Getting there is half the argument

The tower sits on Bremner Boulevard, in the railway lands south of Union Station. That location is the best thing about it for a visitor and the worst thing about it for a driver, because everything around it is either a stadium, a convention centre or a construction crane, and none of them come with free parking.

Without a car

Take the train to Union Station and walk. The indoor path — the SkyWalk — runs from the station concourse south to the base of the tower, and it is maybe ten minutes at a normal pace. In February that walk is the difference between a good day and a bad one. In July you will barely notice it.

If you are coming from further out, the streetcar along Queens Quay drops you a block away, and the convention centre side has its own entrance into the same indoor path. I would not drive into the core for this unless I had to.

If you must drive

There is parking under the grounds and in the surrounding lots, and it is expensive on event nights — a stadium concert or a ball game will double the rate and fill the garage by six. Check what is on at the stadium before you commit. The lots on the north side of the rail corridor are usually the cheapest walk, and the walk is five minutes longer.

What else is on the grounds

The aquarium is literally next door — you can see the queue from the tower lobby. The stadium is across the plaza. The old roundhouse and the brewery beside it are a five-minute walk and a good place to wait out a rain shower. If you have a whole afternoon, the order that works for most families is aquarium first, tower second, because the tower queue gets worse as the day goes on and the aquarium absorbs people better.

How long it takes

From the door to the deck and back, with a normal queue: ninety minutes. With a bad queue and a stop at the restaurant: three hours. The ride itself is a minute each way; the rest is waiting, which is the part nobody puts in the brochure.

Next: when to come — the crowd calendar matters more than anything else on this page.