The Hazelton Hotel

The Hazelton Hotel

French doors open from the Luxury King rooms at The Hazelton onto a private balcony above Yorkville Avenue, and no other hotel in Toronto offers that: guests step outside their own room rather than into a corridor. Rooms average more than 620 square feet with 9-foot ceilings, generous by downtown standards, and the building itself is only four floors and 77 rooms, closer in scale to a townhouse than a tower. That intimacy is the point. A traveller who wants the museum district and university within walking distance, and Yorkville's independent shops and restaurants outside the front door, will find the location does the work a shuttle bus can't. Someone chasing a 40-storey skyline view or a convention-sized ballroom should look elsewhere; as part of The Leading Hotels of the World, The Hazelton trades scale for attention to a smaller number of guests. ONE Restaurant keeps a terrace over the street for dinners that don't feel institutional, and Spa by Valmont pairs an indoor pool with a steam room and gym for the morning after. There's a proper boardroom and dedicated meeting rooms for anyone combining business with the trip, not a repurposed function room. Pets are welcome for a fee, the front desk works in five languages, and a 200 CAD damage deposit is taken at check-in, worth knowing before arrival. Check-in runs from 4pm, checkout at noon. Few hotels this size stay fully staffed and this private at once; The Hazelton manages both. The Hazelton is the only Yorkville hotel where rooms open onto private balconies rather than corridors, in a four-floor, 77-room building that feels more residence than hotel. It suits someone who wants the city outside the door and a spa with an indoor pool inside it, not a convention-sized lobby.