Tips And Works

Day 1: Out and about in style

Day 2: Party in the streets

Start day two by perusing the shops on Montreal’s famous Sainte-Catherine street, one of the city’s busiest shopping areas. Take the green metro line to the McGill stop and walk westward, taking some time to soak in the surroundings. Walk toward Crescent street and make a right; don’t worry about missing it -- you’ll be able to hear the music and chaos from blocks away. It is there that many of Montreal's festivals are held each year; you will find merchandise booths, outdoor concerts and general opportunities for debauchery.

You’ll probably be at the street festival for a while, but if you want to pry yourself from the party, you can take a stroll up Crescent to Sherbrooke street, where you’ll find the Musée des beaux-arts (Museum of Fine Arts). Once on Sherbrooke, walk east toward the McGill University campus (you’ll see the big gates at the corner of Sherbrooke and McGill).

You don’t have to go much further than the Crescent area for dinner. Crescent is home to the very trendy restaurant/nightclub Newtown. And Newtown is the perfect place to celebrate the Grand Prix festivities, as one of the owners is Formula One legend Jacques Villeneuve.



A trip to this city would not be complete without a visit to Old Montreal. Take the orange line of the subway to the Place d'Armes stop. Take a gander at the square, specifically at the Notre-Dame Basilica -- a neogothic church dating back to the 19th century.

Continue east on Notre-Dame Street, pass the Palais de Justice (courthouse) on your left, and continue on until you hit Place Jacques-Cartier, where you’ll see entertainers and artists trying to peddle their wares to locals and tourists alike. Have a look at the statue of Nelson, an English admiral who helped defeat the French in the battle of Trafalgar (admittedly, this statue takes a lot of heat from locals around referendum time). After your visit to the square, turn right on Saint-Paul and window shop in some of Old Montreal’s exclusive boutiques and art galleries.

Once in Old Montreal, try a martini at the lounge-bar Suite 701 (701 Côte de la Place d'Armes). Later, if you can manage a second night of after-hours partying, make your way back to town to Stereo Nightclub, where you can drain yourself of that last bit of energy.

Day 3: Roll the dice

tips for the trip

• Leave your car at the hotel and take the subway, called the "metro" in French. This is one of Montreal’s busiest weekends and parking around town will be scarce.
• Tipping in restaurants should be at least 15%. An easy way of calculating this is to add the two sales taxes -- the TPS and TVQ -- as they amount to 15% of the bill.
• In case of rain, head to Les Cours Mont-Royal, an upscale underground shopping center that connects to Montreal’s famous underground city -- a group of connected underground malls in the downtown area.
• The standard way of greeting people in Quebec is to kiss them on both cheeks (starting with the right) -- unlike in the rest of Canada where you shake hands.