6 Days in Toronto Plus Canada

Six days is enough to stop treating Toronto as the whole trip and start treating it as the on-ramp to the country around it. This plan spends two days meeting Canada’s identity downtown, rides VIA Rail out to Kingston, keeps going all the way to Ottawa for a real taste of the national capital, then brings you home.

Book these before you go

Day Focus Rough cost
1 Arrival, Walk of Fame CAD 12.35 UP Express + free sights
2 Hockey Hall of Fame, AGO, Queen’s Park, a game if the schedule allows Museum tickets + game tickets if catching one
3 VIA Rail to Kingston, Fort Henry VIA fare (book early) + Fort Henry admission
4 Travel to Ottawa, ByWard Market VIA fare, roughly 4.5 hours each way
5 Parliament Hill, national museums, Rideau Canal Museum admission (Parliament Hill tours are free)
6 Travel back to Union Station VIA fare, roughly 4.5 hours

Day 1: Arrival and Orientation

Morning

  • Clear customs at Pearson (YYZ), the only passport check on this whole trip if you’re staying inside Canada.
  • UP Express to Union Station: 25 minutes, every 15, 12.35 CAD one-way (9.25 with PRESTO).
  • Check in at The Fairmont Royal York or a similar downtown hotel within walking distance of Union.

Afternoon

  • Take a proper look at Union Station’s great hall; you’ll be riding out of this exact building twice more this week.
  • Canada’s Walk of Fame along King Street West between John and Simcoe: 230-plus maple-leaf stars honoring Canadians since 1998.

Evening

  • Dinner downtown, no wrong answer given how many diaspora cuisines sit side by side here.
  • An early night; day three’s train leaves in the morning.

Day 2: Canadian Identity, Downtown

Morning

  • Hockey Hall of Fame, inside Brookfield Place: the actual Stanley Cup lives here, not a replica, and it’s the closest thing this country has to a shared religion.
  • Art Gallery of Ontario for the Group of Seven, Canada’s own landscape painting movement.

Afternoon

  • Queen’s Park: Ontario’s provincial legislature, and worth a firm correction here, not the national Parliament, that’s in Ottawa, where you’re headed later this week.
  • A calm walk through the University of Toronto grounds next door.

Evening

  • Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena sit close together; the Blue Jays are Canada’s only MLB team and the Raptors its only NBA franchise, so catch a game if the schedule allows.
  • Dinner in the Entertainment District.

Day 3: VIA Rail Day Trip to Kingston

Morning

  • Board VIA Rail at Union Station: Kingston is about two hours and fifteen minutes away, with two dozen departures daily. This is the national rail network, not the GO Transit system that handles Niagara day trips.
  • Fort Henry, a restored 19th-century fortress overlooking the St. Lawrence.

Afternoon

  • Kingston’s waterfront, with a clean view toward the Thousand Islands.
  • Lunch downtown here, small-city Ontario dining without the Toronto crowds.

Evening

  • Train back to Union in the evening; back at your Toronto hotel for the night.
  • This is the day the “gateway to Canada” framing stops being theoretical.

Day 4: Travel to Ottawa

Morning

  • Check out and board VIA Rail at Union Station direct to Ottawa, roughly four and a half hours. Economy gets a reclining seat; Business (VIA1) adds a hot meal and Panorama Lounge access before boarding.
  • Settle in for the ride; this is the leg that actually takes you to the national capital, not just another Ontario city.

Afternoon

  • Check into a hotel near the ByWard Market or Parliament Hill.
  • A first walk around ByWard Market once you’ve dropped your bags.

Evening

  • Dinner in the market area.
  • An evening walk toward Parliament Hill, lit up after dark, a fitting first look at Canada’s actual seat of government after two days of Queen’s Park corrections back in Toronto.

Day 5: Ottawa, the National Capital

Morning

  • Parliament Hill: this is the real thing, the building Queen’s Park always gets mistaken for. Check current tour availability, since access has varied by season.
  • The Canadian Museum of History or the National Gallery of Canada, both operating at a genuinely national level in a way Toronto’s ROM and AGO don’t, since Toronto isn’t the capital.

Afternoon

  • ByWard Market for lunch and browsing, Ottawa’s answer to St. Lawrence Market back in Toronto.
  • A walk along the Rideau Canal if the weather’s cooperating.

Evening

  • Dinner in the market, then an early night; tomorrow’s train ride back to Toronto is long.

Day 6: Travel Back and Farewell

Morning

  • VIA Rail back to Union Station, another four and a half hours; book a morning departure to leave the afternoon free once you’re back.
  • Grab a coffee at Union Station once you’ve arrived; you’ve now used this building three separate times this trip.

Afternoon

  • Whatever downtown Toronto attraction you skipped earlier in the week, or a last walk through the Walk of Fame stretch if you’d rather revisit than add somewhere new.
  • Pack and settle any last-minute shopping.

Evening

  • Farewell dinner downtown.
  • One last look at the skyline before departure tomorrow.

Getting Around

  • TTC covers streetcars, buses, and subways with one PRESTO tap, 3.30 CAD per ride.
  • VIA Rail is the separate national network for Kingston and Ottawa; book both legs before you land in Toronto, since fares climb closer to travel day.

Tips and Essentials

  • Passport check happens once, at Pearson; VIA Rail travel is entirely domestic from there.
  • Pack layers regardless of season; Ottawa runs a few degrees cooler than Toronto most of the year.
  • HST is 13%, added at the register, not built into listed prices; tipping 15-20% is standard everywhere you sit down to eat.

Accommodations

  • Toronto: The Fairmont Royal York or the Westin Harbour Castle, both walking distance from Union.
  • Ottawa: anywhere near ByWard Market puts you close to Parliament Hill and the national museums.

This mix gives you two cities, two provinces, and a real sense of what “gateway to Canada” actually means, and there’s a whole country left over if you want to keep going. A 7-day version pushes one province further, out to Montreal.