Toronto with a baby: how baby-friendly is the city?

What “baby-friendly” means to us

For us, a baby-friendly city is one where getting around, changing and feeding a baby, and taking a break do not turn into complicated missions.

In practical terms, we look at stroller space, public-transport accessibility, how easy it is to change or feed a baby, whether everyday baby supplies are available locally, and whether you can slow down without every unexpected moment becoming a problem.

These are not the most glamorous criteria, but they are the ones that can turn a relaxed vacation into a daily logistics exercise.

Our travel profile

How we travel obviously affects the verdict. This was our first trip with a baby, who was three months old, so our itinerary was much lighter than it used to be when we traveled as a couple.

At that age, the baby sets the pace. No minute-by-minute schedule; we stopped when we needed to.

Our backpack was full every time we left the apartment: spare clothes, muslin cloth, bottle, diapers, wipes, changing mat, pacifier, cooler, bottle warmer, breast milk, sun hat, diaper bag and water bottle. In other words, we were no longer traveling light.

Choosing accommodation with a baby

With a baby, accommodation is no longer just about the neighborhood, budget and reviews. Two more criteria became non-negotiable for us: a confirmed travel crib — which dramatically reduced the number of suitable options — and a refrigerator for storing expressed breast milk.

We compared hotels and Airbnb. Hotels were simply outside our budget for this stay, so we focused on Airbnb. Once we added our budget, a crib and a refrigerator as mandatory filters, the list became short very quickly.

We found a place in Bloorcourt / Dovercourt Village, a quiet residential neighborhood.

A lot of Toronto listings we saw were basement apartments. Ours was accessed by stairs. Not ideal with a stroller, but manageable. The Cybex Orfeo 4 is light enough that carrying it up and down every day was not a problem. Doing the same with our much bulkier e-Gazelle S would have been a different story.

Walking around Toronto with a stroller

Toronto is enormous and spread out: around 631 km² (244 sq mi), nearly six times the area of central Paris. You can explore an individual neighborhood on foot, but public transport quickly becomes useful when moving between areas.

In the neighborhoods we visited, the sidewalks were wide and genuinely comfortable with a stroller. Compared with some tiny sidewalks in France, it was a relief not to feel like we were constantly in everyone’s way.

We almost always had enough room to pass people, overtake or stop for a few seconds without hugging the road. Crossings were generally flat or had sufficiently lowered curbs, so we rarely needed to lift the stroller.

We did not do huge amounts of shopping, but had no issues in the stores we entered. The Eaton Centre was also straightforward: easy access, several elevators and enough room to move with a stroller.

Subway, streetcars, Uber and water taxi

Subway

The closest station to our Airbnb was Ossington: not Downtown, but very well connected.

The nearest entrance to our accommodation did not have an elevator, so we had to walk a little farther to use an accessible entrance. Not a disaster, but exactly the kind of detail worth checking before setting off with a stroller.

Most of our journeys were on Lines 1 and 2. Every station we actually used had elevators for transfers or exits. In our case, it worked well.

Another excellent surprise: we never encountered a truly packed subway train. Whatever the line or time, there was room for the stroller and other passengers could still move around. Was that because it was August, because of our travel times, or because it was tourist season? Probably a mix. During our stay, taking the subway in Toronto was almost relaxing — not something we would ever say about the Paris region.

Streetcar

We only used the streetcar once, from Casa Loma toward Kensington Market for a few stops. That is nowhere near enough to make a general claim, but on that ride it was not crowded and there was plenty of room for the stroller.

Uber

We also used two Ubers: one from the airport because our flight landed late and delayed, and another from the Airbnb to Union Station when we left. We had our own infant car seat and installed it ourselves. SUVs are common there, and both trunks were large enough for our luggage, backpack, stroller and car seat.

Our French Uber account worked in Canada without any special setup.

Bonus: water taxi to the Toronto Islands

For the Toronto Islands, we used a water taxi both ways rather than the ferry, whose line looked huge that day. Boarding with the stroller was easy. There were few passengers and enough room to keep it beside us without getting in anyone’s way.

Getting into places with a stroller

One of the best surprises was how often we found automatic doors or accessible door-opening buttons. In many places, you simply pressed the button and the door opened.

When there are two of you, one person can hold the door. When you are alone with a stroller, that button must make an enormous difference.

The same was true of elevators: the ones we used were spacious and easy to enter with a stroller, sometimes even with several other people.

Four days is not enough to judge an entire city, but in the places and areas we actually tested, Toronto felt very accessible.

Breaks, diaper changes and baby supplies

Restaurants and coffee shops

We did not sit down for full restaurant meals during this stay. We mainly chose quick food, which was simpler with such a young baby.

We did stop at Starbucks and Tim Hortons. In both cases, access was easy and there was enough room to park the stroller and take a break without bothering other customers.

Two stops are not enough to judge Toronto restaurants in general. For those two, though, we had no problem.

Changing and feeding the baby while out

Diaper changes were surprisingly easy. Every place we visited had a changing table in both men’s and women’s restrooms, with Casa Loma being the exception.

For feeds, we almost always found a bench, coffee shop or somewhere to sit down for nursing or a bottle. We never had to walk for miles with a hungry baby, which always counts as a win.

Diapers, formula and everyday essentials

We needed to buy diapers and stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart, a large pharmacy/drugstore chain carrying plenty of everyday items.

In France, we normally use Pommette size 3. We bought Huggies size 2 based on the weight range printed on the package. Rookie mistake. The fit felt much smaller than our French diapers and we had several leaks.

Lesson learned: the number on a diaper size does not necessarily translate cleanly from one market to another. Later in the trip, we switched to Pampers, which worked much better for our baby.

Our baby was breastfed, so we did not need to buy formula. We still looked out of curiosity and did not recognize the brands or product lines we normally see in France.

We also looked for cotton pads for diaper changes and could not find them in the store we visited. The shelves seemed much more focused on wet wipes. Not a serious problem, but if you have a specific routine, bring a small supply.

The problems a baby-friendly city cannot solve

We had two genuinely rough moments during the stay, neither of which was Toronto’s fault: two episodes of intense crying, probably caused by a combination of hunger and tiredness.

The second happened in Chinatown, where we ended up making a bottle standing in the street to calm the baby. Not ideal, but we did not have much choice.

That was the biggest lesson from this first trip: even in a city that is very easy with a stroller, a 3-month-old is still a 3-month-old. Naps, feeds and unexpected moments do not always cooperate with a sightseeing plan.

What we paid in Toronto

These are the expenses for which we kept exact figures. Canadian-dollar amounts are converted using the Bank of Canada’s average daily rate for August 2026: 1 CAD ≈ €0.6204.

This budget does not include meals, groceries, baby products bought locally or other spending for which we did not keep exact figures. An accurate partial total is more useful than a fake complete budget.

Real-world testing, place by place