Loma, including X-Men (some of the X-Mansion interior shots were filmed at Casa Loma.)

The admission for Casa Loma is currently (March ‘25) $40/adult (if you’re not using the CityPass).

There is a small parking lot at Casa Loma that is currently (March ‘25) a flat fee of $20/vehicle. If parking is not available at the time you visit, there is a parking lot at a nearby college that they can direct you to.

We started our tour in the basement of Casa Loma, which has restrooms, a gift shop, a cafe, a wine cellar, a swimming pool that was never completed and a tunnel that leads to the stables and the hunting lodge.

After quickly checking out the basement, we headed back up to the first floor. Some of the areas you can see on the first floor are the great hall, the terrace with a view of the gardens (the gardens were off limits for touring during our visit except for a school field trip), the library, Sir Henry’s study, the dining room and the very beautiful conservatory.

On the second floor we toured a few rooms, including Lady Pellatt’s suite, Sir Pellatt’s suite, a guest room, Windsor room and Round room.

On the third floor we toured a few rooms, including a servant’s bedroom, Austin room, Pellatt Board room, Group of Seven room and also the Queen’s Own Rifles Museum.

From a room on the third floor is a staircase that leads up to the attic. Once in the attic you can visit the two towers of Casa Loma – the Norman Tower and the Scottish Tower. For each of the towers, which are at different ends of the castle, you have to climb up a small, circular staircase to get to the top of the tower. The Norman tower takes you outside with great 360 degree views of the area, the Scottish tower is the highest point of the castle and is enclosed with several windows also offering great views of the area. It was fun touring the towers.

Note: I have read that sometimes the towers are closed because they’re used for some of the escape room experiences that are offered at Casa Loma.

Something that’s interesting about Casa Loma are the secret passageways; there are said to be three secret passageways, but only two have been found. One of the secret passageways leads down to the basement from Sir Henry’s study; at the end is a vault that stored their valuables.

From the basement we walked down a really long tunnel that leads to the stables, the garage, the potting shed and the hunting lodge. The hunting lodge was not accessible because it was being used for one of the escape room experiences. In some parts of the tunnel are informative signs and photos along the walls.

There were some really cool old cars in the garage to check out.

Next to the garage is the stables, which had no horses in it.

Then there was a surprise! We saw red neon lights above a door in the garage that said, “Celebrity Walk” above it. We entered and to our surprise it was a wax museum! It was a nice bonus at the end of our Casa Loma tour. Most of the figures were decent to good.

After the Celebrity Walk we did a quick tour of the Potting Shed.

Before checking into our hotel we stopped at Costco and got some yummy poutine. We usually get poutine at Costco when we’re in Canada.

LITTLE TIBET

After checking into our hotel we headed to Little Tibet in Toronto. We went to Loga’s Corner for dinner. We noticed later that there are two Loga’s Corners in Little Tibet; we went to the one that’s at 216 Close Ave near Queen St W.

We went there to try two things that have great reviews – momos and mango lassi. We ordered the steamed pork momos; you can get the momos fried or steamed. The momos were pretty good and the sauces for them were very tasty. The mango lassi was out of this world delicious – that alone is a reason to go there, IMO. My husband also ordered the chicken noodle soup, which he thought was ok, but not great.

With somewhat full tummies we walked to Queen St W to explore Little Tibet.

After walking around for a bit we decided to place an order to go from a nice looking Tibetan restaurant called Jimbu Himalayan Thakali Kitchen; they are located at 1508 Queen St W. We ordered Sandheko Chatpatey Spicy, which is a fried ramen noodles and puffed rice dish; unfortunately it had an overwhelming cumin flavor so neither of us ate it. In the trash it went. The other dish we tried there was Haku Chovela Beef; this dish was very good and it reminded us of Thai beef jerky (Neua Daet Diao.)

CN TOWER

Next we drove to our reserved parking spot near CN Tower. We used Spot Hero to pay for and reserve some of our parking spaces ahead of our trip. Click here for information on other parking options near CN Tower.

We had an 8 p.m. reservation for CN Tower so that we would be there pre-sunset, sunset, and post-sunset. There was a line to get through security that took just under ten minutes. But when we got on the elevator there was only one other guest on the elevator with us.

Once on the elevator it takes 58 seconds to get to the main observation level (1,136 feet above ground), traveling at 15 mph.

There are three levels in this section of the tower – the top level is a restaurant with 360 degree views (we didn’t see this level), the middle level is the main observation level and it has floor to ceiling windows all around offering great views, and the bottom level (called the terrace level) was partially closed for renovation while we were there. The terrance level has a glass floor and an outdoor terrace (which was closed when we were there) and Artmosphere.

For an extra fee (currently $11 extra as of March ‘25) you can visit The Top, which is “the highest observation platform in the Western Hemisphere” at 33 stories higher than the main level.

Edgewalk is another extra that you can do at CN Tower.

There are plenty of tables and chairs near the windows of the main observation level so you can relax while taking in the views.

The glass floor on the terrace level scared me. Looking down from it didn’t bother me but I would not walk on it. I hope that double glass floor is super duper secure, and though I’m pretty sure it is, I’m not 100% sure it is. Human engineering and construction are not perfect. I didn’t even want my husband to walk on it. He kept trying to get me to walk on it, and for a split second I barely put one foot on it, but then I said, “No, I’m not doing this.” The rest of the experience was great though!

As it started to get darker outside, I realized that there might soon be a really long line to take the elevator down. We checked and a somewhat long line was already forming, so we got in line to head back down. There’s a glass section to part of the elevator floor so you can look down as you’re going up and back down, and there are glass walls in the elevator so you can look out over the area as well.

There is, of course, a gift shop that you enter after exiting the elevator at the end of your visit.

Now for my photos of and from CN Tower!

After leaving CN Tower we drove to our hotel and got some rest.

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