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Parking at Toronto's destinations

Every destination we cover, grouped by the kind of parking problem it is, with the nearest carpark and what three hours costs at each.

01

Five kinds of parking problem

Parking for a hockey game and parking for a museum are not the same question. One empties twenty thousand people in ten minutes and the other does not; one is decided by the evening maximum and the other by the daily one. The groups below are those differences rather than a filing system.

Each destination has its own page, with a map, every carpark near it and a search box. The figures here are the nearest walk and what three hours costs on a weekday afternoon, so you can choose where to look before you click.

02

Games and concerts

A stadium fills gradually and empties in ten minutes. That one fact decides most of it: the carpark nearest the gate is the one you will queue to leave, and the evening maximum that starts at 6pm is what makes a 7pm event one of the cheaper reasons to park downtown.

03

Museums, galleries and shows

These are the visits where the daily maximum matters more than the hourly rate. An exhibition is three or four hours and a concert is three, both long enough that the cap decides the bill rather than the meter. Evening performances have the further advantage of starting after the daytime rate has ended.

04

The airport and Union Station

The two places people leave a car for days rather than hours, which makes the daily maximum the whole question. For a commuter the monthly permit usually beats paying daily within a fortnight.

05

Shopping and the markets

Shopping trips are short, which is the one case where the hourly rate really is what you pay and no maximum saves you. It also makes the walk worth more than usual: five minutes further out is often a third off, and you carry the bags for the same five minutes either way.

06

The landmarks

The landmarks are where visitors go, which means they are where parking is priced for people who have not compared it. Several sit within a few minutes of a municipal carpark charging a fraction of the nearest private garage.

07

What these prices are not

Every figure above is one window at one kind of carpark: three hours, a weekday afternoon, municipal lots only. An evening is usually cheaper and a Saturday is priced differently again, which is the subject of what you'll actually pay at a city carpark.