Toronto + Canada in 7 Days on a Budget
Seven Days: Every Train In This Trip Leaves From the Same Building
Every leg of this itinerary, the ride in from the airport, the day trip to a former capital, the crossing at an actual international border, the overnight to the current capital, the run out to French Canada, starts and ends at Union Station. That’s not a coincidence, it’s the reason to route a Canada trip through Toronto at all: the city works better as a national rail hub than as a checklist of neighbourhoods (for that checklist, CN Tower, ROM, AGO, and the rest, see our Toronto guide ). Seven days is enough to actually use Toronto that way, two days getting a first taste of the country in the city itself, then five days riding the VIA Rail Corridor out to Kingston, the US border at Niagara, the national capital, and Canada’s second city.
Book these before you go:
- VIA Rail tickets for Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal, book early since fares climb the closer you get to departure
- A Parliament Hill guided tour slot (book at visit.parl.ca), summer slots fill weeks out
- A Casa Loma skip-the-line ticket (check GetYourGuide) if you’d rather not queue on day 2
| Day | Focus | Getting there | Approx cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrival, Nathan Phillips Square | UP Express, Pearson to Union | $12.35 one-way |
| 2 | Fort York, Hockey Hall of Fame, St. Lawrence Market, Casa Loma | On foot / TTC | $10-14 lunch, ~$45 Casa Loma |
| 3 | Kingston, Fort Henry | VIA Rail from Union Station | $45-90 round trip |
| 4 | Niagara Falls, the border | GO Transit + WEGO bus | $22-40 round trip |
| 5 | Ottawa, Parliament Hill | VIA Rail from Union Station | $45-100 one-way |
| 6 | Ottawa to Montreal | VIA Rail | ~2 hours |
| 7 | Montreal, Notre-Dame Basilica | On foot | $16-37 admission |
Before you fly: non-US, non-permanent-resident travellers arriving by air need an eTA, $7 CAD, apply online in minutes, valid up to five years, required for air arrivals only (not land, rail, or boat).
Money: Canadian dollars, distinct from US dollars, check the actual exchange rate rather than assuming it’s close to parity. HST (13%) is added at checkout, not shown on the price tag. Tip 15-20% pre-tax at restaurants.
Where to stay: base near Union Station. Budget: HI Toronto Hostel, or check rates on Booking.com for downtown budget rooms since prices swing hard by season. Mid-range: Hotel X Toronto on the waterfront. Splurge: Fairmont Royal York, directly across the street from Union, or the Shangri-La.
Getting around Toronto: PRESTO tap fare, $3.30 across subway, streetcar, and bus, automatic 2-hour transfer. The subway (Lines 1 and 2) beats the streetcars for anything longer than a few blocks; streetcars get stuck in traffic constantly.
Day 1: Arrival
UP Express, Pearson to Union, every 15 minutes, 25 minutes, $12.35 one-way ($9.25 with PRESTO, under-12s free); skip anyone offering a flat-rate taxi at the curb. Walk to Nathan Phillips Square for the illuminated TORONTO sign, a temporary 2015 Pan Am Games installation that became permanent once people wouldn’t stop photographing it. Dinner at Pai Northern Thai Kitchen.
Day 2: What makes Toronto Canadian, specifically
Fort York first (free, Wed-Sun 11am-5pm), where British troops, Indigenous allies, and Upper Canadian militia defended the Town of York against American invasion in 1813, arguably the war that first forced a distinct Canadian identity into existence. Then the Hockey Hall of Fame (inside Brookfield Place, the real Stanley Cup on display, not a replica), about as close as Canada gets to a unifying national institution. Lunch at St. Lawrence Market, the peameal bacon sandwich at Carousel Bakery ($10-14), the city’s closest thing to a signature dish, though the honest read is that Toronto’s food identity is dozens of overlapping immigrant cuisines rather than one plate. Casa Loma (about $45 adult) in the afternoon, an actual early-1900s mansion with tunnels and gardens.
Day 3: Kingston, the capital before Ottawa
VIA Rail from Union Station, about 2 hours 15 minutes each way, economy fares roughly $45-90 CAD, book ahead at viarail.ca for the lower end. Kingston was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1841 to 1844, before the job passed to Montreal and then Ottawa, a fact that surprises most people who assume Ottawa always had it. Fort Henry (daily 10am-5pm in season, roughly $20-25, guided tours every half hour) overlooks the point where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River, the same strategic logic that made Kingston worth garrisoning in the first place.
Day 4: Niagara Falls, the actual border
GO Transit plus the WEGO local bus from Union Station, roughly 2-2.5 hours each way, combo fares from about $22 on weekends up to $34-40 round trip (kids 12 and under ride GO free). Skip the wine-country version of this trip, that’s a separate itinerary built around Toronto as an Ontario base, not this one; today is about the Falls as the literal Canada-US line. You don’t need a passport to see the Falls from the Canadian side (the better view of Horseshoe Falls anyway), only if you actually walk across the Rainbow Bridge to the American side, at which point CBSA processes you back into Canada like any other border crossing on the way home.
Day 5: Ottawa, the capital
Back to Union Station for a VIA Rail train to Ottawa, 4 to 4.5 hours (first departures as early as 4:13am, last returns past 7pm), economy fares roughly $45-100 CAD. Book a Parliament Hill guided tour ahead at visit.parl.ca , summer slots fill weeks out, bring photo ID if you’re 16 or over. Most summers the RCMP Musical Ride’s free Sunset Ceremonies run over a handful of days in late June, check rcmp.ca for the current year’s dates. Stay overnight near ByWard Market rather than rushing back to Toronto the same day.
Day 6: Ottawa to Montreal, English Canada to French Canada in one train ride
A morning in Ottawa (the Canadian War Museum or the National Gallery of Canada, both an easy walk from downtown) before a direct VIA Rail train to Montreal, roughly 2 hours, confirm current schedule and fare at viarail.ca . Canada is officially bilingual at the federal level, but that plays out very differently city to city: Toronto and Ottawa both run in English day to day, while Montreal genuinely operates in French first. Reading about Canada’s official bilingualism is nothing like standing in Montreal and realizing your Toronto French has gotten you nowhere; that one train ride teaches the point better than any guidebook paragraph. Settle into Old Montreal for the evening; dinner anywhere along Rue Saint-Paul.
Day 7: Montreal, then home
Notre-Dame Basilica (self-guided admission $16 adult, the AURA evening light show $37 if you want the fuller version) is worth the morning for the interior alone. From here, either fly home out of Montreal-Trudeau if you booked an open-jaw ticket, which saves you an entire day of backtracking, or take a VIA Rail train back to Toronto (roughly 4.5 to 6 hours depending on the service, fares $70-150 CAD) to connect through Pearson. If you’re going the train-back route, book an early-afternoon departure so you’re not arriving into Union Station at 11pm with a morning flight to catch.
Book every VIA Rail leg online well ahead of travel; prices on the Corridor climb the closer you get to departure, the same as airfares, and this itinerary alone covers four separate legs where that adds up.