Chauffeur service in Yorkville, the Annex and Rosedale: the Mink Mile, the Four Seasons and the shopping day by the hour

Yorkville, where the car waits outside

Yorkville - Bloor Street from Avenue Road to Yonge, the streets north of it to Davenport, the Annex west of Avenue Road and Rosedale east of Yonge - is the neighbourhood where a chauffeured car is not a luxury but the ordinary way an afternoon is done: the Mink Mile's boutiques from Chanel to Holt Renfrew to the Hermès on Bloor, the Four Seasons and the Hazelton and the Park Hyatt and the Windsor Arms, the galleries on Hazelton Avenue and Scollard, the ROM and the Gardiner Museum, the restaurants from Sotto Sotto to Café Boulud to One, and, in September, TIFF's Yorkville galas at the hotels. A chauffeured Yorkville booking is a shopping day of four to six hours with the boot filling, a hotel guest's afternoon, a Rosedale household's standing arrangement, or a TIFF week; the pillar page explains the hourly product and this page is the neighbourhood.

The Mink Mile, and the parking problem it solves

Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Yonge has the highest retail rents in the country and no parking to speak of: the boutiques have no lots, the Manulife Centre's garage is a walk, and the side streets are permit-only. A chauffeured shopping afternoon is the answer the neighbourhood arrived at decades ago - the car drops at the boutique's door, waits on Cumberland or Yorkville Avenue or circles the block, takes the bags into the boot at each stop so nothing is carried, and is at the next door when the passenger comes out. The shopping page has the routine; the difference in Yorkville is that every boutique's doorman knows it.

The hotels

The Four Seasons on Yorkville Avenue, the Hazelton on Yorkville Avenue, the Park Hyatt on Avenue Road, the Windsor Arms on St. Thomas Street, the Yorkville Royal Sonesta and the InterContinental on Bloor, and the Kimpton Saint George on Bloor West: their guests are the chauffeur's regulars, and a hotel booking is a Pearson transfer in and out, an as-directed afternoon of shopping and galleries, an evening at a King West restaurant or the opera with the car waiting, and a day trip to Niagara or the County from the hotel's door. The concierges book through the desk on the corporate account and the porte-cochères are the chauffeur's second home.

TIFF's ten days

The Toronto International Film Festival in September moves its galas, its press junkets and its parties into Yorkville's hotels - the Four Seasons, the Hazelton, the Park Hyatt - and its screenings to the Lightbox on King West and the Princess of Wales and Roy Thomson Hall; a film's team in the city for three days is a multi-day booking with the same chauffeur and the S-Class or the SUV, the film and production page has the on-set rules, and the events page the red-carpet routine. TIFF's vehicles are booked in August; the festival publishes its dates a year out.

The Annex and the University

West of Avenue Road, the Annex's Victorian streets, Bloor West's restaurants and the Bata Shoe Museum, and south of Bloor the University of Toronto's St. George campus - Convocation Hall, Hart House, the Rotman School, the Munk School, the residences on St. George and Hoskin: Toronto's own version of the campus routine the Kingston page describes, with move-in in September, convocation in June and November at Convocation Hall, and visiting academics at the Faculty Club; a family in the SUV for the ceremony and lunch at the Park Hyatt is a six-hour block.

Rosedale, and the household arrangement

East of Yonge, Rosedale's ravine streets and Forest Hill north of St. Clair are the households with the standing chauffeur arrangement: the personal chauffeur service as a Saturday of errands, a weekly Pearson run, the school run when the nanny is away, the evening at the opera at the Four Seasons Centre with the car waiting on Queen, and the Friday to the Muskoka cottage. The same chauffeur, the same car, the household's preferences on file, and one monthly invoice; the hire-a-driver page prices the day and the desk sets up the standing booking once.

The museums and the galleries

The Royal Ontario Museum on Bloor at Queen's Park, the Gardiner Museum of ceramics opposite, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario a mile south on Dundas, and Yorkville's private galleries - a visitor's culture day is six hours in the sedan with lunch on Yorkville Avenue, and the ROM's Friday Night Live and the AGO's First Thursdays are the evening bookings. The tourist page plans the fuller day.

