Toronto Audio Tour: Heritage Gems & Hidden Stories of Downtown

Explore Toronto at your own pace

At dawn, Toronto's downtown cathedrals cast shadows where riots once echoed and whispered secrets hid in plain sight among the soaring spires.

Take this self-guided audio tour to unlock the stories and scandals layered beneath the city's bustling energy. Each stop reveals a side of Toronto even locals rarely glimpse.

Why did a desperate crowd erupt into chaos on Yonge Street? What midnight secret still lingers beneath the silent floors of St. Michael's Basilica? Who vanished from the gardens of St. James just as history pivoted?

Photo: Scott Webb, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 3.7 km (2.3 miles)
• Stops: 15 landmarks, including Hotel Victoria, Gooderham Building, St. Lawrence Market North
• Audio: up to 38 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Hotel Victoria (Toronto)

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Buying for a group? Choose one ticket per person: you get one code that works on every phone in your group.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Photo: Patrick Tomasso, Unsplash

Where you will stop

• Hotel Victoria
• Gooderham Building
• St. Lawrence Market North
• St. Lawrence Hall
• Cathedral Church of St. James
• The Omni King Edward Hotel
• Metropolitan United Church
• Bond Street Baptist Church
• Mutual Street Arena
• St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica
• St. Michael's Choir School
• First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Toronto
• Yonge-Dundas Square
• Ed Mirvish Theatre
• Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Sandro Schuh, Scott Webb, Patrick Tomasso, Zia Syed, James Thomas, Berkay Gumustekin (Unsplash).