A different world; In this seven-page travel extravaganza, we've got

What can explain the images we remember from childhood holidays? My first visit to Toronto, just before my sixth birthday, was to see grandparents who had emigrated to Canada from Scotland in the early Fifties. And my abiding memory of that first trip abroad? Not the CN Tower, Lake Ontario or the bright lights of Bloor Street. No. Instead, on an unusually rainy day in the middle of a hot summer (even the rain was warm) in a busy street downtown, I caught sight of a smartly-dressed, soaked-to-the-skin young woman walking barefoot. She was carrying, rather than wearing, a new pair of white shoes to stop the rain from spoiling them.

Our experiences abroad probably are more coloured by people than by things - rude waiters, friendly locals, holiday romances - so this memory may not seem so unusual. Add to it the sheer decadence of the whole thing (no one would dream of walking barefoot on the street in the rain in dreich, darkened Seventies Glasgow), and you have a single, defining impression that lasts forever.

More than 20 years later I did the same thing. It was one o'clock in the morning, I'd left friends still drinking in the James Joyce pub on Bloor Street West, and set off on the 20-minute walk to my room at Victoria University. It was a hot sticky night, the streets were mobbed and my shoes were hurting me so, guess what? I took them off and strolled home in my bare feet.

It's a measure of just how clean and how safe the streets of 'Toronto the Good' are (the soubriquet comes from the city's 1906 Lord's Day Act which prohibited paid employment and cultural activities on a Sunday and lasted right up until 1950) that a tipsy young woman can trip merrily home without shoes on, and without the slightest hassle.

Toronto, a city that's long been considered boring, without the streetwise excitement of New York, the cultural diversity of London, or the Left-Bank bohemianism of Paris, is in fact almost the perfect 21st century girls' city. From beautiful designer shops all the way along the famous Bloor Street (Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce and Gabbana - all the usual suspects are here) to specialist stores such as the Toronto Women's Bookstore on Harbord Street, a fetishist's delight such as the Shoe Museum or the more gynaecologically-minded History of Contraception Museum, to the glamorous bars in Yorkville and the small, snug restaurants of Little Italy. Downtown Toronto is a city centre practically designed by Sex and the City's Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha (if they hadn't remapped Manhattan, that is).

My first visit to Toronto as an adult, I stayed part of the time with relatives in one of Toronto's sprawling suburbs, Etobicoke, and the other part of the time in university accommodation at beautiful Victoria University. Right in the heart of the city centre, just off Bloor Street and a stone's throw from Yorkville and Little Italy, it's a cheap and comfortable way to stay Downtown. Toronto isn't a cheap place to visit - museums such as the Art Gallery of Ontario don't always charge an entrance fee but restaurants and bars in the heart of the entertainment district, which stretches south of Queen Street West, one of the main thoroughfares running perpendicular to the massive Bloor Street, can be pricey and not great value.

If you're watching your money, head for Little Italy and the area known as The Annex. Here you'll find eateries such as Latitude, Harbord Street, where you can enjoy Latin food cooked by a Uruguayan chef; the late-opening cafe Insomnia, Bloor Street; and the original home of Canadian nouveau cuisine, Cafe Societa, College Street. With more than 70 ethnic groups in this city, you'll also find a Chinatown, a Greektown, a Little India, Ethiopian restaurants, French, Potuguese, Mexican, Hungarian, Malaysian and Thai eateries as well as Viennese bakeries and organic coffee houses.

Like all cultivated cities, Toronto has a thriving theatre life too - you'll find the same kind of big-profile musicals here that you will in London or New York but there's also plenty of new writing going on. This is the city that spawned novelists Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, so playwrights aren't exactly thin on the ground either. The Canadian Stage Company (Berkeley Street) is one attraction as is the Factory Theatre (Bathurst Street) and the Poor Alex Theatre (part of the grander Royal Alexandria Theatre on Brunswick Ave).

Should you tire momentarily of the bright lights, you can head out as we did to Mennonite Country in Kitchener or Waterloo, about an hour or so outside Toronto. Similar to the Amish, who split from them, the Mennonites, are a Swiss Protestant group who arrived in Ontario in the early 19th century. Shunning 20th century technology and dressing traditionally - bonnets and dresses for women, black and bearded for the men - they're nevertheless quite happy to have visitors come and look around, especially as they tend to rely on selling their wares to tourists, such as hand-made furniture, food and clothing. It's a slower pace which can be a welcome break from the city centre.

All in all though, Toronto is a dynamic, thriving metropolis that needs rebranding in a new century. Forget those conservative, unadventurous tags and think bohemian, diverse instead - after all, where else could you walk barefoot and feel totally at home?

Need to Know How to get there: Air Canada (0870 524 7226) and Air Transat (01293 567 500) fly from Glasgow to Pearson International, ten miles from the city centre and some charter airlines will take you to the smaller Toronto City Centre Airport. Prices tend to start at about (pounds) 200 for a return fare.

Where to stay: Victoria University offers reasonable accommodation in the heart of the city (416-585-4524; www.accom.victoria@utoronto.ca) from May until August, for about (pounds) 25 per room per night (not en suite). At the other end of the scale, the Royal York Hotel on Front Street West starts at about (pounds) 100 per night (1 800 663 7229; www.cphotels.ca), or try Le Royal Meridien King Edward on King Street East. This is Toronto's oldest hotel and its main claim to fame is that the Beatles once stayed there. It costs about about (pounds) 150 per room per night (1 800 543 4300).

For more information: www.city.toronto.on.ca

Copyright 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.