Skating

For those of you who like to get out and do stuff, even once the temperature has dipped, Toronto has lots of places to indulge in at least one favourite winter activity: skating.

The City itself runs 51 different outdoor ice surfaces scattered throughout the city. As of time of writing, all rinks were open for business, including the very popular Nathan Phillips Square rink. This year it sports a brand new rink-side building with change room facilities and a snack bar, and skate rentals are available from 10 am to 10 pm. This rink is fairly unusual among the city-owned rinks in that it is designated for pleasure skating only, which means no stick sports allowed. If you want to be sure you won't have to avoid stray pucks while gliding around, check the City's website to see if your location sports a dual pad - generally that's one rink for shinny, and another, usually smaller one, for pleasure skating only. You can also visit the very detailed City Rinks site, which posts schedules for each rink showing hours set aside for pleasure skating only. As well as lists of what activities are allowed when, the City Rinks site also includes detailed descriptions of the rink, including how well the ice is maintained, how many staff are on duty, and the facilities available. Their Rink Diaries include much more detailed experiential information for each rink, and the site also includes a map to help you quickly and easily find the rink closest to you.

The City Rinks site also includes skating rinks not operated by the City. These include the large and beautifully situated Natrel Rink at Harbourfront. Skating is free, accessible 24 hours a day and skate rentals are available. There is also a licensed lounge attached, and DJ Skate Nights are hosted most Saturday nights from 8 to 11 pm. Check their site for a list of upcoming DJs. And if you're just curious to see people skating, check out their webcam.

Another non-city skating area is the Brickworks Skating Trail, in the Don Valley. It's also free but their hours are more limited, they're closed over the Christmas holidays, and you should bring your own skates - only limited sizes and pairs are available. If you have skates you've outgrown, or no longer use, you can donate them to their skate library. To get there, consider taking the free shuttle from just north of the Broadview subway station.

The skating experience that may tempt me to dig out my skates from deep, deep within my storage locker, is the Colonel Sam Smith Skating Trail in Etobicoke. It's the first of the city-run skate sites to be built not as a rink, but as a 250 m ice trail, roughly in the shape of a figure 8. To top off the experience, the skate house is a beautifully restored 1888 red brick heating plant, with 10-metre cathedral ceilings and 3-storey windows. The trail is staffed from 9 am to 10 pm, but as the trail isn't enclosed by fencing, there's nothing but a lack of light to stop you from skating. As City Rinks puts it, "it's open for skating by moonlight". How can you resist that?