Travel Guide - Montreal Activities and Places to Visit Review

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This travel guide Montreal review will help you plan your visit.

The name means Mount Royal and is in the province of Quebec.

This province has the largest French speaking population in the world.

It occupies a 50km (30 mile) long island at the confluence of the St.Lawrence and Ottawa River.

It is quite a compact city.

I always think this is a huge bonus as it is easy to explore on foot without having to work your way around an unfamiliar transport system.

It is divided roughly into three areas. The one where most of the sights are is to the south and east of Mont-Royal the old city. The city is by the shore of the St. Lawrence and the modern downtown district is between it and Mont-Real. As the city is built mainly on a grid pattern it makes it even easier to get around.

The old part of the city started life as the village of Ville Marie in 1642. It became a prosperous fur-trading town. As happens with lots of towns, when there is expansion the old parts fall into disrepair to give way to the new. This happened to the city in the mid -1900’s.

Towards the end of the 1900’s the old district was reinvented and the old buildings were transformed into the fashionable restaurants and boutiques. It is a pity in one way that the old atmosphere is lost but it is better to be regenerated than lost altogether.

Perhaps the two most famous Montreal places to visit in this area are the Basilique Notre-Dame and the Chateau Ramezay. The Basilique was built in 1892 and guidebooks place it as one of the most splendid and richly decorated churches in North America. The Chateau Ramezay was originally the home of Montreals city council.

It was built in the 18th century and now houses a museum. There are, of course other sights worth a visit in this part of town, among the Archeological Museum and the Chapelle Notre Dame-de-Bonsecours dedicated to Quebec’s sailors.

The neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal is a good area to visit and wander around. As you would expect in encapsulates the real feel of Montreal. It has Bistros, bookshops, small boutiques and plenty of street cafes.

There are also nightclubs, Jazz bars and the full range of eating places from simple cafes to some of the best places to eat in the city that get rave reviews. There is also a wide mix amongst the residents ranging from students to trendy young professionals to many ethnic families.

If you like museums there are plenty here. Perhaps a good one to start with would be the Centre d’Histoire de Montreal. You don’t have to speak French to figure out what you will see here. It traces the history of the city from the time of the first Indian settlements to the modern day. This always gets good reviews. There is an observation deck on the third floor giving a great view over Old Montreal and the Old Port.

Among the other museums worth a visit, according to your taste, is the McCord Museum of Canadian Hisory and the Redpath Museum of Natural History, this last on would be my first choice and is housed in McGill University.

Art Galleries and centre also abound. Perhaps the largest and most famous complex is the Place des Arts. It is a complex of halls and theatres and is the main centre for the performing arts. The Montreal Opera and Symphony orchestra are both based here.

Sharing the Plaza is theMusee d’Art Contemporium (no need to keep translating). This contemporary art museum was opened in 1964 and as the name suggests is dedicated exclusively to modern art with works dating from around 1939. Even if modern art isn’t your thing this is worth a visit just for the building.

If you prefer less contemporary art then the Musee des Beaux Arts is the one for you. This is one museum in two different buildings that face each other across the Rue Sherbrooke.The buildings are totally different, the older of the two exhibits Inuit art and artefacts while the newer building has the European art ranging from the middle ages to the 20th century and much more.

You can’t visit Montreal without visiting some of its parks and open spaces. There is of course Parc Mont-Royal that rises above the city centre and gives its name to the city. It has 101 acres of meadows and forests and a man made pond.

Incidentally, it was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed New York’s Central Park. Although it is not strictly a park I would suggest that the Olympic Park deserves a visit too. It is a stunning collection of buildings and can be toured during the day and hosts sporting events. It has a Biodome that was originally the velodrome, a cable car and a viewing deck. Leave plenty of time for this visit.

It is not possible to mention everything worth a visit but one thing is for sure, Montreal activities are many and get a postive review.

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