Montreal: More Than Just an Airport
- Jul 28
- 4 min read
Despite living relatively close to Montreal, I had somehow managed to make it this far in life without actually spending any real time there.
My last visit was a six-hour train layover in Grade 12, which I don't think counts as having visited a city so much as having been temporarily deposited in it.
Since then, Montreal has mostly existed for us as an airport. And not even our preferred airport. Given the choice, we usually connect through Toronto.
So clearly it was time to give Montreal a proper chance.
We booked a few nights at Lofts du Vieux-Port in Old Montreal, packed comfortable shoes, and headed off for a long weekend.
The comfortable shoes would turn out to be important.
Day 1: Arrival, Beer, Bed
We took a late afternoon flight to Montreal and checked into Lofts du Vieux-Port.
The location was perfect for us, right in Old Montreal and within easy walking distance of all kinds of things to explore. Our loft was great: spacious, comfortable and in a fantastic location for exploring on foot. The trade-off for staying right in the middle of Old Montreal is noise. This is a lively part of the city, and it stays lively well into the night, particularly on weekends. It didn't ruin the stay for us, but if you're someone who needs absolute silence to sleep, it's definitely something to keep in mind.
Once we were settled, we headed to BreWskey for supper and a beer, then wandered around Old Montreal for a while.
Cobblestone streets, old buildings, patios, people everywhere... Montreal was already making a pretty good case for itself.
Eventually we decided we had done enough for an arrival day and called it a night.
We had no idea how much walking was coming.
Day 2: We Walked. A Lot.
We started the morning wandering through Old Montreal and down toward the waterfront, where we spotted a cruise ship in port.
Obviously, we had to go investigate. You can take the travel advisor away from the cruise ships, but apparently you cannot stop her from wandering over to look at them.
From there, we kept walking along the waterfront toward the Clock Tower, enjoying a beautiful morning and getting our first proper look around the city.
Eventually we decided our feet did not need to personally carry us to every corner of Montreal, so we took the Metro to Jean-Talon Market.
This is exactly the kind of place I love when travelling: colourful produce, little shops, bakeries, food stalls and plenty of opportunities to wander around looking at things I absolutely do not need. Fress pressed juice and some berries were a need.
After exploring the market, we took the Metro back and resumed our preferred method of transportation: our feet.
There were coffee stops along the way, including what turned out to be the best coffee of the trip at Marché Saint Laurent, a little shop near Notre-Dame filled with locally made Montreal goodies that also happens to have a café.
We spent the rest of the day wandering and eventually grabbed supper from a food truck down by the waterfront before calling it a night.
By this point, we had covered a fairly ridiculous amount of Montreal on foot.
The Metro helped.
Our step counts would suggest it did not help enough.
Day 3: Food, Accidental Markets and Beer
The next day we headed out for a food tour with Secret Food Tours.
Food tours are one of my favourite ways to explore a city, even though being vegan occasionally makes them a slightly questionable choice.
This one wasn't incredibly vegan-friendly, but I knew that going in. I still enjoy testing out food tours when I travel because they're about more than just eating. You get neighbourhoods, history, local stories and little places you might never have found on your own. We visited Crew Collective, Le Beau Marche, Taverne Greque Mati, Franklin's, and RuElle Cafe.
After the tour, we set off toward Messorem brewery. We took the Metro for part of the journey, but naturally there was also a fairly substantial walk involved because apparently we had developed a theme and were committed to it.
Along the way, we stumbled across Atwater Market and had to pop through. Eventually we reached the brewery, where we rewarded all of this accidental exercise with beer.
A very sensible system, really.
We had supper at a Greek place across from our loft and then called it a night.
Day 4: Plants, Olympic Things, and a Very Good Lunch
For our last full day, after a delicious breakfast at Tommy Cafe, we decided to check out the Montreal Botanical Garden.
This time we wisely employed the Metro rather than attempting to walk across half of Montreal first.
We got a look at Olympic Park along the way, including the rather impossible-to-miss Montreal Tower, before heading into the gardens.
The Botanical Garden was beautiful and enormous, which meant that despite taking public transit to get there, we still managed to spend a couple of hours walking.
Afterwards, we had a fantastic lunch at a plant-based restaurant called LOV (thanks Devansh for the recommendation). We spent the rest of our last day doing what we had apparently come to Montreal to do: wandering around, eating things and adding unnecessarily large numbers to our step counts.
Not a bad way to spend a long weekend.
Day 5: Home
And then, just like that, it was time to head back to the airport and fly home.
So after several decades, I can finally say I have actually been to Montreal rather than merely spent six hours there as a teenager or passed through its airport on my way somewhere else.
And I really liked it.
It's an incredibly easy city to spend a few days wandering. Great neighbourhoods, beautiful old buildings, markets, coffee, breweries, excellent food and plenty to stumble across without needing to schedule every minute of the day.
Which is exactly my kind of city break.
Would I go back? Absolutely.
Would I walk quite as much next time? Also absolutely.
I have learned nothing.
Ange out.
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