What to See in Toronto, Canada: Free Audio Guide

Toronto is Canada’s largest city, where a striking skyline of modern towers sits beside historic districts, expansive parks and the shores of Lake Ontario. Its neighbourhoods showcase a rich mix of cultures, offering everything from world‑class museums to lively markets and a vibrant waterfront. Neywo provides a free audio guide for Toronto with 306 narrated places to help you explore at your own pace.

Explore Toronto’s highlights

Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum, known as the ROM, houses more than 18 million objects spread across 40 galleries. You can see dinosaur skeletons, meteorites, minerals, and art from Africa, the Near East and East Asia, as well as extensive collections of design and Art Deco. The museum’s original H‑shaped building is contrasted by the striking Michael Lee‑Chin Crystal, an angular addition designed by Daniel Libeskind’s studio. The ROM also holds the world’s largest collection of Burgess Shale fossils, with over 150 000 specimens from British Columbia.

Hockey Hall of Fame

Located in downtown Toronto, the Hockey Hall of Fame tells the story of ice hockey through player profiles, team histories, NHL records and memorabilia, including the Stanley Cup. It began in Kingston in 1943 under James T. Sutherland, moved to Toronto in 1958 and found its permanent home in 1993 inside Brookfield Place, occupying a former Bank of Montreal building. Induction ceremonies take place each November, followed by a special game featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs. As of May 2024, the Hall has honoured 310 players (including ten women), 119 builders and 16 on‑ice officials.

Art Gallery of Ontario

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Grange Park presents Canadian, First Nations, Inuit, African, European and Oceanic art from the first century to today. The complex covers 45 000 square metres and includes exhibition spaces, a library, archives, a theatre, lecture halls, dining areas and an artist‑in‑residence studio. Founded in 1900 as the Art Museum of Toronto, it adopted its current name in 1966 after several building campaigns, the most recent of which was led by KPMB Architects between 2004 and 2008. A key historic element is the Grange, the original 1817 manor that now sits at the heart of the expanding museum.

Gooderham Building

Often called the Flatiron Building, the Gooderham Building stands at the intersection of Front and Wellington Streets. Completed in 1892, its red‑brick, wedge‑shaped form was one of Toronto’s earliest flatiron structures, shaped by the triangular street layout. From Front Street you can look west toward the rounded corner, framed by heritage commercial blocks and the skyscrapers of the Financial District; on clear days the CN Tower appears behind Brookfield Place.

Distillery District

The Distillery District transforms the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery into a pedestrian neighbourhood of cafés, restaurants, shops, galleries and homes. Spread over 13 acres, it contains more than forty heritage buildings arranged along ten streets, forming the largest collection of Victorian‑era industrial architecture in North America. Many of the red‑brick façades recall Toronto’s 19th‑century industrial past, while the interiors now host contemporary art and design. The area was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988.

Yonge Dundas Square (Sankofa Square)

At the southeast corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets lies Sankofa Square, a lively public space that hosts concerts, festivals and outdoor exhibitions. Conceived in 1997 to revitalise the intersection, it opened in 2002 and covers just under an acre. Because Dundas Street bends along its northern edge, the plaza has a five‑sided shape rather than a perfect square. Its constant glow comes from large illuminated screens and corporate logos on the surrounding façades, giving it an atmosphere often compared to Times Square, Shibuya Crossing or Piccadilly Circus.

CN Tower

Rising 553.3 metres above downtown, the CN Tower is a communications and observation tower completed in 1976. It welcomed over two million international visitors each year before the pandemic and remains the tallest free‑standing structure on land in North America, the Western Hemisphere and the entire Western world. Inside, visitors can explore several observation decks, an entertainment complex and a revolving restaurant situated about 350 metres above ground. The tower held the record for the world’s tallest free‑standing structure for 32 years, from 1975 to 2007.

Black Creek Pioneer Village

Black Creek Pioneer Village recreates a 19th‑century Ontario community in the heart of Toronto. As an open‑air heritage museum, it shows what rural life might have looked like from the early to mid‑1800s, though the buildings are reconstructions rather than original structures. Opened in 1960 and operated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, it is a regular destination for school field trips from the Greater Toronto Area. In 2023 the authority announced that the site will officially adopt the name The Village at Black Creek beginning in early 2024.

Montgomery’s Inn

Situated in Etobicoke, Montgomery’s Inn is a living‑history museum run by the City of Toronto. Once a traveller’s inn, the building now interprets its earlier role as a place of lodging and hospitality, offering visitors a glimpse into 19th‑century inn life through period furnishings and exhibits.

St. Lawrence Market South

St. Lawrence Market South forms part of the historic St. Lawrence Market complex, together with St. Lawrence Market North and St. Lawrence Hall. The current building opened in 1902, but its foundations incorporate Toronto’s former City Hall from 1845, linking the market’s tradition to the city’s civic past. The hall was restored in the 1970s and is also known as The Market Gallery, a space for rotating art exhibitions.

Bata Shoe Museum

The Bata Shoe Museum focuses on 4 500 years of footwear history, displaying more than 13 000 shoes and related artefacts. Located near the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, the 3 665‑square‑metre building was designed by Moriyama and Teshima Architects, with Raymond Moriyama as lead architect. The museum grew from Sonja Bata’s personal shoe collection, which she began in the mid‑1940s; she established the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation in 1979 to manage the collection professionally. The permanent museum opened in May 1995 and today claims to hold the world’s largest footwear collection.

The Unknown Student

On the University of Toronto campus you can see The Unknown Student, a contemporary sculpture that invites reflection on anonymity and youth. The work is situated in a prominent outdoor setting and is often photographed by visitors to the university grounds.

Cathedral Church of St. James

The Cathedral Church of St. James is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and the home of the city’s oldest congregation, founded in 1797. The present Gothic Revival building began construction in 1850 and opened for services on June 19 1853, after a fire destroyed the earlier church in 1849. Designed by Frederick William Cumberland, with later tower and spire by Henry Langley completed in 1874, the cathedral combines local brick with stone from Ohio. It remains a key landmark in Toronto’s skyline and continues to serve as an active place of worship.

Fort York

Fort York preserves the early‑19th‑century defences that guarded the entrance to Toronto Harbour. Established in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe, the fort survived the War of 1812, was destroyed by American forces in 1813 and rebuilt by 1815. Its stone‑lined earthwork walls encircle eight historic buildings, including two blockhouses that illustrate how the garrison was organised. The site now offers walking trails and interpretive signs that explain its military and social history.

St. Lawrence Hall

St. Lawrence Hall, erected in 1850‑1851 after the great fire of 1849, served as Toronto’s premier public meeting place for decades. Designed by William Thomas in the Renaissance Revival style, its grand ballroom could accommodate a thousand people, making it a favoured venue for concerts, exhibitions and social gatherings. Today the hall continues to host weddings, conferences and art shows, preserving its role as a centre of community life.

Explore with Neywo

Neywo’s free audio guide lets you discover Toronto at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. The app offers 7 walking tours, 1 bus route and 1 bike route. Walks range from the 1.26 km, 46‑minute “Distillery District and Corktown” tour with 5 stops to the 4.36 km, 97‑minute “Casa Loma and the Annex” tour with 7 stops. The bus route, “Route 97 Yonge: From Yorkminster to Union,” covers 5.5 km in 24 minutes and includes 7 stops such as Yonge‑Dundas Square and the Hockey Hall of Fame. The bike route, “Toronto Waterfront Trail: Harbourfront to Humber Bay,” spans 8.4 km in 42 minutes with 5 stops including the Museum of Inuit Art and the Queen Elizabeth Way Monument. Narration is available in 11 languages, and each story plays automatically as you reach a location, so you can linger or move on whenever you choose. Download Neywo today and let the city’s stories guide your walk.