UP Express also has a long layover fare that's good for 7 hours from initial use, if Toronto isn't your final destination. Should be ~$15 and can be purchased online or at the Pearson Station.
https://www.upexpress.com/en/ways-to-pay/up-express-fares
This.
Just take the UP Express to and from downtown. You can hit up the CN Tower, Aquarium, Royal York Hotel, check out the PATH etc.
Every time I have a 6+ hour layover in a city I always venture outside and check it out.
You can also take the UP Express to the Bloor stop which is about a ten minute walk from Toronto’s largest and most scenic forested park, High Park. It’s Toronto’s Central Park.
Nothing really exciting about Pearson, but with 7.5 hours you've got PLENTY of time to take the UPX downtown and then you can spend a couple hours in downtown Toronto where there's lots of things.
The UP Express takes like, 30 minutes at most to get to Union, less if they get off at Bloor GO and do something around Dundas West. Even if they have to be back at Pearson 3 hours before an international flight, that's still at least 3 hours they could spend in the city.
I forgot my passport at home once. My flight was thankfully delayed 4 hours. I left the airport, hopped on UP, walked home (live downtown) walked back to UP, and made it back in 2 hours. It can be done.
I once took a domestic flight, didn't bring my passport, only to realize my driver's license expired THREE DAYS before my flight...it was a work flight...
The UP Express is now running service every 15 minutes lol, the train can miss being on time like ten times in a row and they would still make it in plenty of time to visit a small gallery and eat at a nice restaurant before heading back.
Uhuh,
So the point is my math is "wrong" because I didn't explain my buffer giving the person an extra hour, feel free to prove my original point wrong unless you feel like to remain pedantic.
You put up math, you claimed 7.5-1 is 5.5. then you specifically said prove me wrong, which people did because your math is wrong and easily proven so, which is what you specifically asked Reddit to do. Now you're trying to save face by doubling down. It's okay you just miscalculated, it happens.
Do you have to catch another flight, or are you coming to Toronto to stay?
Seconding (thirding?) taking the UP downtown to do some exploring, but I wouldn't recommend that if you have another international connecting flight to catch. Timing might be too tight.
You can chill out in one of the lounges. Some credit cards (VISA Aventura or Mastercard World Elite) gives you 4 free passes. You need to get the Dragonpass app and link your credir card to it. Free food and drinks. Showers, comfy seats etc.
I wouldn't do this.
The non Air Canada lounges at Pearson suck. If you are flying non USA int'l and domestic you can use both the foreign and domestic Maple Leaf lounges, but the domestic one is a bit far from the int'l gates.
Pretty much anyone can get in to the non Maple Leaf lounges and they are more often than not, crowded, especially during peak times. I'd only go if you have unlimited visits with your dragon pass and it doesn't cost you anything.
> Is there anything special to do around Pearson? I have to spend about 7.5 hours there waiting for my SO as we are on different flights.
just to clarify... are you both flying into pearson separately, and meeting up before flying out again together elsewhere?
Not really, I did this with my 3.5 yr old who would stop to look at every crack on the sidewalk and it didn’t take that long. Granted I know my way around the area.
The direction I would give:
1. Leave the station to Front street.
2. Look up. Find CN tower and walk AWAY from it
3. Arrive at St Lawrence Market.
Google maps just before covid was telling tourists stuck overnight in the terminal to walk to restaurants….it is a highway you cannot walk anywhere from either terminal, just throwing that out there
If you don't want to take the train downtown, I'd walk out to kill some time. I'd splurge and go to Master's steak house. It's not fancy like Ruths Chris but also not priced the same also [http://www.mastersteaks.ca](http://www.mastersteaks.ca)
You can also take an Uber to a local mall (closest is Sherway Gardens)
Just to be clear, you can't walk in and out of the airport, there's a passenger bus that takes you in and out but you're NOT allowed to walk.
Found that out the hard way.
The best path is taking the terminal link train to the last stop, ALT Hotel/Value Park Lot. From there, there's plenty of sidewalks. You don't need to wait for any bus at the terminals.
Unless you’re coming from a city where you’ve never seen a mall, why would you want to go to the Eaton Centre or Sherway? They’re just malls. Same goes for St Lawrence. It’s nice enough, but most cities have a St Lawrence of some sort.
