There is something seemingly ironic about seeing downtown Hamilton through the eyes of enthusiastic Torontonians.

But a school-busload of them made the 45-minute road trip to our city Saturday, taking in everything from waterfalls to art crawls.

It's easy to roll your eyes at the idea of Toronto hipsters 'discovering' Hamilton's many hidden gems — but the enthusiasm of the "Hamiltime" crew was contagious.

They like us, they really like us!

The Hamiltime Road Trip was organized by Toronto urbanist duo Jo Flatt and Rachel Lissner with help from local resident Jay Carter, the Hamilton Project Co-ordinator at Evergreen Cityworks.

Lissner runs a Facebook page called the Young Urbanists League, and Flatt runs 'Civic Salon' tours of T.O. neighbourhoods.

"I run tours at home about cool areas to get Toronto people excited…to develop excitement around their city. But I thought with Hamilton, people should be excited about their region," she said —after all, it's less than an hour away.

The idea was so popular they sold out their bus tickets in one day and ended up having a wait list.

The interest makes sense, particularly with the buzz around the city's booming and affordable real estate market.

But they said they hadn't expected to receive such an overwhelmingly positive response from Hamiltonians — with an outpouring of suggestions on social media of places and people to visit.

Perhaps Steeltown is finally ready to put our Toronto rivalry behind us.

Tom Wynne and his partner have been toying with the idea of buying a house in still-reasonable Hamilton, and figured the bus trip would be a perfect opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes tour.

"Hamilton represents sort of this dream of accessible home ownership — it's impossible in Toronto," Wynne said.

But the event also drew people just looking to expand their GTA horizons for a day.

"I was very surprised. I think there's a lot more charm and character and forward-thinking than I had maybe expected," said tourist Hannah Iland.

McMaster grad Sira Vijenthira — who now lives in Toronto — used the road trip as an excuse to revisit her old stomping grounds.

As a university student, she lived mostly in the 'Mac bubble' of West Hamilton, venturing downtown now and again for special events or volunteer stints.

While she said the school did make some effort to introduce students to other areas of the city, she said "it was easy to get really busy focused on the day-to-day of being a student."

She was happy to revisit old haunts and was pleasantly surprised by some new discoveries — including the Windemere Basin wetlands and the newly-pedestrianized Gore Park.

The best part of the tour, she said, was the access to those personally involved in the city's revitalization.

"Even as a resident you don't get access to the people we did on this tour," she said.

Guides included local architect Graham McNally, activist Peter Hopperton, the city's urban renewal manager Glen Norton and transportation manager Peter Topalovic.

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Topalovic said he was thrilled to spend the day talking about Hamilton's urban spaces and rich history: "people are genuinely interested, I've been pleasantly surprised…it's been fun."

Tour highlights included Webster's and Albion Falls, Van Wagner's Beach and artsy James Street North, before wrapping up down at the harbourfront.