Pearson Airport to the Toronto Islands & Harbourfront

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the Toronto Islands?

The UP Express to Union and the ten-minute walk down Bay Street to the ferry is the honest alternative for a visitor with a backpack — forty minutes — and this page says so. What the train does not do is carry the stroller, the cooler and the beach bags, hold the luggage while a family spends the afternoon on Centre Island, or wait at Queens Quay when the last ferry comes in; the chauffeur is the version that does. The Billy Bishop page covers the island airport at the islands' western end, which is a different trip.

The ferry: three islands, one dock

The city's ferries leave the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal for three docks — Centre Island for the beach, the pier and the Centreville amusement park; Ward's Island for the cottages, the quiet beach and the Rectory café; and Hanlan's Point for the clothing-optional beach and the island airport's edge — every fifteen to thirty minutes in summer and hourly in winter, and the queue for the Centre Island boat on a summer Saturday is an hour by noon. The chauffeur's advice is the early boat or the Ward's Island one, from which Centre Island is a twenty-minute walk along the boardwalk; tickets are bought at the terminal or online from the city's island page, and the chauffeur drops at the terminal's lay-by on Queens Quay with the point for the return texted when the family is on the boat back. The water taxis from the Harbourfront's docks are the alternative when the queue is long, and the chauffeur knows which dock they leave from.

Centre Island, Centreville and the family day

Centre Island is the family's day: Centreville's rides for the under-tens, the Far Enough Farm, the beach and the pier, the bicycles rented at the dock, and the picnic on the lawns with the skyline across the water. A family landing at Pearson in the morning is at the docks by noon with the luggage in the boot, on the island for the afternoon, and at the hotel by dinner on one confirmation; a family at a downtown hotel books the island day as a short leg on an hourly booking with the chauffeur holding on Queens Quay, and the family page explains the seats and the stroller. The island is car-free — the chauffeur's role ends at the terminal and resumes there — and the last ferry back in summer is late enough for the sunset from the far shore.

Harbourfront Centre, the waterfront and the cruise terminal

The Harbourfront on Queens Quay is the waterfront the ferry leaves from and a day in itself: Harbourfront Centre's galleries and its summer festivals, the Power Plant contemporary gallery, the Amsterdam Brewhouse's patio, the sailing school and the canoe rentals, the Music Garden and the boardwalk west to the Spadina slip, and the Redpath sugar ship and Sugar Beach east. The cruise terminal on Cherry Street receives the Great Lakes ships from May to October, and a cruise passenger's day in the city begins at its gate with the chauffeur and ends there by the all-aboard time; the CN Tower is ten minutes north and the Distillery ten minutes east, and the chauffeured day threads them with the bags in the boot.

The hotels on the water

The Harbourfront's hotels are the base for a visitor who wants to walk to the ferry: the Westin Harbour Castle beside the terminal, the Radisson Blu on Queens Quay West, the Delta on Lower Simcoe five minutes north, and the Fairmont Royal York ten minutes up Bay Street. The Pearson transfer to each is the downtown fixed fare, and a family with a week in the city and the islands as one day books the hotel by the water for the ferry's early boat.

Winter on the islands and the harbour

The islands in winter are the Ward's Island boat on the hour, the frozen lagoons, the empty boardwalk and the skyline in the clear air — a walk for a couple rather than a family day — and the Harbourfront's Natrel rink on Queens Quay and the winter festivals are the waterfront's season. The chauffeur's winter role is the door-to-door: the drop at the terminal rather than the walk from Union, the warm car on Queens Quay when the boat comes in, and the downtown route covers the Gardiner in a squall.

Groups, picnics and the Sprinter

The islands' group traffic is the company picnic, the school trip, the family reunion and the birthday party of ten — the Executive Sprinter from one or two addresses to the terminal with the coolers and the bicycles' helmets in the boot, the return at the booked hour when the boat comes in, one fare split however the group likes; a company's summer picnic on the island's lawns books the Sprinter and the coach from the office on a corporate account with the manifest, and a school from Kingston or Buffalo books the coach to the terminal with the seats for the youngest.

What the fare includes

The fare from Pearson to the ferry terminal or the Harbourfront 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 ferry tickets are bought from the city, not from us.

Ward's Island: the quiet end and the Rectory

Ward's Island is the islands' other character: two hundred-odd cottages with no cars, the boardwalk along the lake's edge to Centre Island, the quiet beach on the south shore, and the Rectory café on the lagoon where the islanders eat. A couple who want the islands without Centreville take the Ward's boat, walk the boardwalk west and come back on the Centre Island ferry at sunset with the skyline turning gold; a photographer flying in for the skyline books the last boat out and the last boat back. The Ward's dock has its own queue, always shorter than Centre Island's, and the chauffeur's advice on a summer Saturday is the Ward's boat and the walk.

Sailing, paddling and the harbour from the water

The Harbourfront's water is its point, and the chauffeur is the connection to the boats: the Harbourfront Centre's sailing school and its canoe and kayak rentals at the Spadina slip, the tall ship and the harbour-cruise boats at the Queens Quay docks, the water taxis to the islands, and the private charters from the marina at Bathurst. A company's summer outing on a harbour cruise books the Sprinter from the office to the dock on a corporate account; a family's afternoon in a rented canoe on the island lagoons begins at the Spadina slip with the chauffeur holding on Queens Quay West, and the Billy Bishop page covers the island airport's own ferry at the harbour's western end.

The Harbourfront's festivals and the summer calendar

Harbourfront Centre's summer is a calendar of free festivals — the international weekends of music and food along the quay, the outdoor concerts at the WestJet Stage, the Redpath Waterfront Festival with the tall ships in June, the Canada Day fireworks over the harbour — and a visitor in the city for any of them books the evening on the event pattern: the drop on Queens Quay at the Centre, the pickup on Lower Simcoe or at the Rees Street lot when Queens Quay is closed, and the point texted before the fireworks. The Natrel rink on the quay is the winter's version, and the hourly chauffeur covers the waterfront's whole length from the Distillery to Ontario Place.

Book Pearson to the Toronto Islands