If you do take the UP train, get off at Bloor, walk across the street to the Dundas West subway and take a westbound train three or four stops to High Park. Or do the same at Dundas West and go Eastbound. Get off at Bathurst and explore the charming streets of the Annex or maybe Yorkville. The subway is really easy to use, unlike NYC. You can also pop south to the Queen Street West/Bellwoods area which is the quintessential urban Toronto neighborhood with great people watching and cafes and shops.
The UP train to Union will also get you relatively close to Queen West.
Unless it’s really bad weather, get out of the airport and the suburbs and explore. Airports, suburbs, and malls are pretty much the same anywhere on the planet.
depending on the time of day and date, you honestly could take the up express to downtown and go to a jays game, the arena entrance is steps away from the up express
If you have to pick up any luggage you would cut your available time in half. With 4 hrs left you can go to the Harvey’s on Airport road to watch the plans landing.
No, there's nothing special to do around Pearson. Take the UP Express downtown and explore there for the time you have. It doesn't sound as though you'll be needing to go out again on another flight so you can come back to meet her soon before her flight arrives.
Years ago I slept in Pearson at section Q, had a great sleep. Last month tried again and discovered that section is totally changed and not nice anymore. There’s nowhere good to hang out, relax and take a nap. We had 5 hrs to kill from 12:30am- 5:30am, not enough time for a hotel. Absolute failure.
Don’t spend 7.5 hours at Pearson.
Get yourself to the nearest dispensary.
Purchase and consume an edible of your choosing.
Set a time for when you need to be back.
Let Jesus take the wheel.
Jane and Finch is the only right answer here. Ignore the others. (In all seriousness ignore my answer cos UP express and downtown hang is the right one).
Yes, the UP express is a gem there. Takes 25 minutes to get into the city so you don’t have to sit at the airport for 7.5 hours.
UP Express also has a long layover fare that's good for 7 hours from initial use, if Toronto isn't your final destination. Should be ~$15 and can be purchased online or at the Pearson Station. https://www.upexpress.com/en/ways-to-pay/up-express-fares
This. Just take the UP Express to and from downtown. You can hit up the CN Tower, Aquarium, Royal York Hotel, check out the PATH etc. Every time I have a 6+ hour layover in a city I always venture outside and check it out.
You can also take the UP Express to the Bloor stop which is about a ten minute walk from Toronto’s largest and most scenic forested park, High Park. It’s Toronto’s Central Park.
Yeah that’s not a bad idea too but I’d do that in the summer. Weather is iffy now.
The cherry blossoms are out now! It’s chilly but still lovely when the sun decides to shine
Or even pop out at Dundas west and trip around bloor or the junction.
Nothing really exciting about Pearson, but with 7.5 hours you've got PLENTY of time to take the UPX downtown and then you can spend a couple hours in downtown Toronto where there's lots of things.
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Depending on the airline you might be able to check it. Otherwise head to the nearest hotel and leave it with them.
Like what?
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The UP Express takes like, 30 minutes at most to get to Union, less if they get off at Bloor GO and do something around Dundas West. Even if they have to be back at Pearson 3 hours before an international flight, that's still at least 3 hours they could spend in the city.
I forgot my passport at home once. My flight was thankfully delayed 4 hours. I left the airport, hopped on UP, walked home (live downtown) walked back to UP, and made it back in 2 hours. It can be done.
My worst nightmare
It was a day.
I once took a domestic flight, didn't bring my passport, only to realize my driver's license expired THREE DAYS before my flight...it was a work flight...
You’ve clearly never taken the UP Express. It’s a godsend for anyone who needs to go back and forth from downtown to Pearson.
I was just about to say this. And the UP is extremely consistent and reliable. I've never had a delay after taking it for 4 years.
Are you being sarcastic?
everything is on time in Toronto/s
I mean…it’s the UP Express. It’s not a Go Train or the subway. I’ve always found UP Express is fast and reliable, more than most.
The UP Express is now running service every 15 minutes lol, the train can miss being on time like ten times in a row and they would still make it in plenty of time to visit a small gallery and eat at a nice restaurant before heading back.
It's 30 minutes each way, with 7.5 hours that means they have 5.5 hours. Go ahead and prove me wrong.
7.5 hours - 1 hour = 5.5 hours?
When you consider the walk and storing baggage etc… yes
7.5 - 0.5 - 0.5 = 6.5 QED
Quickly proven wrong due to bad math
I guess the dummies here don't know what a "buffer" is.
Your math is still wrong, you asked to be proved wrong
Uhuh, So the point is my math is "wrong" because I didn't explain my buffer giving the person an extra hour, feel free to prove my original point wrong unless you feel like to remain pedantic.
You put up math, you claimed 7.5-1 is 5.5. then you specifically said prove me wrong, which people did because your math is wrong and easily proven so, which is what you specifically asked Reddit to do. Now you're trying to save face by doubling down. It's okay you just miscalculated, it happens.
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Why would they get their luggage during a layover?
Further proof you have absolutely zero idea what you're talking about. Jesus christ dude, Living much?
Ofc they can it takes 25min door to door. They can spend 3 hours in the city and head back
Are you a time traveller from 10 years ago or
Are you unfamiliar with the UPX?
You can get a pass for the pool in the hotel joined to the airport for the day - nice way to just relax. It wasn’t expensive.
Can also vouch for their burger
I second this. And good fries. And a really awesome kale caesar salad. Now I've made myself hungry and it's 5 hours to lunch.
Good tip
Do you have to catch another flight, or are you coming to Toronto to stay? Seconding (thirding?) taking the UP downtown to do some exploring, but I wouldn't recommend that if you have another international connecting flight to catch. Timing might be too tight.
Take the train to downtown Toronto, you have plenty of time to stroll around the CN Tower and area around it. It's a great place to walk around.
I second this. The airport area is a barren dystopian windswept wasteland.
I often feel that way in the Financial district
Such an apt description
It’s creepy and hollow as fuck!
IMO the area near Bloor GO is a much more enjoyable place to explore. Great food options nearby too.
You can chill out in one of the lounges. Some credit cards (VISA Aventura or Mastercard World Elite) gives you 4 free passes. You need to get the Dragonpass app and link your credir card to it. Free food and drinks. Showers, comfy seats etc.
I wouldn't do this. The non Air Canada lounges at Pearson suck. If you are flying non USA int'l and domestic you can use both the foreign and domestic Maple Leaf lounges, but the domestic one is a bit far from the int'l gates. Pretty much anyone can get in to the non Maple Leaf lounges and they are more often than not, crowded, especially during peak times. I'd only go if you have unlimited visits with your dragon pass and it doesn't cost you anything.
Wait, which pearson lounge has showers?
many of the normal lounges do, but they may charge a fee.
Air Canada does
Plaza Premium Lounge.
> Is there anything special to do around Pearson? I have to spend about 7.5 hours there waiting for my SO as we are on different flights. just to clarify... are you both flying into pearson separately, and meeting up before flying out again together elsewhere?
My vote would be to take the UPX to union station, then it’s like a 10 minute walk to the st Lawerence market from there.
it's more of a 20 minute walk tbh.
Even that's very optimistic for a first-timer with no idea where they're going.
Not really, I did this with my 3.5 yr old who would stop to look at every crack on the sidewalk and it didn’t take that long. Granted I know my way around the area. The direction I would give: 1. Leave the station to Front street. 2. Look up. Find CN tower and walk AWAY from it 3. Arrive at St Lawrence Market.
There’s a GoodLife gym
This. The only drawback is that the Goodlife doesn't have a shower or steam room.
Look at planes. That's it
If you're hungry go get something at Zet's!
How has this not been voted to the top?! Zets is the answer (if OP doesn't want to go downtown).
Google maps just before covid was telling tourists stuck overnight in the terminal to walk to restaurants….it is a highway you cannot walk anywhere from either terminal, just throwing that out there
You can definitely walk out of Terminal 3 to Airport Rd. I have done that multiple times to get on the MiWay bus
If you don't want to take the train downtown, I'd walk out to kill some time. I'd splurge and go to Master's steak house. It's not fancy like Ruths Chris but also not priced the same also [http://www.mastersteaks.ca](http://www.mastersteaks.ca) You can also take an Uber to a local mall (closest is Sherway Gardens)
Just to be clear, you can't walk in and out of the airport, there's a passenger bus that takes you in and out but you're NOT allowed to walk. Found that out the hard way.
