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Afternoon tea, available on weekends, a relaxing treat by itself, comes with a bonus: a complimentary tour of the rooftop garden and apiary. As part of Royal York's green policy, the hotel grows herbs and vegetables in raised beds atop the roof. The chef uses the lemon balm, red basil and other herbs in salad dressings and the edible flowers garnish dessert plates.
Along with plants, the rooftop houses the hotel's apiary. The six hives produced 500 pounds of raw honey on 2009, some of which is used in EPIC, the hotel's signature restaurant. If you don't want afternoon tea, you can sign up for the weekend tours at EPIC.
The Fairmont Royal York works well as a base for sightseeing. The Hockey Hall of Fame is nearby and so is Harbourfront, Toronto's waterfront park and site for festivals, as well as the place to rent bicycles and inline skates plus kayaks and sailboats. The ferry to Centreville, one of Lake Ontario's islands, also departs from the Harbourfront area.
Other must-sees for families visiting Toronto are the Royal Ontario Museum, known for its dinosaurs, bat cave and First Nations collections; the CN Tower, where you can stand on a glass floor and see the street 1122 feet below; and the Ontario Science Center, with its many hands-on exhibits.
In addition, the Fairmont Royal York is across the street from the train station, making it exceptionally easy to take a day excursion to Niagara Falls, just two hours away. We departed Toronto on an 8:30 a.m. train, arrived at the Niagara station at 10:30 a.m. and then took a taxi the short distance to the park. That gave us plenty of time to board the Maid of the Mist, the boat that carried us close enough to the thundering falls to get soaked by the spray and to be amazed by the sheer power of the wall of cascading water. We had lunch, took in some other falls' vantage points and checked out the fun houses and Ferris Wheel (SkyWheel) on Clifton Hill, the street abutting the park, before making the 4:15 p.m. train back to Toronto.
After a day of sightseeing, it's nice to relax by swimming in the hotel's indoor pool.
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