Centre Island

Great place to go on a sunny day and many things to do on the island. They have canoeing, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, biking, and many other activities which I don’t remember off the top of my head. They also have a lot of space to lounge and a lot of beach area. There is a path that goes around the whole island so you can spend a good amount of time biking /​going around the island.
Great place to bring the kids as well because they have the small amusement park with a petting zoo, pony back riding and other activities and foods kids love.
There’s a ferry you have to take which is like $ 7 round trip if you’re a student. It also has a great view of the city and is an enjoyable trip to and from centre island.

Really fun to explore with friends, family and/​or significant others. There’s lots of things to do and has a great view of the Toronto skyline! You could also get to the other islands from here, but i recommend biking to them because its quite far to walk.

Beautiful little gem to explore and to go to to take in the Toronto skyline during the day and night. When you take the ferry from the terminal in downtown, hop onto the Centre Island ferry. I would recommend taking the ferry right when the sun is about to go down, so you can see the city in daytime, sunset, and in the evening, and get a whole range of different photos. Upon arriving on the island (around 8:30PM), it was quite dark and a bit scary with no lights around. You have to walk across grass to get anywhere, there’s no path or road. But the views and skyline are breathtaking, a definite visit.

Nice break from the city: lots to explore and great views. The seagulls were pretty aggressive to those eating in the area. If you’re interested in boozing/​refreshments, go early as everything shuts down by about 730 pm.

My very first outing to the island! I thought the trickiest part of this entire event was finding a place to park. The ferry departs every 30 minutes and upon arrival I was so surprised by the open grassy areas and how clean the entire park was! You don’t see this in the city! We walked all over and continuously discovered new little areas — the beach, the pier, amusement park, garden, (non) petting zoo and
!!
What a perfect day to spend on the island!

After a hideous taxicab ride with a driver who was convinced we wanted to go to the airport, we arrived at the ferry departure point and took the first ferry away from the mainland to escape the frustration of our day.
Our initial destination was Ward’s Island, since it had rave reviews and seemed peaceful with less little kids running around. But getting on a ferry — stat — took precedence.
The ferry ride was relaxing, and we had great views of the skyline. Even though it was raining lightly, the ride was pleasant. Our ferry to the island was less than half full — only six or seven people on the boat. Two guys on the boat asked if we were headed to the «concert,» and by their age and outfits, I was amazed to learn that there was an EDM concert on Centre Island that night. I would have bought tickets if I knew this was happening!
When arriving at Centre Island, we were given instructions on where to board when we wanted to come back. Ferries run every 30 minutes or so.
Most people seem to rag on the families and kids that come here. There’s a small amusement park area with paddle boats, a rollercoaster, and a farm/​zoo (not quite a petting zoo), and despite how many people were on the island that day, it didn’t feel super crowded. Even though there are a lot of children, there is so much open space here that I didn’t really notice.
The ferries back to the mainland are packed like sardines. That line was VERY long. The return ferry was packed as if we were European immigrants headed to Ellis Island.
For two adults, there wasn’t that much to do here, but it was a relaxing escape from the city to just walk around and snap pictures of that fabulous skyline. And the baby goats at the zoo? OHMYADORABLE. Okay, the loud bleeting DID get a bit aggravating, but that’s when you just walk away. And it’s hilarious to see and hear kids bleet back at the goats.
The EDM concert was blocked from view to us commoners, but I contemplated hopping the fence, or just buying tickets, but I wasn’t dressed to dance in the mud all night long. Walking along the paths, hearing thump-​thump-​thudding EDM, while looking across the water at the skyline gave me a thrilling feeling. I jumped into the air a few times to try to see over the fence and failed #whitegirlscantjump. I wanted to dance by myself on the outside of the fence, but the area is full of security guards, and I didn’t want to be hauled away on a stretcher under the assumption that I was pumped up on Molly or having a psychotic break… so I just kept walking.
Even though we didn’t DO much at Centre Island, I’ll never forget our visit there. Truly memorable!

