This eco-friendly King West hotel is the perfect place for a winter staycation
After a decade-long reign as Toronto’s party hotel, the Thompson bid adieu to King West with an epic 2020 NYE blowout bash. Twenty months later, the broody, bacchanalian property was transformed into a verdant oasis that bills itself as an eco-luxury destination, featuring muted colour schemes punctuated by loads of living greenery. There are 3,300 plants spread across the lobby, restaurants, rooftop pool bar and guest rooms.
Even the exteriors are now adorned with Fiat-sized Muskoka boulders and giant planters full of trees (maples, river birches, eastern redbuds). For the U.S.-based boutique hotel chain, eco-luxury isn’t just a boho aesthetic—it’s also a commitment to sustainability. 1 Hotel Toronto limits single-use items—preferring chalkboards to paper, glass to plastic, and filtered Lake Ontario water to the bottled stuff.
This mission-driven hotel hasn’t sacrificed an ounce of opulence to meet their green goals: the 112 sun-soaked rooms are decked out with organic cotton linens, heated floors and rough-hewn wood furniture made from fallen Toronto trees by local artisans Just Be Woodsy. There’s even a complimentary electric car service—which will take you anywhere within three kilometres of the hotel.
At 2,000 sprawling square feet on the 10th floor, Birch House is the grandest of 1 Hotel Toronto’s 21 suites, and far removed from the bustle below. The average nightly rate for this suite? A casual $4,500:
Here’s the Flora lounge:
They serve the luscious pear vodka–flavoured Purple Rain ($20), garnished with lychee and hibiscus:
1 Kitchen Toronto is the hotel’s casual ground-floor restaurant:
The wagyu tacos ($24) at Harriet’s Rooftop are served in a wonton shell with jalapeño-cilantro aïoli:
