My 2nd Stay at Chelsea Hotel Toronto

By alantvuong on December 11, 2021

A few months ago, it was my first time travelling since covid almost shut down the travel industry back in March 2020. I even wrote about it here if you wanna ready about my experience. I thought it would be best to travel within Canada and decided on flying to Toronto to visit a few friends. I had such a great positive experience previously staying at The Chelsea Hotel downtown that I decided to book this hotel again.

The Hotel

near the front desk

Chelsea Hotel is located on 33 Gerrard ST W and is a 4 star hotel. As I mentioned in my blog about my first stay, Chelsea Hotel is Canada’s largest hotel with 26 floors and 1,590 rooms. I chose to stay here again because I knew it was very wheelchair accessible, had reasonable room rates and is located in a great area.

public phones by the front desk

The only thing different this time around was that face masks were required in every public space of the hotel. There were also signs to remind guests to stay 6 feet apart, limits to number people in the elevators, plastic shields to the front desk and enhanced frequent cleaning of high touch areas.

covid reminders

Chelsea Hotel does comply with with all aspects of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA). This means they have accessible washrooms located throughout the property, elevators, parking, front desk, lobby area, automatic doors and more. There are 3 main entrances/exits to/from this hotel that leads to 3 different busy streets. I am actually very impressed with this hotel.

another entrance/exit

Room

My friend and I had to share a King size bed as all their accessible rooms come this way. There was lots of space in the room for me to move my wheelchair around to every corner of the room. There was the usual TV, desk, coffee/tea maker and not much else of anything.

the room was nice

The bathroom was again perfect for my stay this year. It was spacious enough to fit my big commode chair and have my friend inside to assist me. The toilet was at the right height, the sink was able to accommodate me wheeling in close up to it, and the roll in shower was large and had a hand held shower head. No complaints here.

roll in shower with accessible sink

Amenities

Chelsea Hotel did have some great amenities but due to covid, some had to be closed. The free wifi worked well in our room and all public areas of the hotel. There is 3 food/drink options located on site: Expresso Coffee & Wine Bar, Market Garden, and T Bar. There is even a nice outside patio that connects from the Market Garden where people can take their pizzas and food outside. We only bought quick food/drink items to go and did not dine in.

Expresso Coffee & Wine Bar

Meeting rooms and conference rooms can also be rented out but I think that was closed due to covid. A heated underground parking garage is also available for those who need it. There is also a nice fitness center on deck 27 and a kids game room but they are also both closed.

Pool

The family pool and waterslide are actually open to the public during certain reduced times and capacity limits. We did not visit here because I remember during my last visit that the pool did not have a ramp or a wheelchair pool lift.

Deck 27’s adult pool and locker room saunas were also closed and that was located right beside the fitness center. We did not visit this area either this time but I do remember it not being wheelchair accessible.

Location

Since this hotel is located within the Downtown Yonge area of downtown Toronto, everything is nearby. Within a 30 minute walk, there is dozens and dozens of shops, restaurants, bars, museums, the boardwalk, Yonge- Dundas Square, Chinatown, CN Tower and more. Chelsea Hotel is so conveniently located, we didn’t have to taxi anywhere this trip except to/from the airport.

Yonge-Dundas Square is only a 5 minute walk/stroll away

My friend and I both enjoyed our stay at the Chelsea Hotel and thought it was a great value for what we got. It was very accessible except for the pools which we didn’t use anyways. We both really enjoyed the location of the hotel and felt it was close to everything we needed. If I was to come back to Toronto, I would definitely stay a 3rd time.