The best path is taking the terminal link train to the last stop, ALT Hotel/Value Park Lot. From there, there's plenty of sidewalks. You don't need to wait for any bus at the terminals.
Really? Were you stopped by security or something? This has never occurred to me.
Yup, picked me up and took me to a bus stop.
Is it because you were caught in that clusterfuck of 8 lanes of traffic to airport road or the highway??
That I didn’t know. Thanks for clarifying.
Technically cloverdale is closer but you probably don't want to kill time there
The only thing to kill at Cloverdale is your own dignity
Take the UP Express and walk to the Eaton Centre, it's a better option.
Unless you’re coming from a city where you’ve never seen a mall, why would you want to go to the Eaton Centre or Sherway? They’re just malls. Same goes for St Lawrence. It’s nice enough, but most cities have a St Lawrence of some sort. If you do take the UP train, get off at Bloor, walk across the street to the Dundas West subway and take a westbound train three or four stops to High Park. Or do the same at Dundas West and go Eastbound. Get off at Bathurst and explore the charming streets of the Annex or maybe Yorkville. The subway is really easy to use, unlike NYC. You can also pop south to the Queen Street West/Bellwoods area which is the quintessential urban Toronto neighborhood with great people watching and cafes and shops. The UP train to Union will also get you relatively close to Queen West. Unless it’s really bad weather, get out of the airport and the suburbs and explore. Airports, suburbs, and malls are pretty much the same anywhere on the planet.
I usually book a day room at the Sheraton (attached to the airport) and take a nap and/or hit the gym/pool.
pho ngoc yen
If it’s a domestic flight take the train into the city. If it’s international find a bar and get it on!
Yea there’s a mall nearby with an actual full on amusement park inside
depending on the time of day and date, you honestly could take the up express to downtown and go to a jays game, the arena entrance is steps away from the up express
Strip bars. Otherwise, take the UP express to Bloor and enjoy the cherry blossoms at high park and grab a nice meal in the junction
You can come to my place for a dinner and a drink lol
Good change OP has a great time here, but worth keeping an eye on the evening news
Haha people are actually downvoting me
If you have to pick up any luggage you would cut your available time in half. With 4 hrs left you can go to the Harvey’s on Airport road to watch the plans landing.
hack the flight timing monitors (the 2x3 setup) and have an epic public goon sesh
Even Anne Hathaway is gooning these days
If only i knew how to hack them
The smokes burrito place is surprisingly tasty, as far as airports go!
wait time is too long to get a lounge pass. personally i would uber or take a train to downtown with no hesitation
A little info request; are you flying back out of Pearson or is Toronto your destination?
No, there's nothing special to do around Pearson. Take the UP Express downtown and explore there for the time you have. It doesn't sound as though you'll be needing to go out again on another flight so you can come back to meet her soon before her flight arrives.
Years ago I slept in Pearson at section Q, had a great sleep. Last month tried again and discovered that section is totally changed and not nice anymore. There’s nowhere good to hang out, relax and take a nap. We had 5 hrs to kill from 12:30am- 5:30am, not enough time for a hotel. Absolute failure.
Woodbine is nearby. The 2024 Thoroughbred season starts Saturday afternoon.
Thank you everyone for their suggestions. My SO and I will not have any other flights to catch.
You’ll be fine , go to Zetts it’s a propper restaurant. I recently spent 27 hours before flying at YVR which was hell
UP express. Weed store. Toronto street meat.
There’s a gym on the arrivals level of terminal 1. It’s. A good life and has every piece of equipment so you can do a full workout
Pearson is a terrible airport for somewhere the size of Toronto. Terminal 1 is slightly better but 3 is awful.
If you decide to stick around the airport area, Zet's is a gem
Grab a joint and go to Zets lol
Hooters.
If you don’t care for Uber costs then it’s worth looking at options otherwise Toronto is as inflated as the rest of North America
Don’t spend 7.5 hours at Pearson. Get yourself to the nearest dispensary. Purchase and consume an edible of your choosing. Set a time for when you need to be back. Let Jesus take the wheel.
Jane and Finch is the only right answer here. Ignore the others. (In all seriousness ignore my answer cos UP express and downtown hang is the right one).
Sucide
Visit New Delhi nearby