The joy of spending the weekend in a city like Toronto is that you’re going to be out all day long. There are fantastic restaurants; cool shopping streets; and a generally walkable heart of the city where you can bop from museums to vintage stores to Portuguese bakeries without missing a beat.
In looking for a place to stay, then, I’ve come to realize over repeat visits that there is one obvious route for me. There are great hotels (like the one-year-old Ace Hotel Toronto), but prices start around $230 per night. And knowing from experience how little time I spend “at home” while in the city, I really just need a convenient, clean, quiet base where I can walk out the front door in the morning and conk out peacefully each night. So, on an October trip, I looked to Airbnb—and found a two-story modern loft, right on King Street in the center of downtown, that checked all the right boxes.
The photos confirmed a few essential facts: Bright light streaming in. Colorful but not tiresome decor. Impeccable cleanliness. Space for four people, across two rooms, at a cost of $250 per night. And an average 4.96 rating out of 5 stars. Say no more.
Arrival was easy—and not only because I flew Porter Airlines from New York, which drops you at the ultra-convenient Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport downtown—thanks to a lockbox and clear instructions for getting in. It’s especially easy to self check-in since this rental is within a big, new apartment building. Even though I’m partial to the charm of older or historic buildings wherever I go, I had looked long and hard for a centrally located bay-and-gable to no avail. The ease with which I could key fob my way into the building, ride the elevator up, and drop my luggage, with no coordinating needed, confirmed I’d made the right choice for my quick city trip. It was, for all intents and purposes, a downtown hotel at a friendlier price.
