Suburbs of Toronto?

Travel Info
My gf and I are looking to live in Toronto for 12 Months commencing 2008. We will both be 24 y.o and are young professionals (although it is unclear if we will work in this area or just the local shop for a bit of fun).

Would like the opinion of some people as to the recommended suburbs.
- We will either be renting or sharing
- It would seem preferable to be near the lake (we are tourists afterall)
- I'm unsure if we'd want to be in a multicultural area. Generally speaking crime can be high in these areas.
- We will need to use public transport

Furthermore do any of the outer suburbs have relitively new and busy business districts to avoid the need to work in the CBD?

Travel Tips

The above suggestions are good if you would like to live outside the city. They are nice and have public transit systems and are near the lake. Just wanted to make sure you realized that these are not in Toronto proper (i.e. they are not really suburbs, but are cities in thier own right). If you were looking to be in Toronto, you may find yourself a little far if you were living in Mississauga, even more so with Oakville (both of which are in what is called the GTA "Greater Toronto Area", not Toronto proper) and Hamilton is actually way outside Toronto. Here's a map of the GTA that might help http://www.thefurnishedstay.com/images/g... Mississauga is the closest and has a thriving business district, but be aware if you want to go into Toronto from there you may have to pay twice on public transit if you are using both the Transit system in Mississauga and Toronto (there are some areas near the boarder to Toronto where the Toronto transit runs, but if you are more west you will likely be using mississauga transit). Or you could take the GO transit, but again, it would cost extra. Something to consider if you will be travelling to Toronto often and are dependent on public transit.

Here's a link to information about the GTA neighborhoods http://www.househuntingintoronto.com/tor...

And here's one about the city of Toronto neighborhoods

http://www.tripadvisor.com/travel-g15501...

Also, when you do pick an area and start to look for a place, these sites can be very useful. My brother found a rental using the second one, and you can choose any city in the province to search.

http://www.viewit.ca/

http://www.bytheowner.com/

http://myhood.ca/

One last thing, as for not wanting to be in a multicultural area, you'd be hard pressed to find an area in Toronto that isn't. This hasn't led to a problem with crime, in fact our diversity is one of the things Torontonians are most proud of. So don't worry about that, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Hope this helps! Source(s): Lifelong Torontonian
Other Travel Tips

What you are describing is like Mississauga.

The eastern suburbs are primarily blue-collar areas.

Consider Hamilton. It's a "real city" connected to Toronto by commuter rail (GO Transit), lots of jobs in education, med-tech, etc.,
Lived 15 years in GTA
Best place to go is either in MIssissauga, Oakville or Burlington, all along the lake if you prefer as there is very good rail transit right into heart of downtown, lots of good restaurants, lower crime than anywhere in GTA and easy access to airport or escaping towards Niagara Falls or US for trips. No brainer.
Mississauga is the best 4u.
Been there.