Toronto Marriott Markham

“Excellent suburban hotel but far from Toronto”

I recently stayed at the Marriott for my second visit to Toronto, after my Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto/Niagara Falls visit over a single 3-day weekend in 2014. I had missed in my research in 2014 that there are boat routes to the foot of the falls. So I had always wanted to go back to try that. I g… more

I recently stayed at the Marriott for my second visit to Toronto, after my Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto/Niagara Falls visit over a single 3-day weekend in 2014. I had missed in my research in 2014 that there are boat routes to the foot of the falls. So I had always wanted to go back to try that. I got a great deal on Delta to Toronto, then belatedly realized that Toronto lodging was very expensive because of the World Cup. As a result, I was priced out of downtown Toronto and had to rent a car and look at suburban hotels. Nearly all of them were older hotels in terrible shape. The Marriott in Markham is a rare exception: a relatively new and contemporary hotel in the Downtown Markham planned development. First, the advantages. This hotel is less than a decade old and still looks great. The decor is attractive and contemporary. It’s hard to find hotels of this hotel class anywhere in the Toronto area that are also this young and this affordable. There was always plenty of parking in the garage. Staff were courteous and responsive. As is typical of Marriott, the room was in excellent condition: it was spacious, clean, smelled good, and was very quiet. No unusual sights, smells, or sounds noted. The Marriott had the best HVAC system I encountered anywhere in Toronto in terms of its ability to keep the room air dry, cool, and pleasant. The bed was quite comfortable. There was a small fridge which was good for storing drinks. I was worried about the bathroom after seeing the reviews on TA, but the one in my room was fine. There was not much of a view, but I’m not the type to sit around in the room anyway. For me, the most important role of a hotel room is a place to shower and sleep and that is exactly what I got. The Downtown Markham area is a relatively new planned development and is beautifully designed and landscaped. The swimming pool is clean, large, well-designed, and well-maintained. I enjoyed swimming laps in the pool during my visit. Now, the disadvantages, which is what we all read Tripadvisor for! This hotel is extremely remote from Toronto. If you are flying in, a rental car is mandatory. The closest freeway is Highway 407 ETR, which is notorious for high tolls. Driving over to Highway 404 to cut over to Highway 401 or the Don Valley Parkway gets old really fast. The Highway 7 arterial road to the north looks very nice on Google Maps and Street View but is actually quite poorly designed by American standards. Its traffic lights are not synchronized, meaning that the drive takes much longer than it looks at first glance. This hotel is theoretically 30 minutes from both Toronto Pearson International Airport and downtown Toronto. You will soon realize that the only time you can achieve that kind of travel time is in the middle of the night. Like Los Angeles and New York City, Toronto has a massive number of bad drivers on its roads who should not be allowed to drive motor vehicles. Large-scale multi-car pileups which block freeway lanes for many hours are horrifyingly frequent. Plan on at least one or more surprise detours around such accidents during your trip (I had two). It took me about 55 minutes to reach Pearson on my last day because of one such pileup, but I had left early and had no problem refueling and returning my rental car on time. The hotel garage js across the street and not directly connected. Hotel guests staying overnight park on the upper levels of the garage and retail users with a three-hour time limit park on the lower levels. At check-in, the front desk clerk will give you a in-and-out ticket, which you stick into the machine to open the gate, and then the machine returns the ticket to you. Unlike other reviewers, I had no problem with the size of the parking spaces, but I agree that driving up and down the garage ramp was quite tedious. The daily parking charge is steep for a suburban hotel. There are a few restaurants nearby within walking distance, but to access supermarkets, convenience stores, fast food, or almost any other kind of retail, you will need to jump into the rental car. Like most hotel fitness centers, the hotel gym has a relatively incomplete selection of equipment. Fortunately, the YMCA less than a mile away offers day passes, so I was able to complete my strength training workout over there. However, after thinking about these issues on the flight back, I decided that despite them, the Marriott is still worth a rating of five. If you plan to get a rental car for your Toronto visit and you don’t mind the long drive to downtown Toronto, this hotel is a good choice.

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