Where the car waits, in a table

A Yorkville afternoon, timed (book 5)

12:30 the Park Hyatt, the S-Class, a visitor and a friend. 12:45 Holt Renfrew; the car on Bloor. 2:00 Hermès, then Chanel; the bags to the boot each time. 3:15 the galleries on Hazelton Avenue. 4:00 tea at the Windsor Arms; the car on St. Thomas. 5:15 the Park Hyatt, the bags carried up. Four hours and forty-five minutes; five billed; the boutiques' doormen greeted the chauffeur by name.

The car

The Mercedes S-Class is Yorkville's car, for the hotel guest and the household; the Executive Sedan for the same at the lower rate; the Luxury SUV for a family's day, the cottage Friday and a serious shopping afternoon; the Executive Sprinter for a TIFF team or a gallery-opening group. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

The class hourly rate times the hours, from three, plus HST and the gratuity you set; no surge, no meter, no per-stop charge, no parking. The rates page explains the number and the comparison page the case against three rideshares and a taxi for the same afternoon.

Booking Yorkville

By the hour, three to six hours, with the boutiques, the hotel or the museum in the notes; a call to the desk for a household's standing arrangement or a TIFF week. A weekday afternoon can be booked the morning of; TIFF and December's shopping Saturdays a week ahead.

Where the household's chauffeur goes on a Saturday

A Rosedale or Forest Hill Saturday is a route the desk's chauffeurs know by heart: Summerhill Market or Pusateri's on Avenue Road for the groceries, the dry cleaner on Yonge, the florist on Davenport, a child to a lesson at the Royal Conservatory on Bloor, the bookshop in the Manulife Centre, lunch at a Yorkville table with the car outside, and the afternoon's boutiques or the tennis club; five or six hours, the boot filling, the household's preferences on file - the school, the dry cleaner, the market's parking rules - and the same chauffeur every week. It is the personal chauffeur service as Yorkville has always understood it.

The Royal Conservatory, Koerner Hall and the evening

Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory on Bloor is the city's best-sounding concert room, and an evening there with dinner on Yorkville Avenue first is a four-hour block with the car on Bloor or Bedford Road when the concert ends; the Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall and the opera and ballet at the Four Seasons Centre are a mile south with the car waiting on Simcoe or Queen, and the evening page has the rest. The Royal Conservatory's season runs September to June, and a subscriber's standing Thursday - the same seats, the same chauffeur, the same table at Sotto Sotto beforehand - is one of the desk's oldest Yorkville bookings, set up once in September and repeated to May without another phone call; the car is on Bloor at the interval if the passenger wants to leave early, and at the stage door if the passenger knows the soloist.

The boutiques, by block

Bloor from Avenue Road east: Louis Vuitton and the Manulife Centre's Holt Renfrew and Birks at Bay, then Chanel, Hermès, Prada, Gucci, Tiffany, Cartier and Burberry toward Yonge; Yorkville Avenue's and Cumberland's independents behind; Hazelton's galleries; Scollard's designers. The chauffeur's drop order runs east to west or west to east so the car never doubles back on Bloor's single lane, and the last stop is the one nearest the hotel or the house so the bags go straight up. A first-time visitor who asks the chauffeur for the order gets it, with the doormen's names thrown in, and the lunch table booked while the car is still on Avenue Road.

Booking, in one line

By the hour, three to six, with the boutiques, the hotel or the concert hall in the notes; a call to the desk for a household's standing Saturday or a TIFF week; December's Saturdays a week ahead.

From our network: VWD - approved limousine affiliates in Toronto · HotelsWorldwide.Directory - Ontario · LimousineWorldwide.Directory - limo companies in Canada · LAI - Toronto Pearson (YYZ) operators · BookingWorldwide.net - Toronto hotels, flights and activities.