CN Tower
At a height of 553m (1,815ft), the CN Tower was, until recently, the world's tallest tower; it is still the defining symbol of this lakefront city. On a clear day, it offers stunning views of up to 120km (75 miles) across the surrounding cityscape and Lake Ontario. Glass-fronted elevators (one with a newly installed glass floor) bring visitors to the main section (at an equivalent to 114 storeys high) where a terrifying glass floor enables visitors to stare 342m (1,122ft) straight down. A more leisurely view can be had from the revolving 360 Restaurant on the floor above. Another set of elevators leads to the SkyPod, 33 storeys further up. There is also a group of entertainment venues at the base of the tower, including a motion-simulator ride.

301 Front Street West
Tel: (416) 868 6937.
Website: www.cntower.ca
Opening hours: Usually from early morning until 2200 or 2300 in the evening. Opening hours are adjusted seasonally, so visitors should call the tower to check.
Admission charge.

Casa Loma
Toronto seems an unlikely location for a castle, but since 1911 the soaring battlements of Casa Loma have lent an element of magic to the city. The 98-room castle was completed in 1914 by Sir Henry Pellatt, a charismatic financier, industrialist and philanthropist, to be his home. Financial ruin forced its sale years later and the castle eventually became the popular tourist attraction it is today. The castle is a bizarre hybrid of a medieval-style stonework exterior (replete with turrets and battlements) and an early 20th-century interior. Highlights include the splendidly carved Oak Room, secret passageways and pseudo-gothic Great Hall, which has 18m- (60ft-) high ceilings. The gardens are open between May and October.

1 Austin Terrace
Tel: (416) 923 1171.
Website: www.casaloma.org
Opening hours: Daily 0930-1700 (last admission 1600).
Admission charge.

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
Reopened after a C$254m expansion led by Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry, Canada's premier art gallery, the AGO, contains 110 galleries displaying temporary exhibitions and a large permanent collection of international art. Its European collection covers the Italian Renaissance, Flemish Masters, 17th-century French painting and the Impressionists, right through to 20th-century works by Chagall and Picasso and beyond. The gallery's greatest attraction, however, is the Canadian collection, featuring a cross-section of work from the Group of Seven - a group of early 20th-century painters whose work embodies the sublime beauty of Canada's boreal wilderness. The gallery is also home to one of the world's largest collections of Inuit art, as well as works by Henry Moore. It is worth allowing extra time to visit The Grange, a restored 19th-century house, adjacent to the gallery. The gallery is due to reopen in November 2008.

317 Dundas Street West
Tel: (416) 979 6648.
Website: www.ago.net
Opening hours: New hours not yet confirmed.
Admission charge.

Bata Shoe Museum
The Bata Shoe Museum is the only museum of its kind in the world. Housed in an equally unique building shaped, appropriately enough, like a shoebox, the museum owns some 12,500 items of footwear, dating as far back as 4,500 years. Pieces range from Elvis Presley's loafers and Queen Victoria's ballroom slippers to 19th-century beaded Native American shoes and leather broad-toed Tudor shoes.

327 Bloor Street West
Tel: (416) 979 7799.
Website: www.batashoemuseum.ca
Opening hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri and Sat 1000-1700, Thurs 1000-2000, Sun 1200-1700.
Admission charge (pay-what-you-can Thurs 1700-2000).

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)
The ROM is one of the most exciting museums in Canada, and it recently got even better due to a massive redevelopment project. The museum's striking facade alone will take your breath away, but deeper within, the museum houses excellent collections featuring almost 6 million artefacts. The exhibits representing East Asia include a renowned collection of Chinese art, with wall paintings, snuff bottles and ceramic head cushions, as well as the only complete example of a Ming tomb in the west. Other levels handle the life sciences, the ancient Mediterranean and a Canadian heritage collection. Ten new ROM galleries opened in late 2005, and the spectacular new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal galleries and public spaces opened in 2007, featuring a grand new entrance and six new galleries overlooking the street. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the new crystal is covered in a luminous skin of aluminium and glass. Like I.M. Pei's pyramid at the Louvre, it has not been without controversy but is likely to become a major urban landmark.

100 Queen's Park (Bloor Street West at Avenue Road)
Tel: (416) 586 8000.
Website: www.rom.on.ca
Opening hours: Sat-Thu 1000-1730, Fri 1000-2130.
Admission charge.

Ontario Science Centre
The Ontario Science Centre was opened in 1969, with a mission to ‘open minds to science by creating environments that excite curiosity, inspire insights and motivate learning in science and technology'. This difficult task is successfully accomplished with over 800 fascinating exhibits. Themes explored in depth include the human body and space travel. Interactive exhibits include piloting a spacecraft or touching the hair-raising Van de Graaff generator. An Omnimax Cinema offers a 24m (79ft) domed screen. A new 2,325 sq m (25,000 sq ft) innovation centre featuring over 50 unique interactive experiences geared to teenagers and young adults opened in 2006, part of a C$47m renovation. It includes garbage art, fish music, a sound panel room, vibrating chair and other challenges designed to encourage skills, attitude and behaviours that enable innovation.

770 Don Mills Road
Tel: (416) 696 1000.
Website: www.ontariosciencecentre.ca
Opening hours: Generally 1000-1700 but it varies by season; call to check.
Admission charge.

Toronto Zoo
Situated on a sprawling 287-hectare (710-acre) forested piece of land next to the Rouge Valley, in the suburb of Scarborough, the Toronto Zoo is one of the largest zoos in the world. The collection of over 5,000 animals is truly international, since the zoo features areas named African Savanna, the Americas, Indo-Malaya, Australasia, Eurasia and the Canadian Domain. Underwater exhibits showcase polar bears, South African fur seals, beavers in their dens and otters swimming at eye level.

Meadowvale Road, 2km (1 mile) north of Highway 401
Tel: (416) 392 5900.
Website: www.torontozoo.com
Opening hours: The zoo is open every day but Christmas, but hours vary throughout the year; call to check. Last admission one hour before closing.
Admission charge.

Fort York
Fort York harks back to the days when Toronto, then as British as afternoon tea, was named York. As a colony, the city occasionally had to deal with revolutionaries to the south, so Fort York was founded in 1793 to ensure British control of Lake Ontario. Most of the buildings, however, date from 1814 because, during the War of 1812, the evacuating British blew up the gunpowder magazine - an explosion so unexpectedly large that it killed 10 of their own men and 250 advancing Americans, and destroyed a good deal of the fort. Highlights of Fort York include blockhouses, barracks, officers' quarters, costumed staff and period demonstrations.

100 Garrison Road, off Fleet Street
Tel: (416) 392 6907.
Website: www.toronto.ca/culture/fort_york.htm
Opening hours: Daily 1000-1700 (late May-early Sep); Mon-Fri 1000-1600, Sat-Sun 1000-1700 (early Sep-late May). Several short closed periods throughout the year.
Admission charge.

Gardiner Museum
One of the world's premier ceramic art museums, it now boasts 2,694 sq m (29,000 sq ft) of exhibition space and features Asian ceramics, 19th-century ceramics made at Minton, and contemporary studio ceramics, in addition to collections including Ancient American, Italian Renaissance majolica, and 17th- and 18th-century English delftware. The museum also features a restaurant and an expanded shop specialising in artist-designed and handmade objects.

111 Queen's Park
Tel: (416) 586 8080.
Website: www.gardinermuseum.on.ca
Opening hours: Mon-Thurs 1000-1800, Fri 1000-2100, Sat-Sun 1000-1700.