Toronto’s Multicultural Heart – Kensington & Chinatown Walk
Description
Discover two of Toronto's most colorful and multicultural neighborhoods on this small-group walking tour of Kensington Market and Chinatown. On this 3-hour tour, immerse yourself in both local and international culture as you wander the often bustling streets lined with unique vendors and specialty stores. Learn from your guide about the history of these areas and discover the best places to shop and eat.
Tour Options
Itinerary
In Kensington Market, over a coffee or tea at a local cafe, you’ll learn how the neighbourhood has evolved from a working-class Jewish market into a working-class bohemian market. Several waves of immigrant settlement over the past century have splashed colours, sounds, and flavours from the four corners of the earth throughout Kensington Market, and yet there is not a McDonald's or Starbucks to be seen. Large multinational corporations are decidedly unwelcome, and unlikely to migrate their way in anytime soon. One of the many highlights of this tour is a visit to a local food vendor to awaken your taste buds to Kensington Market’s international flavour. Aside from its aversion to corporations, the neighbourhood is known for its festivals (Pedestrian Sunday is a favourite), vintage shops, cafes, bakeries, hole-in-the-wall bars, and the many, many bare brick walls that have long been covered with graffiti murals (often at the request of the buildings’ owners). These murals are nearly all stunning, and have become one of the iconic features of the neighbourhood. Your local guide will be happy to elaborate on any element of the neighbourhood you find particularly interesting on this Kensington Market tour in Toronto – we all love this area a lot!
As we said, right next door to Kensington Market is Chinatown, one of Canada's largest Chinese communities, and one of the largest Chinatowns in North America. One of the busiest areas in the city, there’s always something happening, and always tales to tell. On this part of your Toronto tour, your guide will enlighten you with some favourite local stories and intriguing history surrounding Toronto’s Chinatown. Along the way, you’ll also likely get restaurant recommendations, which can really come in handy for after your Toronto Chinatown tour – trust us, there are a lot of places to eat around here.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- This is a child-friendly tour. Children under the age of 6 are permitted to join this tour free of charge. Please inform us if you’ll be bringing a child under the age of 6.
- Tour involves a good amount of walking; comfortable shoes are recommended
Reviews(151)
I live in the city and took my visiting parents on this tour mid-September on a Tuesday. So we were the only ones, and our tour guide Robert was really great. He’s very knowledgeable and we also ended up chatting about other places we’ve visited as well. I loved we had some time to pop into some of the Kensington vintage stores as well. Snagged up a great jacket for a good price. I took down his restaurant recs and after we ended up at one of them for lunch. Highly recommend!
Very informative and interesting tour of 2 vibrant neighborhoods. Enjoyed walking and seeing local businesses
Kieran was a good guide who told interesting stories of the area. I enjoyed the tour and highly recommend it.
Wonderful introduction to Kensington and Chinatown. Jackie, our guide, shared stories about the history of the areas and personal experiences. It was truly an insider’s look at the communities and not to be missed.
First of all, I would like to highlight the exceptional work of our guide, Robert; he was very friendly and knowledgeable. This tour aims to introduce you to the different cultural communities that have helped build these vibrant neighborhoods. Through anecdotes and meetings with local merchants, you will understand that it is possible to preserve your identity in a big city like Toronto. You will also discover new restaurants and shops away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Guide didn’t show up. After 45 minutes we called Viator who immigrated issued a refund. We walked the expected tour route ourselves afterwards. Would have liked it to have been guided.
Hi Chris, We are sorry to learn of your recent experience while hoping to explore Toronto with us. Looking at our records, it seems that the system had allowed your booking - unfortunately- within only a few hours of the noted start time. This did not allow our team to assign a leader to your departure - of just 2 people- but had others been booked onto the same date then this would not have been an issue. We are terribly sorry for this inconvenience, and assure you that we have noted this problem with our team in order to ensure this does not happen in future. Thank you for letting us know of your experience, and we hope that you still did have a great time in the city. With kind regards, Tu
Tour was MEH. Sights and locations were interesting however I just felt like it was a lot of walking and not a lot of information. Expected much more from our guide, felt like I could have done the self-guided option and learn more that way.
Our tour guide Kieran really brought this experience to life. He had a lot of interesting and knowledgeable information to share and was very well-spoken in his way of storytelling. It was really refreshing that he showed interest in our backgrounds and experience within the city (as it was far from our first time in Toronto) to be able to connect, relate, and share information. He was engaging and helpful, humorous and witty, and overall connected with us beyond what we expected going into it. The coffee shop trip being included was a plus. We missed him as soon as our tour was over! Thanks again Kieran!
A good way to learn about the history of Toronto! I'm glad I took a tour of this area as it helped showcase the highlights.
Had an amazing tour with Joann. I was the only one and she still ran the tour. A real knowledgeable guide. She pointed out many landmarks that I've passed often and didn't know much about. As it was just me, she was great at customising the tour. There were two stops at great local businesses for food and drink which were included. Interesting tour and great value.
