December 16th, 2008
Gift Guide: City Walks – Toronto
By Dylan Reid // 8 Comments
City Walks: Toronto is a nicely-designed collection of 50 solid cards in an attractive box. Each compact card (4-1/16 x 5-5/8) has on one side a map with a walk drawn on it in red, with numbers for key sights, and on the other side a written description of the walk and information about the numbered sights. The collection is part of a series by San Francisco-based Chronicle Books.
The walks range from the Humber Valley over to the Beaches and up to North York, with a concentration in the centre of the city. Most walks are about an hour long, with a few ranging up to two hours (or more, depending on how much you want to linger). Each walk begins and ends at a transit stop.
The types of walks, and the sights chosen, range widely, including the natural, the historical, the cultural, restaurants, and interesting shops. There is even one focused on bookstores in the Annex. The choices are interesting and knowledgeable -- for example, the Corktown walk includes the hidden gem of Bright Street (featured in a recent issue of Spacing), and the Don Valley walk tells you how to find the obscure path to the Brickworks from Rosedale's Craigleigh Gardens. There are even two separate ways to experience High Park. Although the collection was published this year, inevitably some shops described no longer exist, including Ballenford Books and the tragic case of Preloved, which burned down in the big Queen West fire last winter just as this collection was published.
The collection is aimed at tourists (it is a good price -- US $14.95 -- and can be ordered online), but there is way too much here to see on one trip. It would be perfect for someone who has just moved to Toronto for work or for study and wants to explore the city (it's a whole year's worth of weekend walks), and it would also be perfect for someone who hosts a lot of visitors -- each guest could simply shuffle through and pick a couple of cards a day. The cards are made of good stock and should survive being used several times. Another good idea would be if you are visiting one of the other cities they provide cards for -- use the cards while you are visiting, and then leave them with your hosts as a gift when you are done, for the use of future visitors. It would also be good for someone who has lived in Toronto for a while but feels they want to get to know the city better -- even as someone who has walked all over the city in recent years, there are some interesting bits that I'm not familiar with. For example, I've never explored High Park from the south, starting at the Queensway, before -- I may try that next spring.
Interact
Sorry, comments are
closed at this time.
Rate this post
Loading ...
Comments
Neither the author nor Spacing necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Spacing reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. See our Comment Policy.
I bought my own box of these recently at Swipe Books down on Richmond St. and have seen them at Type Books as well. There's also a deck for Vancouver for anyone interested. As a self-described flaneur [who resides in the suburbs], I've made a habit of randomly picking a card and going for walkabout downtown - or wherever the card takes me on the weekends. Each card gives me a good sense of the city with some history and humour thrown in.
High Park from the south? Quite logical, when one considers the Queen car, or maybe even the impulse to go a little inland from Sunnyside. It's also the most "historically correct" way to encounter Colborne Lodge...
BookCity may have them. They sold the sets for walks in New York, Chicago and London.
you can also pick it up at eye spy in leslieville
I've also seen them at The Outer Layer at Queen and Portland.
I took a great walk around corktown this past weekend. Its kind of become my new favourite area...
we rented a flat in Pacific Heights during our stay in San Francisco last year and the owner had left a set of the SF version of these cards in the apartment for guests to use. We didnt actually do any of the walks, but I often flipped through the cards, aquainting myself with different parts of the city and local history. I can confirm the quality of the cards stock and printing... they are a great idea and glad to hear there is now a Toronto edition avaiable, I'll def pick up a set!
Anybody know of a local retailer? Cheapest shipping online is $4.50.
Comment by John Routh
December 16, 2008 | 3:07 pm