Toronto - A shoppers paradise (Shopping in Toronto)

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Shopping in Toronto
Date:	10/06/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something for everyone

Disadvantages: Too much choice sometimes

As I mentioned in my Toronto review, I lived there for a year so I got experience shopping there...ALOT! It would take me so long to tell you about everything Toronto has to offer so here are a few of my favourite places:

As Toronto is such a big city, there are huge shopping centres all over the city. I worked at Fairview Mall which was about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Fairview Mall sits on the Shepherd and Don Mills intersection and is really easy to get to by subway. It's the last stop on the purple line. This mall has 2 floors...2 really big floors and a wide range of shops and places to eat. It also has a cinema and a nail salon. Sears and The Bay are the largest department stores and this mall has both of them. Other stores include La senza, Roots and Guess. Not the largest mall in Toronto but you can still get everything you need here.

The food court downstairs has everything you could want from KFC to oriental food. Upstairs has a fantastic restaurant, Moxies, where I used to go with the girls from work after we finished. Prices for food range from $4 to $50 per meal depending on where you eat but seating is never a problem.

The largest mall is the Eaton centre which is a mall and office space. It is located downtown on the southwest corner of Yonge and Dundas. The Eaton Centre has over 230 shops, loads of places to eat and a cinema. One of the largest book stores in TO is housed here, it has 3 floors! I wish we had one of those here. Every Christmas, the centre has a huge tree decorated with swarovski crystals and is a definite must see. It's the most fabulous tree I have ever seen. It was worth the 40 minute trip downtown just to see it.

If you want more upmarket shops like Gucci and Versace, you needn't walk very far from the Eaton Centre. Along a huge part of Bloor Street is covered with designer shops and boutiques for anyone with huge amounts of money. Of course if you are only going there for a holiday, you will get some bargains. If you live there, be prepared to save up for a long time to have a shopping trip down this street.

St Lawrence Market, located on Front Street East, was a very interesting place to buy food from. This is the cities largest market and is open 5 days a week from Tuesday to Saturday. St Lawrence Market is a mix of indoor and outdoor stalls that sell a variety of meat, organic produce, fruit and veg and dairy products that prides itself on its availability of both everyday and gourmet foods. I found it very interesting to walk around and take in the smells from the foods on offer.

Kensington Market can be found not far from China Town although I wouldn't really call it a market. Kensington Market consists of about 20-30 shops that are full of the weird and wonderful. It has been compared to Camden Market in London but I don't think it is anywhere near as good or actually anything like it. One of the only shops that I liked here was one that would make custom T-shirts for you. You could go into the shop and tell them what you wanted and one of their artists would draw something up for you or you could take in your own design. I bought a couple of T Shirts from here for my sister and I only had to wait 2 days for each one and that was because I wanted something very specific.

Canada is a country that is very focused on sports so although Toronto is a girl's heaven, I think there is plenty of shopping to be done that will interest the guys. I lived with a Canadian man who played hockey and baseball so I got dragged around some huge sports stores for hours on end. You can find a huge range of baseball, basketball, hockey and American football clothing for great prices all over the city and especially at some of homes to Toronto's sports teams such as the Sky Dome for the Toronto Blue Jays.

I really wish I had more money while I was in Toronto and if I could have afforded to send a lot of things home, I definitely would have bought more. Toronto really is a shoppers paradise and there is something for everyone's budget and taste.

Summary: It made me want to be rich