A charming old-fashioned amusement park on Centre Island accessible only by ferry. Vintage rides, log flume, carousel, miniature train, and a sky chairlift through the trees — perfectly sized for young children and nostalgic adults. The island surrounding it is a full picnic-and-explore day.
Neighbourhood: Toronto Islands · Address: Centre Island, Toronto (ferry from Jack Layton Terminal) · Hours: Victoria Day weekend–Labour Day: Mon–Fri 10:30am–6pm | Sat–Sun 10:30am–8pm
Why Visit
Hop a ferry to Centre Island for a retro amusement park where kids can actually ride every ride, from the antique carousel to the tot-friendly Ferris wheel and log flume. It’s ideal if you want classic, low-stress fun without the chaos (or lines) of bigger parks.
What Makes It Unique
Centreville is Toronto’s only amusement park set on an actual island, with rides scaled specifically for younger kids (think under 10) and gates that open right onto green space and picnic areas. No thrill rides here—just real old-school carnival vibes, water views, and the novel experience of making a full day out of ferry and park together.
Centreville Amusement Park on Centre Island is one of Toronto's most charming and most anachronistic attractions — a 1960s-era theme park that has been operating on the Toronto Islands since 1967 and has somehow maintained its gently old-fashioned character through decades of modernization elsewhere. There are no roller coasters here, no thrill rides, no immersive IP theming. There are vintage log flume rides, a small Ferris wheel, a carousel of considerable age and beauty, a mini railway, swan paddle boats, and a petting zoo — and the totality of it achieves something that more expensive modern parks rarely manage: genuine delight.
Getting to Centreville is itself part of the experience. The only access is by ferry from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street, and the 12-minute boat ride with views of the downtown skyline introduces even Toronto children to the idea that a short water crossing can transport you somewhere genuinely different. The Islands themselves are a remarkable landscape — 15 kilometres of car-free trails through park land, beach, lagoons, and residential community, and Centreville sits nestled within this landscape rather than dominating it.
The park is pitched squarely at families with young children — roughly ages 2 through 10 — who find the scale appropriate and the variety stimulating without overwhelming. The rides are gentle enough for the youngest visitors, and the petting zoo with its goats, sheep, and miniature ponies provides an entirely different kind of engagement. The adjacent Far Enough Farm is a small working farm demonstration that fits naturally with the overall rural-idyll-within-the-city feeling.
Admission to the park is by all-day ride pass or pay-per-ride. The ferry runs frequently through the summer season and is priced separately. Arrive on a weekday if you can — summer weekends, particularly during the CNE, see the ferry queues stretch significantly.