PRIVATE AND GROUP TOURS
Please e-mail our office to enquire about available dates, timeslots, and of course, a quote for your party. Often enough, we have to customize a tour a bit to fit your needs, hence the fee would reflect such considerations.
In addition to our regularly scheduled tours, we also offer the tours below when requested.
1) TORONTO'S LOST FIRST CHINATOWN
Featured on WTN and reviewed in Homemaker’s Magazine and the Globe & Mail Newspaper!
Itinerary:
Meet: Old City Hall's front steps (Queen/Bay Sts.)
Tour Duration: 3.5-hour
Tour Includes: Snack mid-way + hosted Dim Sum luncheon near end of tour
End: Dundas/Spadina area
Notes: Tour has much more walking than average Foodies walk, walking shoes are recommended unless you request for TTC option to be included.
Description:
Toronto 's first Chinatown's old quarters are fast fading and slipping away. Trace where the seeds were planted back in 1878 and uprooted several times before landing at its presently better known Spadina/Dundas quarters. As we stroll along its route, you'll look at photographs from the 1920s, 1930s and 1990s of the old quarters while listening to nostalgic stories of legendary locals, chop suey eateries, hand laundries.
The area comes alive again even for a brief moment. You'll swear you can hear clucking chickens, and catch a wift of freshly starched packages from hand laundries long gone... Escape the frenzy of life with an intimate residential stroll while learning a bit of Feng Shui, then step back into the bustling commercial area. The culinary historian in you will love the nostalgic bakery stop. We end with hosted Dim Sum luncheon, complete with Chinese Horoscope book readings. NOTE: This walking tour ends at Spadina/Dundas area and will not head back to starting point.
2) BROADVIEW GATEWAY: 4 CULTURES
Itinerary:
Meet: Broadview Subway Station by exit to street
Tour Duration: 3.5-hour
Tour Includes: Food and drinks
End: Broadview/Gerrard
Note: The tour has some rolling hills (downhill), and plenty of green outdoor spaces thanks to secret gardens.
Description:
What's the connection between the Bloor Viaduct and the old Robert Simpson store turned into The Bay on Queen Street? Find out while you cross the bridge and meet long-gone colourful citizens of the lost " Chester Village", Doctor's Row, Riverdale and Toronto's Third Chinatown.
Though long gone, they'll come alive with their tales and pictures of fishmonger shops, long-gone cash market gardens, dirt roads, and car display lots. Fans of the romantic comedy movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" will love this walk as your guide points out sites that appeared in the movie. Peel back layers of multicultural history along the Danforth, in Riverdale, and East Chinatown while sampling G.M.O.- free snacks from an innovative health food store and savoury and sweet Greek snack food, and ending with Chinese and Vietnamese snacks.
3) FOODIES GASLIGHT STROLL: ROSEDALE & YORKVILLE
Itinerary:
Meet: Summerhill Subway Station, exit
Tour Duration: 3.5-hour
Tour Includes: Food and drinks
End: Yonge/Yorkville
Description:
"When I went up to Rosedale I thought of kingdom come... and roads that wind their stately way to dead ends... When I came down from Rosedale I could not school my mind to the manic streets before me nor the courtly ones behind" - local poet Dennis Lee
You'll likely sigh after your guide recites this fabulous poem just as we leave behind Rosedale's eclectic nooks like workers' cottages, an old train station visited by Queen Mom, Sir Henry Pellatt's second castle after he was turfed off Casa Loma, site of the Jarvis family, The Group of Seven's forgotten Studio, a local's hidden away wooden staircase, and then enter hustling and bustling Victorian village of Yorkville. Indulge in coffee house nostalgia as we end at the oldest Yorkville cafe.
4) SWANSEA & L. M. MONTGOMERY
Itinerary:
Meet: Runneymede Subway Station, Runneymede exit
Tour Duration: 2-hour 15 minutes
Tour Includes: Snack
End: Runneymede Station
NOTE: Wear boots with a thick sole and tread as we might use a lost Indian foot trail popular with Swansea locals.
Description:
Lucy Maud Montgomery, much beloved Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables, is closely associated with Prince Edward Island, Canada. What's little known is the fact that she lived her last six years in Swansea, "a nice country village" in Toronto's west end before being buried on her beloved island upon her death. You'll admire its serene setting, the winding road on the back of the Humber River, a deep ravine of pines and oaks, Indian footpaths and wooden staircases... all leading to "Journey's End", her dream home described in her children's novel, Jane of Lantern Hill.
Who is this popular writer? The literary detectives will totally love hearing excerpts from this book read out loud, just as we stroll by her last home, as well as letters to and from her life-long pen pal, and of course, her own diaries.
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