Skyline view
From Centre Island.
chensiyuan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Laslovarga — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Josh Evnin from Chicago, IL, USA — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Chicken4War — CC BY-SA 4.0
A chain of small islands in Lake Ontario off downtown Toronto, covered in parkland, trees and sandy beaches and closed to cars, the city's summer escape a quarter of an hour by ferry from the skyscrapers. Centre Island, the liveliest, gives the best view of the Toronto skyline and CN Tower across the water, especially at sunset. It has a small old-fashioned amusement park for children, rose gardens, a little farm, restaurants and cafés. Quiet beaches for summer swimming line the islands, with paths for walking and cycling on rentable bikes, and kayaks and paddle boats among the channels. At one end stands the old stone Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, one of the oldest on the Great Lakes. The islands are free, and the ferry from the Jack Layton terminal downtown costs about C$9.57 return per adult, per visitor guides. Ferries get crowded on summer weekends, so buy tickets online.
From Centre Island.
Summer swimming.
Among the channels.
Lake Ontario, about 15 minutes by ferry from downtown Toronto
By ferry from the Jack Layton terminal downtown in about fifteen minutes.