Hotel X Toronto by Library Hotel Collection

A Resort That Happens to Stand in Toronto

Toronto hotels mostly stack themselves into the financial district and look at each other. Hotel X went the other way, out to Exhibition Place, and built something closer to an urban resort: a tower at 111 Princes’ Boulevard facing Lake Ontario, the CN Tower off to one side and parkland at the foot. Stephen B. Jacobs Group drew it, Norr executed it and Andi Pepper handled the interiors, and the scale shows within a minute of arriving, since the ground floor absorbs the excavated base of the historic Stanley Barracks rather than erasing it. Two libraries, the Kandy Gallery and a lawn on the twenty-ninth floor follow from the same instinct.

Why It Works

Most luxury hotels send you out for everything that is not sleep or dinner. Hotel X reverses that. Ten X Toronto runs to 90,000 square feet of athletic space under the same roof, the Guerlain Spa here was the brand’s first in Canada, and the cinema seats 243 in stadium rows with a 56-seat screening room beside it. We kept it because it answers the hardest Toronto question in winter, which is what to do with a long grey afternoon, and because the rooftop and the lake make the summer version just as easy.

Why This Location

Exhibition Place is a fairground quarter rather than a business one, and that changes the rhythm of a stay. BMO Field and the Enercare Centre sit across the boulevard, Ontario Place and Trillium Park lie east along the water, and the Martin Goodman Trail runs past the door for anyone who would rather walk or ride into the city than take the streetcar. The 509 and 511 lines reach Union Station in a few stops, putting the financial district, the theatres and the CN Tower within easy reach without putting them under your window. Arrive in late August and the CNE lands on the doorstep.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Lakeside, expansive, faintly theatrical

• Rooms: 404 rooms and suites, thirty-nine of them suites, up to two presidential options

• Best For: travellers who want a gym and a pool that mean it, families with a weekend to fill, dog owners

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the excavated base of the Stanley Barracks kept intact under the ground floor

• Dining: Pétros 82 for Mediterranean, Maxx’s Kitchen all day, Falcon SkyBar across three rooftop levels, and the guests-only Library Club Lounge

• Amenities: Guerlain Spa, Ten X Toronto athletic club, rooftop and twenty-eighth floor pools, 243-seat cinema, on-site parking, dogs welcome

• Attractions: BMO Field and the Enercare Centre across the boulevard, Ontario Place and Trillium Park along the waterfront, Union Station a few streetcar stops away

Four Tennis Courts, Nine Squash Courts and a Rooftop Pool

Ten X Toronto is the part nobody expects: four indoor DecoTurf tennis courts, nine glass squash courts, more than fifty Technogym machines, studios running hot yoga, pilates and spin, a golf simulator and a play centre for children. Above it sits a twenty-five metre rooftop pool, with a second pool on the twenty-eighth floor that opens to the air in warm weather. The Guerlain Spa holds ten treatment rooms and relaxation lounges facing Lake Ontario. Book treatments and court time when you book the room, because both go early on event weekends.

Pétros 82, Maxx’s Kitchen and the Falcon Rooftop

Pétros 82 is the flagship, ten thousand square feet of Mediterranean cooking with private rooms and terrace seating when the weather allows. Maxx’s Kitchen handles the rest of the day, breakfast through dinner, and spills onto a terrace of its own. Falcon SkyBar occupies three rooftop levels and stays open year round, which in this city counts as a statement rather than a convenience. Guests also have the Library Club Lounge, two thousand quiet square feet that work better than any lobby for a call or a last drink.

Rooms, and What to Know Before You Book

Rooms start at roughly 270 square feet and climb from there, and the two presidential options run to a two-storey living room with a fireplace or a penthouse with a second bedroom. Dogs are welcome, which is rarer than it should be at this level in the city. Check-in is from three in the afternoon and check-out at noon. Parking is on site and worth taking: the lakeshore approach is simple by car and awkward by taxi on an event night, when the whole quarter fills at once.