I’m glad to commemorate my 400^th review by reviewing Centre Island. I love visiting the Toronto Islands & Centre Island is the biggest island in the bunch.
While much of Centre Island is rather busy and not super charming, it has some good amenities. There’s a ferry. There are places that sell food. The public washrooms are much appreciated. There’s a bike rental place (including tandems) as well as a boat rental. There are some nice grassy parts to picnic on, and it’s also nice to sit on the beach and watch the water lapping at the sand. One section of Avenue of the Island (after you cross the bridge) features many beautiful flowers and plants.
Last but not least, there was, and will be again, a hedge maze. I loved that cedar hedge maze and I can’t wait for the new maze to open in 2015.
Lots of green areas, some wildlife, and a hedge maze-​to-​be. Centre Island makes a great contribution to any Toronto Islands day trip.

This is hiked up as its in Toronto and does take the Toronto people away in the clear green area but if you are from suburbs I think there are better parks.
Overall, the island is good for picnics but as its an island you will have to carry all you stuff on a ferry to have a BBQ which could be challenging at times. To get a BBQ you will have to go really early or be lucky that some one is leaving when you get there to get a BBQ to cook some meat. The ferry ride is quite nice as you get to view the Toronto Sky line and the it would cost you $ 7 return.
You can rent boats/​kayaks etc and enjoy the water. I have seen a lot of people bring their bikes and go bike riding on the island. They also have Centreville Amusement Park a small area for the kids to go have some rides and the food court is located within central ville.

I came here during my first trip to Toronto and thought it was such a cute little place to visit. It reminded me of Central Park in NYC because of the amount of people that were out there on that Sunday.
I loved how it really caters to families with all of the rides for small children, the little farm house they have with the chickens, ponies, donkey, etc and the beach all the way at the end.
You can see the CN Tower from most places throughout the island which makes for some awesome pictures. You can kayak and bike ride or lay out and relax on the beach.
Most people brought along some coolers and backpacks full of food and beverages as most things you’ll find aren’t the healthiest choices (cotton candy, ice cream, funnel cake, pizza, etc).
I really loved the water fountain and decorative pools you find along the way. My only issue with it is the fact they only have one ferry boat at a time transporting people back and forth which makes people wait for a long time when they could easily have two boats doing the same job. That aside I loved it and would suggest it for anyone of any age if you’re in the Toronto area.

Fun for the kids, but Centreville is starting to show its age.
The Island was fine, except for the fact I know the squatters are not to far behind looking at us from the bushes.
Kids loved the ferry ride, but $ 17 for the family is not exactly accessible for everyone, but we are lucky enough to have the means to go. I feel bad for lower income families who want to enjoy the Island but cant. It would be great if someone from the city would think about putting a bridge across so that people with bikes, strollers or just walking could go over without having to pay.

Hit up this gem of a location in Toronto with some partners from Starbucks, turned out to be a great choice!
We traveled to two of the three beaches as we chose not to go to Hanlan’s point. the central beach is by far the most popular with families and as such we did not enjoy it as much as we enjoyed the one to the west. In terms of the quality of the beach the central one is also heavily groomed so the sand is free of debris compared to the western one.
Families sound stick with the central beach as it is the safer of the two beaches with a protected swimming area. Anyone older should consider either Hanlan’s or the western beach.
Definitely my new preferred beach area!

