Sit on the Left side of the plane for the best views on flights from Toronto to Madrid. Left side wins at both ends of the flight. At departure you get Toronto's skyline and Lake Ontario; at arrival you get Madrid's urban core and the Castilian plateau. Over the Atlantic the views are symmetric, but the left side also has a slight edge crossing the Canadian Maritimes where you may glimpse the Gulf of St. Lawrence coastline.

During takeoff from Lester B Pearson International (YYZ), sit on the Left side for the best views. Pearson's dominant departure runway is 23 (heading southwest), which puts the left side facing southeast toward downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario. You get a clear view of the Toronto skyline including the CN Tower, and the broad expanse of Lake Ontario stretching to the horizon. Notable sights include: CN Tower and downtown Toronto skyline, Lake Ontario shoreline, Toronto Islands, Hamilton Harbour in the far distance to the southwest.

When landing at Barajas (MAD), sit on the Left side for the best views. Madrid Barajas primarily uses runways 32L/32R for arrivals from the northeast, meaning the aircraft approaches from the northeast heading southwest. The left side faces southeast, giving views over the city center of Madrid, the Manzanares River valley, and the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains visible to the northwest on the right — but the left side captures the urban core and the flat Castilian meseta spreading out. Notable sights include: Madrid city center and Gran Via district, Manzanares River, Retiro Park (large rectangular green space), the flat brown Castilian meseta plateau.

The flight from Lester B Pearson International (YYZ) to Barajas (MAD) takes Approximately 7 hours 30 minutes to 8 hours.

After departure the route tracks northeast over southern Ontario, then over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland before crossing the North Atlantic. The great circle route passes well north, skirting the southern tip of Greenland or passing near it depending on winds, then descends toward the Iberian Peninsula crossing northern Portugal or the Cantabrian coast before reaching Madrid. Mid-Atlantic is open ocean with occasional cloud systems. The Azores archipelago may be visible far to the south but is typically off-route. Approaching Europe, the green hills of Galicia in northwestern Spain give way to the increasingly dry and brown Castilian meseta.