Montreal, Canada

Montreal main attraction areas are Old Montreal, Downtown, and Olympic Park. Olympic Park is couple miles north, but all are reachable by Metro. You can also add-on Mont Royal Park for the panoramic Montreal view.

Noël Christmas store

Old Montreal, although small, is right by train station and cruise port. The main places are along Place jacques-Cartier and Rue Saint-Paul. We start our tour from Place d’Armes in front of Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. There are galleries and stores. The store named Noël is particularly interesting. Other than that, I didn’t feel much of old town charming.

Downtown along Rue Sainte-Catherine between Baul. Saint-Laurent and Rue Crescent is a mixed district of shopping, restaurant and art performance. You can go shopping at Underground City or find places of your favorite theme. There were no attractions for kids during our visiting and we didn’t stay long.

Live insect in Insectarium

Butterflies Go Free

Olympic Park worth a whole day for every age. We bought 3-site package and tour from Biodome, Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, Insectarium, to Space For Life Museum. We didn’t walk around outdoor Botanical Garden since flower didn’t blossom yet in April. Biodome has four great replicas of Americas ecosystems. Planetarium’s theaters are appealing. Insectarium’s insect specimen are wooing. Butterflies Go Free in Space For Life Museum is truly amazing.

If you would like to see Montreal from top, Chalet du Mont-Royal in Mont-Royal Park offers the best view. You can park at Maison Smith and walk to the chalet in 10 mins.

Bagel duo

Before leaving Montreal, don’t forget to try Montreal-style bagels which is denser and sweater. The most famous duo in the region are St-Viateur Bagel and Fairmont Bagel. Both are brick-oven 24-hours store. I tried both. Between Montreal-style bagel and New-York-style bagel, personally I favor Montreal style more because I can feel a dough sweet jumping on my taste buds. Between the duo, Fairmount bagel is more crusty than St-Viateur’s. If you can not visit either store, Costco and other supermarkets in great Montreal area carry Fairmount sesame bagels. For store locations, check Fairmount Bagel website.