Haven’t been in decades — and will likely not return.
Knowing full well that Centre Island is geared more towards younger kids, I still dragged my 2 teens there knowing that there were some activities that they would enjoy (boat rentals, bike rentals, maze, tram, skyline ride). Boy, were we disappointed!
It all started with the boat rentals. We were looking forward to canoeing for a few hours but when we arrived at the boat rental we were told to come back after the light drizzle of rain stopped (the young staff were much to engrossed in their own conversation to even acknowledge us standing there). This was at 1pm. After walking around in the rain we came back when the skies were clear at just before 3 to be told they were closing (they actually close at 5). Then the staff left. Not impressed.
While we were there we decided to wait for the boat tour of the islands. The schedule said they gave tours until 6. We sat there for almost an hour waiting for the boat to come and it never did. The boat tours were apparently 35 minutes long.
Skyline ride — closed. Maze — no longer exists (doesn’t say this on the website). Bike rentals — like the boat rentals we were ignored (there had to have been at least 5 young men there talking to each other). We waited at the booth for 5 minutes and just gave up and went home.

It was «wow»
The island itself is peaceful, green and beautiful with some fascinating houses.
We may not have come at a good time though, because everything was closed and deserted. We spent a good four hours lost here and when we were looking to find the ferry, not too many of the locals were kind enough to direct us back to the direction of the pickup area.
hopefully the next visit will be better ;)

Very relaxing and costs only $ 6.50 to get there and spend a day enjoying nature and the beach right next to downtown. Usually some free festival going on the weekends too

i love centreisland. i love spending bright sunny summer saturdays here .
i pick up cheese, cured meat, fruits, veggies, crackers from st. lawrence market for a picnic before hopping on to the ferry. once at the island, have a picnic, ride my pretty blue bike, soak up the sun on the beach, jump into the water if it gets a little too hot (maybe even venture out to the nude beach !), jump back on the bike, have a lunner from shopsy’s while looking at the gorgeous view of the city, go grab a funnel cake for dessert from the amusement park and find a shady grass area to read a book/​take a nap, go to the little farm zoo to go see oliver (the huge black pig ! if you say ‘come here oliver’, he usually walks up to you. smart piggy !), maybe bike around for a little bit more and by then, the day is already almost over .
a summer day well spent. :)
oh, a star off cuz all the washrooms are kinda stinky. =P

I usually love Centre Island, but I went there for Easter Weekend and it was not worth it.
We arrived at the terminal at 10:30am and arrived at the island at 12:30pm. With kids that is a LONG wait. Waiting would’t have been the problem but the chaos of the lines was frustrating.
The lines were poorly organized and the ‘egg hunt’ consisted of random people throwing plastic eggs around the island. Children and adults would dive for them and my 3 year old didn’t stand a chance. In the end, it turns out you have to line up again to redeem your eggs for candy… more chaos.
By 3:30pm it had been a very long day. We had managed to go on 3 rides, have a short visit with the zoo, and eat a quick lunch.
I love it in the spring and summer but this particular event wasn’t worth it.
Tickets for 3 and over — $ 15

When the city strikes* were finally over and the ferries to the Islands were back in service, we waited… and waited… for that seemingly rare hot, sunny day** to visit the islands.
I specifically wanted to go to Centre Island to rent a bicycle. I dunno, something about riding a bike in the summer reminds me of happy times as a child. (Except for that one time I gave Dora Winsler a ride on my banana bicycle and her foot got caught in the spokes of the rear wheel and she cried like a whiny brat.)
Centre Island was pretty packed with kids and tourists on that Friday afternoon. But the bike paths were blessedly clear. We rode down to Ward’s Island and one of the beaches. We also tried to ogle some jiggly bits at the Clothing Optional Beach but didn’t want to exceed the 60 minutes on our rental and ended up returning the bikes sans flesh sighting.
Centre Island has Centreville Amusement Park, swan boat rides, boat rentals, Shopsy’s sit-​down restaurant, Pizza Pizza by the slice, picnic tables, overpriced ice cream vendors, and gynormous mutant swans.***
$ 6.50 for roundtrip ferry
$ 7 per hour per bike rental (bring ID!)
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* Grrr… Thanks guys, for the stanky garbage invading my nostril space
** Grrr x 2… Thanks Mother Nature, for the sh*tty weather this summer
*** Grrr x 3… Stop feeding them donuts and other crap human food!