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Plan The Visit

Two routes, the subway, and the honest parking situation. The longest page on this site — because this is the part people get wrong.

Getting there without a car

Museum station on Line 1 is literally the stop. You come up the stairs, turn around, and the Crystal is across the road. It is the single easiest museum to reach by transit in this city and nobody should be driving to it if they can avoid it.

From Union Station: Line 1 north to Museum, about twelve minutes. From Bloor-Yonge: Line 1 south, two stops. If you're coming in on GO, get off at Union and take the subway up — the TTC trip planner will confirm it, but so will I: it's twelve minutes.

There are also buses along Avenue Road if you're coming from the north — the 5 and the 142 both stop within a block. I've never taken either, so I won't pretend to know the schedule. The TTC site has it.

Parking, honestly

There's a garage under the museum off Bedford Road, and it is expensive and it fills. On a Saturday after 10 am you will circle. The Green P lot two blocks north on Bedford is cheaper and usually has space, and the walk is four minutes. Do that instead.

Do not park on the residential streets east of the museum. They're permit-only and the city tickets aggressively. I watched a man argue with a parking officer about it for ten minutes in 2019 and the officer was right.

Half-day route for families (3 to 4 hours)

1. Enter at Bloor (the Crystal side). Shorter queue than Queen's Park on weekends.
2. Straight up to the dinosaurs. Do it first, before the kids are tired. Forty-five minutes.
3. Gem vault next door. Fifteen minutes. Quiet, dark, and a good reset.
4. Bathroom and snack on the lower level. Ten minutes. Yes, the food is overpriced — see below.
5. One more gallery — mammals or the First Peoples hall, whichever your kid points at. Thirty minutes.
6. Out through the Queen's Park doors so they see the old stone entrance on the way out. It's a nicer exit and there's a bench outside for the "I'm tired" conversation.

Slower route for grown-ups (2 hours, no kids)

1. Coffee first on Bloor, then in through the Crystal.
2. Special exhibition first if you've bought a ticket — it's the thing with time pressure on it.
3. Dinosaurs, but skip the animatronic alcove. It's for children and it's loud.
4. Gem vault. Take your time. It's the best-lit room in the building.
5. One of the quieter upper galleries — textiles or East Asian ceramics, depending on what's open this month.
6. Out, and a drink on Bloor.

The cafeteria

Airport pricing, museum quality varies. A sandwich and a coffee will cost you what a sit-down lunch costs three blocks away. If you're on a budget, eat before you come or walk five minutes north on Bedford. If you have small children and no patience, pay the cafeteria price and move on with your day. I've done both and I don't judge either.

Bags, coats, strollers

Large backpacks have to be checked — free, at the desk by the Bloor entrance. Coats can be checked in winter for a small fee. Strollers are allowed everywhere except the gem vault (too dark, too tight) and the special exhibition hall (varies by show). There's stroller parking outside both rooms.

If you only have two hours and one child, do the dinosaurs and leave. Trying to "get your money's worth" is how museums turn into a fight in a stairwell.

One thing I always tell people

Wear the shoes you'd wear to a mall, not the shoes you'd wear to a hike. The floors are stone and the building is bigger than it looks on the map. I spent twenty-two years on those floors in work boots and my knees are still complaining about it.