Pearson Airport to the Distillery District

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the Distillery District?

The UP Express to Union and the King streetcar east to Parliament is the honest alternative for a visitor with a backpack — forty-five minutes — and this page says so. What the train does not do is carry the luggage, get a family from the airport to the Christmas Market on the evening they land, or wait on Mill Street at eleven when the restaurants close; the chauffeur is the version that does. The downtown route covers the Gardiner hour by hour.

The district: Mill Street, Trinity Street and the doors

The Distillery Historic District is closed to cars, and the drop is at its edges: the main entrance on Mill Street at Trinity, where the chauffeur stops in the lay-by; the Parliament Street side for the theatres; and Cherry Street on the east for the Distillery's own parking and the brewery. The return pickup is at the same lay-by with the point texted from the restaurant; on a Christmas Market evening, when Mill Street is closed further out and the crowd fills Parliament, the pickup moves to Front Street at Parliament or to the Corktown side on Eastern Avenue, and the chauffeur tells you which before you come out. The district's galleries, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (Soulpepper's theatre), the Spirit of York distillery, the Mill Street brewery and the restaurants along Tank House Lane are the afternoon and the evening; the Distillery District publishes the events.

The Christmas Market: timing it from the airport

The Distillery Winter Village — the Christmas Market — runs from mid-November through the holidays and draws the largest crowds of the year, with ticketed entry on the weekend evenings and free entry on weekdays and daytimes. A family flying into Pearson for Christmas in Toronto adds the market as the evening they land or the first full day: from the curb to the hotel with the luggage, and from the hotel to the Mill Street lay-by at dusk when the lights come on, with the pickup at Front and Parliament two hours later and the chauffeured evening holding the stroller and the shopping. The weekend-evening tickets sell out; the chauffeur's advice is a weekday evening, and the family page explains the seats.

St. Lawrence Market and the Old Town

St. Lawrence Market on Front Street at Jarvis is the city's food hall — the South Market's stalls from Tuesday to Sunday, the Saturday farmers' market in the North building, the peameal-bacon sandwich at Carousel that every visitor is sent for — and the Old Town around it is the Flatiron building, the St. Lawrence Hall, the cathedral and the Hockey Hall of Fame two blocks west. The chauffeur drops on Front Street at the market's doors or on Jarvis, and a Saturday-morning market visit from a hotel is a short leg on an hourly booking with the bags in the boot; the Fairmont Royal York is ten minutes' walk west, the Radisson on Queens Quay ten minutes south, and the Old Town's own hotels — the Novotel on the Esplanade, the Hotel Victoria, the Le Germain on Mercer — are the base for a visitor who wants to walk.

The evening by the hour: theatre, dinner and the waterfront

The Distillery's evening is a theatre night at the Young Centre, dinner on Tank House Lane and a walk to the waterfront at Sugar Beach and the Sherbourne Common ten minutes south, and the chauffeured evening covers it from the hotel with the three-hour minimum: the drop at Mill Street at six, the car holding on Cherry Street through the show, and the pickup for the drive to the waterfront and back to the hotel. A couple who have landed that afternoon and want the Distillery the same night are at the hotel by four and at Mill Street by seven on one confirmation; a group of eight for a birthday dinner is the Sprinter from Mississauga or Markham, one fare split however they like.

Weddings, photographs and the corporate event

The Distillery is the city's most-photographed wedding location — the brick lanes, the Trinity Street clock — and its Fermenting Cellar and the Archeo courtyard host the receptions; the wedding page covers the pattern, with the stretch limousine on Mill Street for the photographs and the Sprinter for the guests from the hotels. The district's event spaces host the corporate launches and the holiday parties that bring the corporate account bookings — guests collected from the airport, the hotels and the offices on one manifest, and the standing car for the executives.

Accessible visits and the cobbles

The Distillery's lanes are cobbled and its buildings are Victorian, which makes a visit with a walker or a wheelchair a matter of route: the main lanes have smooth paths beside the cobbles, the Young Centre and the galleries have ramps, and the chauffeur drops at the Trinity Street entrance where the path is flattest. The accessible page describes the vehicles; the pace at the curb is the chauffeur's.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to the Distillery District or St. Lawrence Market 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; the Christmas Market's weekend tickets are bought from the district, not from us.

Corktown, Leslieville and the east end by the hour

The Distillery is the western edge of the east end, and the chauffeured day that starts there threads the neighbourhoods a visitor otherwise misses: Corktown's cafés and the Canary District's new streets north of the Distillery, Leslieville's Queen Street East shops and brunch rooms fifteen minutes east, the Beaches boardwalk beyond them, and the Evergreen Brick Works — the old brickyard in the Don Valley turned market and park — twenty minutes north, with its Saturday farmers' market as the morning. The Don Valley trails and the Aga Khan Museum on Wynford Drive are the same direction, and the day ends at the Distillery's restaurants with the car holding on Cherry Street.

The art fair, the theatre season and the calendar

The Distillery's calendar runs the year: the Toronto Christmas Market from mid-November; the Toronto Light Festival in January and February, when the district's lanes fill with light installations and the evening walk is free; the Soulpepper season at the Young Centre from September to June; the summer's outdoor exhibitions and the Tank House Lane patios; and the artisan markets on the summer weekends. A visitor flying in for a Soulpepper premiere books the event pattern — the hotel pickup, the Mill Street drop, the pickup at the lay-by with the point texted from the lobby — and the theatre's own visiting artists and donors book on a corporate account.

The waterfront east: Sugar Beach, the port and the ferry

South of the Distillery the waterfront is the newest part of the city — Sugar Beach's pink umbrellas, the Sherbourne Common, the Corus building and the Redpath sugar refinery's ship at the quay — and beyond it the port: the Cherry Street cruise terminal where the Great Lakes ships dock from May to October, and the ferry docks at the foot of Bay Street ten minutes west for the Toronto Islands. A cruise passenger's day in the city begins at the terminal's gate, and the Distillery is the first stop on the chauffeured day that ends back at the ship by the all-aboard time.

The Christmas Market's arithmetic from a landing

The market's weekend evenings are ticketed with timed entry, and a family flying in on a December Friday for the weekend faces the same arithmetic as a timed exhibition: an hour from touchdown to the curb, forty minutes to the hotel, a change and a rest, and the Mill Street drop for a 6 pm slot — which a 1 pm landing makes and a 3 pm landing does not. The chauffeur tracks the flight and tells the family from the live feed whether the slot is safe; a family whose landing is late books the weekday evening instead, when entry is free and the lights are the same.

Book Pearson to the Distillery District