The Canadian Invasion is well underway. You canât listen to 45 minutes of popular radio time without The Weeknd, Drake, or Shawn Mendes coming up at least once. Justin Bieber has been prevalent in the news and popular music for over a decade now. PARTYNEXTDOOR is on the come up, Charlotte Day Wilsonâs album is a steady underground favorite. Toronto and Vancouver are huge film hubs, Toronto homing some of North Americaâs biggest studios and shooting up to 30 percent of North American productions a year. Despite being a media epicenter, rarely do people give Toronto its dues. Chloe Sevigny even called Toronto boring! Movies shot in Toronto donât claim to be from Toronto, but Chicago or New York. Toronto Musicians often leave the moment they gain success.
I donât think Toronto, my hometown, is a dull city â despite what Miss Sevigny says. Lush with full gardens, sprawling space, ample suburbia, and diversity, Toronto is a baby, developing into its full cultural impact. While in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, or Los Angeles, the cultural sites are well-known and documented in media, Torontoâs arenât as well known (outside the CN tower). Still, Toronto has beautiful and picturesque spaces for influencers to take advantage of.
Like New York, Toronto has six boroughs â hence, the Six â North York (think Brooklyn), East York (think Queens), York (think Queens, too) Old Toronto (think Manhattan), Scarborough (think The Bronx), and Etobicoke (think Staten Island). Each borough was its own city in itself before the city amalgamated. Each borough has its own landscape, culture, and even accent.
1. Earl Bales Park – North York
Hosting a ski hill, a forest, BBQ pits, a community center, and a playground, Earl Bales is one of the cities often glossed over gems. Thereâs an outdoor amphitheater, a dog park, and a huge walkway with an accompanying pond. And it STILL doesn’t earn the title of the cityâs best park! In the winter, thereâs skiing and snowboarding. Thereâs hiking and BBQ in the summer. It offers the nature outside Toronto, within Toronto. Itâs open and beautiful year-round, featuring natural sites in a concrete jungle rivaling Chicago. Earl Bales almost never crowds. Itâs deep in North York and far from the Cityâs center, where tourists flock. Itâs a beautiful retreat away from the burlesque mess of downtown and there are hundreds of places to take photos or shoot videos in any season.
2. Aga Khan Museum – East York
Featuring Muslim art, history, and culture, Aga Khan is an often-ignored sanctuary away from the cityâs core and distinct from tourist traps. Featuring art from the seventh century up to modern times, from Spain and North Africa all the way to China. Itâs North Americaâs first museum of Muslim arts and hosts some of the biggest collections of Islamic art in the world. Islamic Art doesnât use faces or animals, rather patterns and shapes to express morality and aesthetics. It’s deep inside one of Canadaâs biggest Muslim communities. Still, the Aga Khan is rarely crowded. It offers what other museums donât in its catalog. Itâs rarely photographed, even by Toronto natives. Both the architecture and landscape are modern, minimalist, and mellifluous.
3. Humber Bay Park – Etobicoke
The perfect place to take sunrise pictures, Humber Bay Park has docks for you to perch and have a coffee while watching the sunrise. Quiet, untouched, and peaceful, Humber Bay Park has easy access to parking, biking, and walking lanes. It has a small beach nearby with dozens of swans. It shows Torontoâs iconic silhouette (arguably) better than anywhere else in the city. Nearby are charming breakfast spots. High Park (Torontoâs most esteemed park) is a hop, skip, and a jump away. Thereâs a bird-watching sanctuary nearby and an off-leash dog park for animal lovers. If you want to show off that youâre in Toronto while not going somewhere hyper-exposed, Humber Bay Park is perfect, serene, sexy, understated.
4. David Pecaut Square – Old Toronto
Right off of St. Andrewâs Station, David Pecaut Square is right in the middle of Torontoâs hubbub. Close to the CN Tower and the Rogerâs Centre, itâs a perfect place to take photos or videos that include the metropolitan growth of Canadaâs biggest city. There are huge buildings in the background, seemingly millions of people outside of it yet being quiet within and right off of Torontoâs financial district. If you want a place that is âTorontoâ without going to a place stereotypical, itâs perfect. Additionally, Itâs within walking distance to other tourist spots on your way and has frequent farmers markets, free film screenings, and music shows. Itâs a great highlight thatâs not often referenced or used.
5. South Marine Park – Scarborough
Torontoâs central beach is Woodbine. Itâs the biggest, the one most surveyed by lifeguards, and has the easiest access from public transit. Despite being the most popular, it is the worst beach in the city. Polluted, freezing, littered with used needles, it’s awful. Scarborough is known in Toronto for having beaches that look like theyâre straight out of the Caribbean despite being on a lake. And a lake in Canada, at that. South Marine Park proves Scarborough’s serenity. A bit farther east from the popular Scarborough Bluff Park, South Marine is quiet, calm, and beautiful. And, without thousands of people there or trying to get there offers better access to parking. There are huge cliffs to take pictures over, thereâs a beach to swim in that isnât as polluted or cold as Woodbine. Even taking the subway all the way over is worth the visit!
Toronto is quickly ballooning into a bigger and bigger cultural hub. The spots unknown are where much of the city’s real beauty hides.
Featured Image by Mwangi Gatheca for UNSPLASH.COM