Last Saturday, we did a family skate at Toronto’s Bentway .
What does AI say about the Bentway
It is a transformative 1.75km public space beneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway. This innovative urban corridor repurposes industrial concrete pillars into a vibrant community hub. It features a popular winter skating trail, year-round art installations, and performance venues. Connecting six neighborhoods, it offers a “civic living room” for recreation, culture, and social connection in the heart of the city.
Our skating experience
Skating at the Bentway is a fun and largely free family outing that we all enjoyed. It is a striking urban experience as the Bentway skating rink is a several hundred metre long path under the supports of the elevated Toronto expressway. Our son and I have not skated much for many years, so the slow pace around the figure eight rink surrounded by many other families, felt just right. Our grandson is an avid young hockey player and he would have preferred a wide open rink to show off his skating prowess.
The ice is resurfaced frequently during the day with a Zamboni so the ice is in prime shape, there is a warming hut for lacing on skates, our grandson got his skates sharpened at the skate rental shed, and our son enjoyed some hot tea from the concession shop.
Getting to the Bentway was easy for us, taking the TTC streetcar to the King/Strachan stop, and then a 10 minute walk over the railway tracks and under the expressway.
We did not do it this time, however the original Fort York that the British army used to protect Toronto (called York at the time) from USA invasion in the early 1800’s is integrated with the Bentway Park, and will be a future daytrip.
Other Daytrips around our home town of Toronto
Check out Toronto area daytrips .