Queen West/Niagara Neighbourhood

Queen Street West, between University and Bathurst, is one of the most popular shopping districts for midmarket contemporary fashion. (Public transit: subway to Osgoode station. The shopping strip is about 5 km (3 miles) long but the 501 Queen streetcar runs the whole length. A TTC day pass is handy for hopping on and off streetcars.) West Queen West / Ossington is a newly gentrified district of hip shops, art galleries and restaurants, with the hotspot Drake and Gladstone hotels anchoring the west end of the stretch. The Queen St. strip runs starts a little west of Bathurst, and runs to the railway bridge at Gladstone. And don't neglect the Ossington strip between Queen and Dundas. Some of the best places in the neighbourhood are there. (Public transit: 501 Queen streetcar westbound from Osgoode subway station, 63 Ossington bus south from Ossington subway, or 29 Dufferin bus south from Dufferin subway.) Richmond St, Adelaide St. and King Street West between University and Spadina comprise the Entertainment District with two live theatres housing the big musicals and plays, as well as Roy Thomson Hall - home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra - and the new opera house. This stretch of Richmond and Adelaide is also sometimes referred to as Clubland, as it houses the city's largest concentration of big-box, multi-level nightclubs, and on the weekends the area is crawling with clubgoers. Every kind of club from undergrad casual meat-markets, to bottle-service dress-coded snobbeterias, can be found here. (Public transit: westbound 504 King streetcar from St. Andrew or King subway station.) Over on College Street between Bathurst and Ossington, you will find Little Italy (reviews) with its many cafés and trattorias, as well as one of the city's most vibrant summer nightlife scenes, with many bars (many not Italian at all) opening their windows and patios into the night. (Public transit: westbound 506 College streetcar from Queen's Park or College subway station.)