Spending The Best of Days Inn Toronto. (Days Inn Toronto Downtown)

Name: The Daz

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Product:	Days Inn Toronto Downtown
Date:	11/08/08 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Big rooms, excellent service, good location.

Disadvantages: None I can recall.

Greetings holiday trippers, and welcome to my second Canada 2008 based reviews. All queries to the previous line should be directed to my similarly thorough CN Tower review. (plugtastic!)

Ok - first holiday hint. The established chain hotels are often far cheaper to book through the travel websites: we used Lastminute, for instance. They're quite happy to throw a few dozen rooms a night onto these websites for advance bookings, to turnover a steady income stream.

Our stay cost us about £50 per night for a double room, which compared favourably with other Downtown hotels in the city.

Right - nagging over. On with the review.

Situated on Carlton Street, 3 blocks East of the busy Yonge St and College St intersection (look out for the showroom for the eceedingly flash Tridel Apartments at the corner) - the Days Inn Toronto Downtown (some mouthful!), is a 10 minute walk or 2 minute Tram Ride from the College Subway station. As the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) is one of the most integrated and thorough networks you'd hope to find, you'll have no problems scooting around the city right from the hotel door.

For further information of a locationary basis: College is 4 stops North of Union Station (CN Tower and Waterfront), and 2 South of the uber hip Bloor Yonge shopping district.

Also - the hotel is but 100 yards across from Maple Leaf Gardens - the now closed, but ever-legendary home of the Toronto Maple Leaf NHL Team (fighting on ice, for the uninitiated)

NB - North South is a due term based on the downtown grid....it's more like WNW and SSE for the compass nerds out there.

The hotel itself is a fairly average 23 floors tall (trust me, you get strong neck muscles in this city), and fairly nondescript to look at, save the shiny half sun logo emblazoned at the top.

The Lobby is fairly grand, with the eccentric addition of a shop, hidden away on a mezzanine leading down to the car park, which stocks a variety of kitsch and tat...

We were given a spacious double on the 16th floor for our stay, and were not disappointed. Being an American Chain - the bed could have slept 2 Basketball players quite comfortably. I considered rigging up some sort of walkie-talkie communicate with my other half across the bed!

There was a nice sofa with table area to relax in, a big TV, huge windows with a corking view of Downtown towards the waterfront, a Filter Coffee Machine, and the usual assortment of brochures, leaflets and cubbyholes to store your travelling items.

The bathroom was pretty standard, although as a fussy connoissieur of hotel showers I was pleased to find it suitably waterfall in strength. Nothing beats a battering of hot water to relax the sightseeing muscles!

After a brief interaction with the obligatory back-of-door floorplan, I located the noisy Ice Machine - always a clever treat to keep your evening drinks cool. It should be noted that the rooms were always spotless when we returned, and the staff suitably conspicuous by their absence, which I prefer. Nothing worse than walking into a lift to be questioned by staff on how nice my day was or should be....

Anyway - digression!

The hotel obviously also has a pricey restaraunt, and a fully equipped gym and pool - neither of which we used! However, I chatted to a couple there who said that the first was an excellent treat with an eclectic menu, and the second was very good as far as hotel gyms go. Second hand review for you.

Other points of note: Our final day involved asking Reception if we could check out at 13:00 instead of 10:00, which was allowed at no charge - this meant we could have a final sightsee and return for a shower before leaving.

The second good bit of service was the Concierge agreeing to store our bags away in his cupboard until we needed to go to the airport at about 18:00. We reckoned there might be a charge for this, but none was mentioned and I felt too polite and too tight to offer!

Overall, we found the service faultless and friendly, the rooms clean and generously appointed, and the price and location more than satisfactory. I would recommend this particular hotel to anyone wanting to visit Toronto.

Summary: Good all round hotel for a stay in Toronto.