View from the Room: Cambridge Suites, Toronto

A rare downtown stay for us, the Cambridge Suites all-suite hotel is a maple leaf’s throw away from the Eaton (shopping) centre. There are hundreds of restaurants, fast food places, coffee shops and, of course, Tim Horton’s.

It has access to the PATH, the network of covered and below-ground walkways that get you around this highly populated area in extreme weather.

It’s a typical 80s build, surrounded by gleaming towers, which from the planning permission displayed outside, it appears it wants to become too. (I read later that this was Canada’s first all-suite hotel and they plan to add 50 floors.)

Service is excellent from the moment we walked in although quite discreet. This isn’t one where they greet you every time you go past but I found myself wanting to do this.

The entrance to the room has a double wardrobe for coats and then a kitchenette on one side of the lounge with fridge, coffee machine, microwave, sink and plenty of crockery, cutlery and glassware. There was a lack of dishcloths so I took it that housekeeping would wash dishes. They clean and tidy but won’t necessarily touch any vessels lying around that have something in them. So empty and leave it in the sink is the advice.

The other side of the lounge had floor-to-ceiling windows looking to a sea of downtown towers at the back of the hotel.

There is a dining table with 2 comfortable chairs, an armchair, a comfy sofa with a side table and coffee table plus a large wall-mounted TV to enjoy here.

The bedroom, reached by sliding doors from the lounge has a TV with shelves underneath, another chest of drawers plus a large comfortable bed and another window.

The bathroom is reached via a dressing room that houses the main wardrobe, with a shelf above. The basin unit has ample storage and  3 deep drawers underneath. You can stay here for a month and never run out of space.

The separate bathroom has the toilet, a double shower unit plus a handheld shower over the smallish, but essential bathtub. I never used the shower.

There were towels everywhere and more kept arriving which was handy as there was no way of drying them properly.

Shampoo, conditioner, body lotion plus mouthwash came in miniature form along with bath and face soaps.

• Tissue box

• Magnified tabletop mirror

• Hairdryer

• Iron and board

• Safe

• luggage rack

• Spare pillows

• 2 robes

The suite has good lighting, plenty of power sockets 

Like the Vancouver favourite, Century Plaza, this suite hotel also has a laundry room. We do have to go to reception and catch another lift to the basement but it is free to use, providing you have your own detergent. Which, of course, we do as for these 10-day Canadian trips, we take clothes for 5 days and then wash them.

I recall 3 main lifts so we rarely had a wait and there is comfy seating in the reception. More importantly, this is where they have coffee and muffins in the mornings which we took advantage of every morning.

Once again, our membership status awarded us a bottle of wine, which was left in the room. Knowing the exorbitant price for a bottle of wine in Canada, this was the rare occasion where we managed to finish it over the week.

We normally stay away from the action in a more residential area, however, all of these little luxuries together helped us to have a fabulous trip.

March 2024