Over Memorial Day Weekend, I took the 7 hour drive up through the border to Montreal. Last year, I did the same thing but went to Toronto. Both times were for an early birthday celebration and both times didn’t disappoint!
We were sort of in Montreal during the off season, so some places weren’t serving brunch yet and the Olympic Tower was closed. But the city was beautiful and there were still plenty of things to do!
Things we did:
- Mount Royal – ummmmmm no one told me this was a legitimate uphill hike so we attempted it the first day and then just drove to the top on the last day because I was not having it lol. The view of the city from the top is totally worth it though.
- Olympic Park and the Biodome – the park was kind of empty and creepy, but I had never been to a biodome before and thought it was awesome.
- Bonseccours Market – didn’t think this was super impressive, just an indoor market.
- Visited the Port – which is in the coolest and most European looking part of the city, the views were beautiful!
- Notre Dame Basilica – very beautiful! One of the coolest things about Montreal is that there will be an amazing cathedral and sky scraper next to each other.
- Underground city – which is just a mall really.
Places we ate (I would recommend all of them!):
- Thursday’s
- Deville Diner – omg the food and drinks here are amazing
- Allo Mon Coco
- 3 Amigos
- Tim Horton’s for coffee and a donut because duh!
- Le Bistro Magasin General du VIeux-Montreal – yummiest brunch and cronuts!!
Tours we went on:
- We went on a very low key bar crawl, but met some awesome people and had a great time: click here for the tour.
Where we stayed:
- AirBnB in downtown
Montreal was really cool because you could get every aspect of a city. There’s a Times Square/shopping NYC feel on St. Catherine’s Street, a Central Park kind of feel on Mont Royal, and then you can be transported into Rome where there are cobble stone streets and bistros on every corner!
Seriously, you can see an amazing sky scraper and right next door will be a historic cathedral. It’s amazing!
The primary language is French, but everyone speaks English. And money-wise, using my American credit card was the best bet but we had some American money and Canadian money in our pockets just in case. Montreal was a great little getaway, I would highly recommend going if you are looking for a little bit of history, fun, Europe, Canada, and modern city all rolled into one! 🙂
