Fall Foliage in Toronto

Visiting Toronto along with Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec was a dream. All of these cities are connected by train, so it seemed like a perfect summer trip that could possibly be extended to Calgary, Banff, and Vancouver by catching a plane. When the current school calendar was released around February 2023, I saw that we had Monday, October 9 off. While looking for likely unaffordable flights with airline miles I saw that the "price" to go to Toronto on Friday, October 6 right after work and returning on Monday, October 9 in the evening was 17,000 AA miles. Other destinations in southeast Canada required 2-3 times as many miles with less nonstop flight options. Other destinations in the northeastern US required more miles, so this was the perfect place to go and see the fall foliage if its timing was right. I had enough points to book a somewhat cheap hotel with card points, so this was an opportunity that could not be missed.

Sugar maples are the ones that always show the best fall colors, but most of the trees that are planted in the city are different kinds of deciduous trees, most of which were green. Most sugar maples are located in naturally green spaces around creeks or outside the city. Most of them were already changing, but only the leaves on the top had bright orange and red colors, while most of the rest of the leaves were green. This is what I saw on Saturday, October 7:

Rain was on the forecast, so this was the best time to see the city from the CN tower as well as the fall colors. 

Clouds started rolling in and the skies turned cloudy as I walked towards the Art Gallery of Ontario, followed by the Royal Ontario Museum and Casa Loma. Clouds broke that afternoon. Because of this there were nicer views of the city:

October 8: 

October 9: I had barely realized that it was Canadian Thanksgiving, so most places were closed. This is what I saw:

Five Guys tastes just like in the US and Germany. Pizza Hut has a different taste than the one in the US, Mexico, and Russia, which is the same taste (I'm not sure if Pizza Hut still operates in Russia). It was also a different taste from the Pizza Hut that you find in Germany and France.

While I cannot say that this is what all of Canada looks like, I can say that Toronto seems to be like an extension of the US, but with maple flags and bilingual English-French signs everywhere. I am hoping that we'll get a fall break next year so that I can get a chance to see more fall colors in Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa.