Toronto Airport to the CN Tower

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the CN Tower?

The UP Express is the honest alternative: twenty-five minutes from Pearson to Union Station, and the tower is a ten-minute walk west along the SkyWalk — for a visitor with a backpack it is the right answer and this page says so. What the train does not do is carry a family's luggage up the tower or hold it while they see the aquarium, wait at Bremner Boulevard for the return, or make the layover between two flights work; the chauffeur is the version that does. The downtown route covers the Gardiner hour by hour.

The base: Bremner Boulevard, the aquarium and the doors

The CN Tower's entrance is at the foot of the tower on Bremner Boulevard, a short one-way street between the tower and the Rogers Centre with a lay-by where the chauffeur stops for unloading; Ripley's Aquarium's entrance is beside it, the Rogers Centre's gates behind, and Roundhouse Park with the Steam Whistle brewery across the street. On a game day at the Rogers Centre or a concert night at Scotiabank Arena two blocks east, Bremner is closed to cars an hour before the event and the chauffeur drops on Front Street or Lower Simcoe and walks you the last two minutes; on every other day the lay-by is the door. The return pickup is at the same lay-by or on Front Street, with the point texted before you come down. The Rogers Centre page covers the event-day closures in detail.

Timed entry: making the ticket

The tower sells timed-entry tickets for the main observation level and for the EdgeWalk, and the timing from a Pearson landing is the question this page answers most: an international arrival needs an hour from touchdown to the curb for immigration and baggage on a good day and ninety minutes on a bad one, the drive is thirty-five to forty-five minutes, and the queue at the base on a summer afternoon is twenty. A flight landing at noon makes a 3 pm ticket comfortably and a 2 pm one only if everything goes right; the chauffeur tracks the flight and tells you from the live feed whether the ticket is safe. The EdgeWalk — the hands-free walk around the roof of the main pod at 356 metres — is booked weeks ahead with a fixed slot and is the one ticket we recommend booking for the day after the arrival rather than the day of.

The layover: two flights and the tower between them

Pearson's most-asked layover question is whether the CN Tower can be done between flights, and the answer is yes with four hours or more on the ground: forty-five minutes from the gate to the curb, thirty-five to the tower, an hour on the observation level, thirty-five back to the correct terminal — the terminal finder confirms which — and the ninety-minute domestic or two-and-a-half-hour international check-in cut-off at the end. The chauffeur holds the luggage in the boot for the whole excursion so nothing is checked at the airport's storage, and the fare is two fixed legs; a five-hour layover adds the aquarium, a six-hour one adds lunch on the waterfront. The Pearson complete guide covers the connection times.

Ripley's Aquarium, the Rogers Centre and the day around the tower

Ripley's Aquarium of Canada is next door — the shark tunnel and the jellyfish gallery are the two hours families add to the tower — and the Rogers Centre behind it hosts the Blue Jays from April to September and the concerts between; Scotiabank Arena, the Hockey Hall of Fame and Union Station are two blocks east; the Harbourfront Centre and the ferry docks for the Toronto Islands are five minutes south; the Rogers Centre page covers the games. A family's day is the tower in the morning, the aquarium after lunch and the ferry to Centre Island's amusement park in the afternoon, and a chauffeured half-day from the hotel covers all of it with the stroller in the boot; the family page explains the seats.

The 360 Restaurant and the evening

The tower's revolving 360 Restaurant takes reservations that include the elevator, and a dinner at sunset — the city turning below over seventy-two minutes — is the evening a visitor books for an anniversary or a first night. The chauffeur's timing is the reservation's: at the hotel forty minutes before, at the Bremner lay-by for the drop, and back at the lay-by or on Front Street at the end with the point texted from the table; a couple who have landed that afternoon and want the dinner the same night are at the hotel by 4, at the tower by 7 and back by 10 on one confirmation. The tower's evening hours run late in summer and the lights on the tower change nightly for the causes of the day.

The hotels around the tower

The tower is surrounded by hotels, and a visitor who wants to walk to it stays at the Marriott on Front Street, the InterContinental beside the convention centre, the Hilton on Richmond, the Delta on Lower Simcoe, the Westin Harbour Castle on the water, or the Fairmont Royal York across from Union. The Pearson transfer to any of them is the downtown fixed fare, and the tower is a five- to ten-minute walk from each; the hotels hub lists the doors.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to the CN Tower is the fixed downtown fare by vehicle class and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, tolls, taxes, curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area and the included waiting with the flight tracked; meet and greet is the paid add-on; gratuity is never added; a cancellation before dispatch is free; a wait at the tower is billed at the hourly rate in fifteen-minute units when the same car holds for the return, and the tower's own tickets are bought from the CN Tower, not from us.

The incentive group and the tower's private events

The tower's event floors — the 360's private dining and the Horizons level — host the incentive dinners, the product launches and the conference receptions that bring the corporate account bookings: a company's forty guests collected from the airport through the day on the shuttle pattern and from the hotels on the evening in the Sprinter and the coach, delivered to Bremner Boulevard on one manifest, and collected at the end with the standing cars for the executives. The tower's closure of Bremner for a private event follows the same rule as a game day, and the chauffeur plans the drop on Front Street with the event's own marshals.

Winter at the tower: the view and the walk

The tower's winter is its clearest — the cold air after a front gives the hundred-mile view to the Niagara Escarpment and, on the best days, the plume of the Falls — and the winter visit is the one families flying in for Christmas add between the Distillery's Christmas Market and the Eaton Centre. The ten-minute walk from Union along the SkyWalk is indoors; the two minutes from the Front Street drop are not, and the chauffeur drops at the Bremner lay-by, which is open on a winter weekday, rather than on Front. The EdgeWalk closes for the season; the observation level and the 360 run all year, and the downtown route covers the Gardiner in a January squall.

Cruise passengers, the port and the tower

Toronto's cruise terminal on Cherry Street receives the Great Lakes cruise ships from May to October, and their passengers — a day in the city between Kingston and Niagara — book the tower as the morning: the chauffeur collects at the terminal's gate, delivers to the Bremner lay-by, holds by the hour for the tower and the aquarium, and returns the party to the ship by the all-aboard time. The worldwide network covers the ports at the cruise's other ends, and the Sprinter carries a ship's private group of ten on one manifest.

Book Pearson to the CN Tower