Toronto: City on the (High) Rise

What feels like a cross between London and New York, with a dash of Paris thrown in?

Toronto -- the booming financial and cultural capital of Canada -- a polyglot city that is emerging as a cosmopolis.

Toronto, which got its name from the Huron Indian word for "meeting place," is like London because of its English settler roots and Britishisms in language. You have a nine "storey" building and you are taken "to hospital" if you're unlucky; Queen Elizabeth II is still on the C$20 bill.

The city is like New York because of its diversity, its finance-centric nature (it's home to the Toronto Stock Exchange and where Donald Trump plans a major high-rise) and Times Square-like signs in some parts, such as in Dundas Square. Parts of Toronto look enough like New York, in fact, that it often serves as a surrogate for the Big Apple in films.

The Parisian flavor comes from French being a national language in Canada. Most signs and menus are in English and French, and tour guides and drivers speak both languages. (But if you really want a Canadian city with French influence, try Montreal, or Quebec City.)

Toronto, which juts into the north shore of Lake Ontario, boasts the world's tallest building -- the CN Tower. Ride up the tower in an elevator that travels 15 mph, and you'll get sweeping views of the city and of Lake Ontario. You're also allowed to walk around the tower outside and feel the fresh air that high up -- behind a taut iron-mesh barrier.

Toronto also contains two of the biggest ethnic neighborhoods of their kind in the world -- Chinatown (where there's a restaurant at practically every street number) and Little Italy. There also is a large Greektown, and Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. Truffles, a French restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel, was named the city's most popular restaurant in a Zagat's survey. Yonge Street, a busy mix of commercial establishments, lays claim to being the longest street in the world.