How to Get to Toronto from Montreal

Discover Toronto

Toronto is Canada's largest city and one of North America's most genuinely diverse metropolises — over 200 languages are spoken here, and that diversity shapes everything from the food scene to the neighbourhoods. The city sits on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, giving it a waterfront that most visitors underestimate until they're standing on it. The Toronto Islands, accessible by a 10-minute ferry from the foot of Bay Street, offer beaches, bike paths, and some of the best skyline views anywhere in Canada. How far is Toronto from me?

The City That Keeps Surprising First-Time Visitors

The city is organised into distinct neighbourhoods, each with its own personality. Kensington Market is a pedestrian-friendly bohemian enclave packed with vintage shops, international food vendors, and independent cafés. The Distillery District occupies a beautifully preserved 19th-century industrial complex that's now home to galleries, restaurants, and boutiques. Yorkville, just north of Bloor Street, is Toronto's upscale shopping and dining corridor. Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, and Little Portugal all sit within a few kilometres of each other — the city is a rare place where you can eat your way around the world in an afternoon without a car.

Culturally, Toronto punches well above its weight. The Royal Ontario Museum holds one of the largest natural history and world cultures collections in North America, and the Art Gallery of Ontario houses over 100,000 works including a significant collection of Canadian art. The city hosts TIFF — the Toronto International Film Festival — every September, one of the most influential film festivals in the world and a genuine spectacle worth timing a trip around. The Aga Khan Museum, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, and the smaller MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) round out a cultural landscape that surprises first-time visitors.

Sports are central to Toronto's identity in a way that's hard to overstate. The Maple Leafs have one of the most passionate and historically tortured fanbases in professional hockey. The Raptors became NBA champions in 2019 — the first non-American team to win the title — and brought the city a level of basketball culture it still hasn't lost. The Blue Jays play at Rogers Centre, steps from Union Station and the CN Tower, and summer games with the roof open are one of the better live sports experiences in the country. If you're visiting between October and April, expect hockey to be the dominant topic of conversation.

From a practical standpoint, Toronto is well-connected internally. The TTC subway runs along Bloor-Danforth (east-west) and Yonge-University (north-south), and the UP Express train links Union Station to Pearson Airport in 25 minutes. Most attractions in the downtown core are walkable or a short transit ride from Union Station, which is also where VIA Rail trains from Montreal arrive — making it straightforward to get off the train and start exploring without needing a taxi or rideshare. The distance between Montreal and Toronto by train is 542 km, and the corridor is one of the most-travelled routes in Canada.