I played tourist in Toronto as a local. Here are the spots worth visiting and the ones to avoid

The CN Tower

I was super skeptical about going up the CN Tower and whether or not it'd be worth it, but as it turned out, it was a lot of fun and ended up being my favourite out of all of the touristy attractions we visited.

I see the Tower on a regular basis when I'm out and about, but there was something very charming about stopping and taking the time to take pictures of it from ground level before we navigated our way to the entrance of the attraction.

Inside, after going through security and getting to an elevator, it was a surprisingly quick ride to the top and then just pure magic.

I've been to observation stations in Sydney, Australia and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and while they were both very cool, it kind of felt lost on me as I didn't really know what I was looking down at.

For Toronto, it was really fun to look at the birds-eye view of the city and point out places we know, like the CBC building I used to work at, the Fairmount, the GO train tracks, the Gardiner and various other spots.

I also really liked that they have a small concession stand where you can buy drinks as well as alcoholic beverages if you want. We got some Diet Coke's and sat and chatted and looked out at the city for about an hour.

Overall, it was a really wonderful and memorable experience that I'd highly recommend any Torontonian to check out. Go ahead — do the touristy thing!

The ROM

Next up on our adventure was a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum. I've been to the ROM many times as a kid, teen and young adult — particularly on the days when it was free for students — but I haven't been in recent years.

The building of the ROM itself is an eyesore that low-key ruins the Bloor and Avenue intersection, but there's no denying that the inside is delightful.

Walking in and seeing the giant dinosaur in the entrance is very nostalgic, and despite the fact that I had previously visited many of the exhibits, I still found new and interesting things to learn about.

While wandering through the European exhibit, we both enjoyed the little stations where you could sit and press a button and listen to someone tell you in more detail about what it was like for a woman at the time to run her household or the common issues faced by people of the time.

We also really enjoyed the exhibit of gemstones (many of which I informed my boyfriend would make for lovely engagement rings) as well as the gallery of birds and the gallery of Africa, The Americas, and Asia-Pacific which we spent about an hour in.

The ROM is definitely a highlight of the city, and it's actually really cool that we're able to interact with so many beautiful artifacts from around the world. Worth the visit!

Casa Loma

I know a lot of people enjoy Casa Loma, but quite frankly, I don't really get it!

Perhaps I'm spoiled because I've been fortunate enough to see really cool and well-preserved castles in other countries, so this Toronto version felt overall quite "meh" to me.

While some of the rooms are quite beautiful, I found the plaques explaining everything to be insufficient in information, so it felt more like I was wandering through a very fancy house with little to no context about what I was looking at.

As well, some parts of the castle I found to be just strange, like the Dark Side Tunnel Exhibit. While it was interesting to see the archival photographs of Prohibition, The Depression and other events that happened in Toronto, the tunnel itself felt dingy and random, particularly with the the unexpected strobe lights and pop music playing at certain points.

I was over it pretty quickly and out of all of the attractions that we went to, it was my least favourite and one I don't want to go back to.

I've heard it's beautiful in the summer and at Christmas, but it just isn't for me!