Montreal in Fall.
The gorgeous Bar George at the Mount St. Stephan
Fall does not always conjure up the vision of snowy hikes on a mountain or 7 degree weather but that's exactly what this weekend trip to Montreal offered. Was it a bust? Not even close.
We took the opportunity to check out so many of the amazing restaurants and maybe lingered there longer than we would have if it were warm. We arrived at around 1 and checked into a beautiful old hotel right in the center of town and only 4 blocks from the start of the park, The Mont Saint Stephen. We were upgraded to an incredible duplex suite with great modern touches and the most gorgeous hand painted soaking tub with a view of the city.
The Hotel Mount Stephen
The first order of business was lunch and we started strong with one of the city's finest modern French restaurants, Bouillon Bilk. Warmed by the wine we walked around and stumbled upon the Time Out Market where tons of amazing local chefs are represented and there is a huge bar with plenty of seating. Montreal at the time had also just started hosting a huge holiday light show called Cavalia Illumi. It is 8 different lands including a safari, North Pole, and Japanese Garden all made out of millions of LED lights. Post Covid it appears this has only grown check out link https://laval.illumi.com/ There are also lots of food trucks and stalls and a Christmas Market. My recommendation is if you are traveling with kids or teens it is worth the trip 20 minutes outside the city. Grown ups only? I’d still go because I’m a sucker for lights but totally get why you’d take a pass.
After an Uber back into town we had a great dinner at the Syrian Restaurant Damas https://www.damas.ca If no one has allergic restrictions do not hesitate and get the tasting menu. It was insane to watch course after course come out and everything looked so good. That said with Craig’s celiac we were on a different page. We ordered off the menu and while I wished we had the tasting menu - nothing we ordered disappointed! The hummus and labneh were amazing! I would go back everytime!!! I still dream about the baklava - sorry Craig!
We knew the weather would be gentle these first two days (22 degrees) so we decided to grab a famous Montreal Bagel (who knew?) and wander through the Montreal Museum of Fine Art near our hotel. We then spent the rest of the morning hiking up Mount Royal - it offered beautiful views of the city and an opportunity to get outdoors and get a decent amount of exercise. We headed over to Toque for an incredible lunch that was as pretty to look at as it was delicious to eat. The service was incredible, it felt so decadent to spend the early afternoon relaxing over wine and an incredible 3 courses.
Time to get back out in the elements! We opted for a tour of Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. It was a nice walk there and an interesting place to walk around before heading back.
Later that evening we had tickets for the Aura Show in the old town. Aura show is a laser and orchestral music show where they animate the whole church in lights. It was great and put us in a perfect spot for an evening walk and dinner at Maggie Oakes. The food was delicious with salmon tartar and great aged meats - a great end to the evening. A walk before or after dinner for another drink at the Coldroom is a must!!! The old town is so quaint and I was so happy it would be where we spent a lot of our Sunday shopping, drinking coffee and exploring.
Our flight left Sunday night so we would have the whole day to spend finishing up our Montreal tour. We started with sleeping in just a little, having coffee at our incredible hotel and packing up so we wouldn't have to do it later. We walked to the brunch restaurant via McGill which was so pretty to walk through, about an hour's walk. We got to L’Express right as it opened to get a great brunch starting with cornichons and baguette before an unbelievably perfect Steak Frites. This brunch also dropped us off in a neighborhood, Plateau Mont-Royal that had a cool brooklyn vibe and lots of shops (check out this link for some of the more recent highlights https://www.afar.com/travel-tips/10-plateau-mont-royal-essentials ) We also walked through Mile End and visited some cool clothing, houseware, and food stores as well as a few art shops.
We wandered back towards the Old Town to walk along the waterfront and grab some last minute fleece pajama souvenirs another great option here and what I should have booked was the water circuit at Bota Bota https://botabota.ca/le-circuit-deaux it is a great modern set up right on the water and you can do a great 3 hour package - which once i saw it knew it was a perfect way to end the 3 days.
Grab poutine on the way out of town and au revoir Montreal! We can't wait to return.
Au Revoir Montreal