DK Travel : Toronto : Editor's choice

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401 Richmond Street

Many of the city’s best artist-run galleries are here in this gorgeous old warehouse. Exhibit openings are often held Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
Air Canada Centre

Home to basketball’s Raptors and hockey’s Maple Leafs, the arena is in the old Toronto Postal Delivery Building. Carvings on the façade depict the history of communications.
Bloor Street

An upscale shopping strip of high-end fashion and home-decor stores (see Bloor Street).
Body Body Wear

For muscle boys and stylish guys, the flagship store of this Toronto-based apparel line offers formfitting under- and outerwear for clubbing and cruising. Though the store’s video imagery of superb models is intimidating, the staff isn’t.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

This groundbreaking theater company, established in 1979, is the city’s oldest and largest venue for queer-culture productions. Renowned for innovative, edgy works, productions often push the boundaries of artistic convention and sometimes even propriety – but that’s precisely the point. Special events include Hysteria, a multidisciplinary festival celebrating women (bra art is just one highlight).
Byzantium

Designed to the hilt with a long martini bar and featuring spinning DJs for after-dinner dancing on the weekends, this stylish restaurant draws gays and straights alike. The intimate dining area is separated from the bar by moving panels. The food is great too, especially the moules frites .
Cawthra Park

This popular meeting place, with its benches and greenery, is home to a permanent AIDS memorial, installed in 1993. The pillars are inscribed, upon request and with no geographic restrictions, with the names of people lost to the disease. The Universal Remembrance Plaque, added in 1995, is a tribute to those who remain unnamed.
Church Street

The intersection of Church and Wellesley Streets, the epicenter of Toronto’s gay village, has been home to a large gay and lesbian community for decades. A profusion of excellent bars, restaurants, and specialty shops make the strip a great place to just hang out and soak up the scene as leathermen, muscle boys, and drag queens strut their stuff. The 519 Community Centre at 519 Church Street hosts regular social events and neighborhood gatherings, as well as offering a multitude of drop-in programs and short-term counseling.
Commerce Court North

The star of Toronto’s early skyscrapers, this massive 34-story Romanesque structure housing the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was the tallest building in Canada when completed in 1931. Today it matches aesthetically, if not in height, its towering neighbors.
Design Exchange

This gallery showcases innovative Canadian postwar design (see Design Exchange).