One day in Toronto: itinerary and highlights

The CN Tower, standing 553 meters tall, remains the tallest self-supporting structure in the Western Hemisphere: the observation deck with glass floor, suspended over the void, offers a view that on clear days reaches to the Niagara Falls.

At the base of the tower lies Harbourfront, the renovated lakefront with piers, galleries and ferries to the Toronto Islands, small islands in Lake Ontario with beaches and skyline views.

Moving back toward the center you reach St. Lawrence Market, the covered market repeatedly awarded as one of the world's best, with stalls of local products and the famous peameal bacon sandwich.

For lunch, the market itself remains the most natural choice, among its street food stalls and fresh products.

The Royal Ontario Museum is recognizable by its glass and metal faceted exterior grafted onto the historic building, with collections ranging from dinosaurs to Asian art.

A few blocks away, Kensington Market is the bohemian quarter with colored houses, vintage shops and one of the city's densest concentrations of international cuisines, next to nearby Chinatown.

At day's end, the Distillery District — a former Victorian distillery transformed into a pedestrian maze of galleries, boutiques and restaurants — is the right place to stop for dinner.

CN Tower, Harbourfront, and St. Lawrence Market clearly explain Toronto's relationship with Lake Ontario, with the afternoon choice between Royal Ontario Museum and Kensington Market adding the cultural or more informal side.

The university neighborhood around University of Toronto and a trip to Niagara Falls, an hour and a half's drive, remain chapters for a second trip. Seeing CN Tower rising among the skyscrapers while walking along the lake captures Toronto in a single glance.