This Toronto Trail & Outdoor Venue Is A Perfect First Stop On A Family Vacation To Canada

Few people will ever say, "Hey! Let's go hang out by the freeway!" Fewer still will exclaim, "Wow, that freeway is so beautiful!" Parents don't flock to superhighways in major cities, murmuring to their children, "Isn't this freeway so much fun?" By default, freeways are functional ribbons of concrete, their many lanes packed with cars. Sometimes you'll get a decent view, but most drivers are focused on the road — and praying they won't hit traffic.

The Bentway in Toronto, which opened in 2018, is a whole new way of thinking about elevated highways. This linear park was built beneath the Toronto Gardiner Expressway, and its trails and greenery stretch a little over a mile from end to end. The highway, which rests on hundreds of concrete piers, covers the open-air Bentway as a kind of protective roof, providing shade on sunny days and shelter from the rain. Instead of an urban dead-space, where litter accumulates and unhoused people set up tents, the Bentway recasts this long stretch of land as a family-friendly playground.

Toronto is a natural choice for this urban experiment: It's the largest city in Canada and a popular destination for travelers. Toronto is also famous for its progressive architecture, with more than 100 skyscrapers, some 700 green roofs, and the CN Tower, once the world's tallest freestanding structure that rises 1,815 feet over downtown. The city is well known for innovative new designs, while also repurposing older buildings — such as the Evergreen Brick Works and Distillery Historic District — for new generations to enjoy. Here are 14 must-visit spots in Toronto for tourists, all of which reflect this thoughtful use of space.

The Gardiner Expressway really is in the center of the action: about 140,000 cars take this route on a typical workday and more than 200,000 residents live on either side of its k-rails. The highway runs along Toronto's lakefront, which is already rich with parks, trails, and glittering high rises. Toronto is widely considered one of the best cities in Canada for raising children, and it's well suited for visiting families as well. Between the Toronto Zoo, the Ontario Science Centre, and the Hockey Hall of Fame, kids have plenty to see and do in "T-Dot," as Toronto is affectionately known. You could roam the downtown area for days and still find attractions and activities.

So it only made sense to build the Bentway where it now stands, and a host of individuals and organizations collaborated to make it happen. Linear parks have also popped up all over the world, repurposing old infrastructure for more people-friendly uses. Famous examples include the High Line in New York City, a park built on top of a defunct elevated railway, and the Radbahn in Berlin, an urban trail paved beneath the V1 Viaduct. Many cities have torn up their freeways and transformed them into public parks, and thousands of miles of former train lines around the world have been converted in rail-trails; here's where to ride the best rail trails in America. Only a few years after its completion, the Bentway has become a fixture of Toronto's downtown community.

Toronto comes alive in the summer, and a visit to the Bentway is a great introduction to the city in the warmer months. You can walk, bicycle, or rollerblade your way down the pavement. The Bentway is the setting for a wide range of events, from outdoor movie screenings and concerts to festivals and public art installations. Part of the Bentway is now dedicated to a skatepark, so skaters can show off their tricks for passersby. The shoulder seasons are also great for a visit, whether you prefer the budding branches of spring or colorful autumn leaves. Unlike most parks, the Beltway provides a giant concrete umbrella, so you don't have to worry about Toronto's quick-changing weather patterns. Come winter, sections of the Bentway are transformed into a long, curving rink, so visitors can ice skate. Just like the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, some people even use it to commute to work or school on ice skates.

Toronto is extremely easy for out-of-towners to visit, whether they're arriving from within Canada or well beyond. Toronto Pearson is the largest airport in the country, and the city's center is just a two-hour drive from Buffalo, New York, with a well-trafficked border crossing in between. Toronto is a major hub on Via Rail, Canada's passenger railway system, and the city boasts hundreds of hotels, from economical stays (under $100 per night) to luxury accommodations ($300 and above). If you're looking for more clever intersections of park and pavement, take this day trip for the best skyline views of Toronto.