Castle In the Middle of A City! Casa Loma
Oh my! I lived in the Toronto area for years. Never did I know there was a beautiful castle in the middle of the city! It is magnificent!
I am truly in love with this castle. It is huge, there are hidden tunnels, tons of amazing architecture. A wonderful site and great way to spend a few hours.
We had used this as our first stop of our city pass, so we did have to wait in line to get our actual booklet.
TIP: Get to your first exhibit early, less lines. The only line you have to wait in is the first one.
A little about this Castle:
Sir Henry Pellatt was the mind behind this beauty in the 1800’s.
Here is the tidbit right from the Casa Loma website:
“Visit Canada’s Majestic Castle, Casa Loma and step back in time to a period of European elegance and splendour. The former home of Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt, Canada’s foremost castle is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens. Self-guided multimedia tours are available in English, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and American Sign Language. Audio Descriptive Tours for the visually impaired are available in English and French.”
Beauty to behold!
This was so fun to walk through. We didn’t follow any of the tours. There is even a self-guided tour, where you hold a device (that looks like a phone) to your ear and it gives you tons of information.
We are wanderers by nature so we did just that, and it was a blast! There was magnificent rooms, with time period furniture. It was like stepping back in time!
I could not imagine that huge castle as a home for one family. There was just soooooo much space!
I fell in love with the garden and library. I need those in my home. The stained glass was stunning, the architecture was breath taking.
It does get a bit crowded, especially in narrow hallways, but it was part of the fun of the discovery.
A Funny Story…
Okay! So our plan was to drive down to Toronto (a 4 hour drive) when we got there we would park in between Casa Loma and the ROM. This way we would walk up to one then down to the other – we love to walk and parking prices are crazy ($10+ flat rate each place).
I don’t suggest walking like us (we walked literally 30-40 km in that one day – no lie!)
Anywho, we got parked and I googled “casa loma” and my Apple I phone produced directions and away we went. I even clicked “walk” as my navigation option so it would take us the easiest walk friendly route.
As we walked I saw a sign saying Casa Loma with an arrow, but my phone said to go straight. Well we assumed it was just driving directions as straight was a one way street. So up and up the hill we went (a few km’s worth) and then the phone says “you are here”
We look around, this was NOT a castle. We were in a beautiful neighborhood of houses. We both looked totally confused.
This sweet elderly gentlemen shouts over “Hey, are you looking for Casa Loma?” We nodded. He waved us over and said he will show us a short cut. He explained that this happened all the time, we both felt silly but thanked him for his help.
Not a few feet down the street from us, the elderly man shouts again “Hey, are you looking for Casa Loma?” Another confused couple nods. He was right it did TOTALLY happen all the time!!
Would this have been some sketchy looking dude or a gang of punks we may have decided to venture back where we came from, but this trusting elderly man led us into a ravine.
A little hesitant but having some faith in humanity we followed. He showed us a short cut, walked use all the way to a point where we couldn’t get lost again and sent us on our way.
NOTE: Do not follow Iphone directions to Casa Loma. They are WRONG!!
Thank god there are still kind and generous people left in this world.
Four Thumbs Up!
We loved the castle, and I would definitely go again. Without the Toronto City pass I would not have even known it existed.
Don’t Forget to Check out our Adventures at the other Attractions:
