Toronto - Canada's business capital and largest city - is a clean, safe and vibrant metropolis, where real estate prices are high and blood pressure levels are low. A center for Anglo-Canadian culture, it's also one of the great ethnic melting pots of the world, where the traveler has the world for the cost of a subway token and the most authentic cuisine dangling from the edge of every fork. The city no longer carries the heavy, moralistic mantle of 'Toronto the Good'; its many immigrants have helped the city shake its traditionally standoffish image.

Like hypnotized subjects, few visitors can explain what makes Toronto so satisfying. Although the famous Niagara Falls are nearby, Toronto isn't a city with a checklist full of attractions. It's a city that needs to be experienced, and you need some time to let its many flavors percolate. Its festivals seize you in summer, the spicy corners of its markets call you, the beachfront boardwalks and the music pouring out of its neighborhood eateries seduce you. It's a place just finding its feet, and is all the more charming for it, fresher than many a city its size.