East End Toronto

Toronto's east end carries the city's oldest stories and some of its newest energy, from the Victorian streets of Cabbagetown and Riverdale to the sandy beaches of the Lake Ontario shoreline. With your private expert guide and a separate luxury SUV chauffeur, you see a version of the city most visitors never reach from downtown.

Cabbagetown comes first, one of the best-preserved Victorian neighbourhoods in North America, its red-brick rowhouses telling of the Irish immigrants who gave it its name and the preservation story that saved its streets. Riverdale and the Don Valley follow, where the ravine system runs a green corridor through the heart of the city. On the Danforth, Greektown's restaurants, bakeries and kafeneions carry decades of community history, with a stop for food and coffee along the way.

Leslieville shows the east end's newest chapter, its Victorian cottages and warehouses now home to independent restaurants, vintage shops and design studios. The Beaches close the tour back at the lake, with a sandy shoreline, a boardwalk and a neighbourhood of particular charm.