Toronto long weekend, in style!

I flew to Toronto with Air Canada, left at 15:00 so was a nice flight, arriving in at 10pm their time, 3am UK time..so stayed up as long as we could to help with jet lag! Nicely surprised by the amount of leg room in economy on this flight, food was very good too, as airplane food goes!

Traffic into the city was heavy, and lots of building work, should normally only take around 30 mins but took us an hour.

Upon arrival at the Shangri La my mouth hit the floor, what a stunning hotel. The feel when you walked in was that of a hip, sexy warm and welcoming boutique style bar/restaurant/hotel...the smell is gorgeous too. The biggest floating fire place I've seen with lots of lovely sofas dotted around. I can understand why the lobby is known as the city's "living room". They have live music every night, very indiscreet and as the evening wears on you get a cool crowd in there taking it all in.

We were lucky enough to be staying in their 1 bedroomed suites, which are stunning. Living room with shower room off of it, huge bedroom and king bed and then another gorgeous bathroom with a huge Jacuzzi and shower. Worth noting that the windows are huge floor to ceiling windows and from my Jacuzzi I had a view of the CN tower, this is amazing at night when the city is all lit up. Everything in the room is controlled by an iPad, including the curtains, air con even calling room service and setting your alarm call, should you wish that is!

We ate some finger food in the lobby whilst enjoying some quirky cocktails...the food was lovely.

Next day we visited Ripleys Aquarium...now don't be fooled, this is an Aquarium like no other I've ever been to, even if you don't have kids you really should visit (9am or around 4pm is the best time), I could have easily spent a couple of hours here, in the winter it's a good bet for families to keep the kids entertained and warm, lots of hands on and play stuff for kids. Worth the money I promise!

We then hopped next door to the CN Tower, again this is a must see, I think the best way to experience this is from the 360 revolving restaurant as it has huge floor to ceiling windows. Up on the observation deck it's all netted so the view I felt wasn't quite as good. Interesting to see the little islands just off the mainland here and know that you can visit these in the Summer, there's even a nudist beach, apparently!

We had a wonderful meal in Bosk this night (hotel's restaurant), wonderful meal. There is another restaurant too called "Momofuku" attached to it which is a famous chain with another place in NYC, multi tired dining concept, the 7-9 course taster menu on the top floor sounds lovely and very good value.

The following day was the trip we were all looking forward to, that being Niagara Falls. We of course were on the Canadian side so we went on the Hornblower boat, the other one most have heard of is the Maid of the Mist which goes from the USA side. Having seen the latter boat it looks about 100 years old is tiny and personally I'm glad I wasn't on it. Little tip is to go to the back of the boat as it's not as busy and no one is short changed from any place they view on the top deck. Keep a hold of the kids as there is lots of rocking around and the sides of the boat aren't that high. We had lunch at the Sheraton on the Falls, personally didn't rate this hotel a standard dated 3star, don't see any reason why anyone would stay in Niagara itself anyway.

We were then spoilt and flew over the falls in a Helicopter too. If you do need to stay in Niagara I'd suggest taking the 20 min drive after the falls into "Niagara on the Lake" which is a lovely quaint old Canadian village with one off boutiques, little guest houses and restaurants, there is also a historical fort to visit here too, and the world's smallest chapel. Great vineyards in this area too, worth a stop for a bit of wine tasting and shopping, try the world famous Ice Wine.

We visited a couple of outlet malls whilst there and there is a great choice, some of our group felt the prices for the shopping were actually better in the main mall in Toronto called the Eaton Centre. Worth noting that you can walk underground from the Eaton Centre into the Fairmont Royal York hotel, good to know if considering a shopping break in the Winter.

We flew back business class with Air Canada which benefits from full flat beds, wow what a way to travel, arrived back at Heathrow a lot more refreshed than when travelling economy that's for sure.

Looking forward to visiting Canada again in the future.