10 Best Parks in Toronto

High Park is among the largest and most popular parks in the city, a gigantic stretch of green space with hiking trails, fishing ponds, sports facilities, and even a zoo. Looking to explore the park without hours of walking? The High Park Trackless Train lets you see the highlights of the park, and during the spring it takes you through stunning pink groves of blooming cherry trees. The park's small zoo showcases creatures like bison, capybaras, yaks, reindeer, and sheep, among others.

Hit up Grenadier Pond for fishing, or play tennis, soccer, or baseball. Go ice skating in the winter and take a swim in the pool in the summer. It's about 15 minutes west of central Toronto.

Bluffer's Park is a beachfront park in front of the famed Scarborough Bluffs that offers a marina, hiking and biking trails, swimming, and soft sand on the lakeshore. It's considered among the best beaches in Toronto and is an outstanding place to forget you're in the middle of a city and just relax for a bit. The park offers picnic tables and barbecue facilities so you can cook a few burgers and dogs and enjoy a picnic lunch. Concession areas sell fast food for those who don't want to cook themselves.

Other amenities include bathrooms and changing areas. This serene escape from the hustle and bustle is about 30 minutes northeast of the city.

The Toronto Music Garden offers a musically inspired journey through elegantly tended gardens of colorful plants and vast green space all based on the works of Bach. Each area of the garden represents one of Bach's 6 unaccompanied cello suites. The park was designed in collaboration with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and in the summer the city puts on free outdoor concerts with classical music designed to go hand in hand with the experience of the gardens.

A walk through this park is a serene and elegant way to see and enjoy the culture and beauty of Toronto. It's just a few minutes' drive southwest of downtown.

Toronto Island Park offers a pleasant and serene escape to a spot with large lawns, gorgeous gardens, great beaches, and shaded lanes. The park is spread over 600 acres of untouched land with a spectacular view of the Toronto skyline in the distance. You'll find plenty of things to do and see here as well including the Franklin Children's Garden, Centreville Amusement Park, a historic lighthouse, and the Far Enough Farm. You can also rent bikes as well as boats for kayaking or canoeing. Even the ferry ride to get here is a lot of fun.

Whatever kind of fun you're looking for, it's probably here. It's located south of downtown on Centre Island.

Trinity Bellwoods Park offers 36 acres of parkland on Queen Street West with baseball diamonds, tennis and volleyball courts, picnic areas, wading pools, and a playground. This is a park that's popular among the hip millennial set and is just steps away from many of the local city attractions. Here you can play ball, go ice skating in the winter, or just walk among centuries-old groves of trees along walking paths lined by old cast-iron street lamps.

This park regularly hosts events like public art shows, plays, book fairs, drum circles, and others. Some say that if you keep your eyes open, you'll see the mysterious white squirrels that live here. It's just a few minutes west of downtown.

Edwards Gardens is nothing short of a treat for the eyes, especially in spring and early summer when the park bursts into brightly colored blooms of carefully tended flowers. You'll see red, orange, yellow, purple, and every color of the rainbow in the tulips, lilies, roses, rhododendrons, and other flowers all specifically chosen and elegantly arranged for maximum visual effect. You can take a walk along a small stream that bubbles along a rocky creek bed or over an idyllic arched pedestrian bridge for a great photo op of you and your beloved.

This is hands-down one of the most romantic spots around. It's just about 20 minutes north of the city.

Sunnybrook Park offers 381 acres of hiking and biking trails, wildlife and bird viewing, forested groves of trees, and general relaxation. Animal lovers flock here for the chance to see creatures like snapping turtles, red-winged blackbirds, great blue herons, and others. You can also explore tree varieties including the American beech, eastern hemlock, sugar maple, and eastern white pine in Glendon Forest. You'll find no fewer than 25 hiking and biking trails to explore here.

You can even enjoy an off-leash dog area here, so feel free to bring your furry family friend along. Sunnybrook Park is an idyllic location just 25 minutes north of the city.

Dufferin Grove Park offers 13 acres of green space on Toronto's west side with a mature forested canopy, a reflexology footpath, a wading pool, a playground, and sports facilities. The footpath is the first of its kind in Toronto and is designed to massage and stimulate sore feet so you get rejuvenated while you walk. Here you'll splash in a wading pool, build sandcastles, play football, or take advantage of the skate park. You can visit the 2 wood ovens for snacks, and go skating at the artificial ice rink at the park's north end.

It's just steps away from the Dufferin Mall for shopping and dining. Just head about 10 minutes west of downtown.

Colonel Samuel Smith Park offers 195 acres of parkland that's a draw in the wintertime for its figure-8 ice skating trail but also has wildlife viewing and fishing in summer. No matter when you visit this park, you'll find something to do. The ice skating trail is the first of its kind in the city and offers a different approach from just skating in circles around a rink, allowing you to witness the full beauty of the park during the winter months.

In the summer you can go wildlife spotting, enjoy bird-watching, or go fishing in the lake. Bring a camera and hit the park early to catch a spectacular sunrise photo. It's just 22 minutes southwest of downtown.

Kew Gardens park offers everything from a serene shoreline to a library, wheelchair-accessible trails, tennis courts, baseball fields, a wading pool, an ice rink, and events all year. Throughout the summer, the park hosts regular free movie nights and art exhibitions put on by the Beach Guild of Fine Art in the historic Gardener's Cottage. The winter sees the pool turned into an ice skating rink where you can celebrate the holidays in classically elegant fashion. In the summer, you can cool off by wading in the waters and take in a show at the picturesque bandstand.

This park draws the hip and bohemian crowd and is always vibrant with activity. It's 20 minutes northeast of downtown.