Things to do in Montreal

Nature · Centre of the city

The hill the city is named after, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, with a lookout over downtown and the river beyond.

Local tip: Sunday afternoons in summer bring the tam-tams — an unstructured drum circle at the George-Étienne Cartier monument that has run for decades. In winter the same slope is used for tobogganing and cross-country skiing, and the mountain is genuinely busiest in January.

Neighborhood · North of the Plateau

The old Jewish and Greek quarter turned creative district — bagel bakeries, Ubisoft, and triplexes with outdoor staircases.

Local tip: The bagel argument between St-Viateur and Fairmount is genuine and unresolvable; both are open around the clock and both are wood-fired and sweeter than a New York bagel. Buy them hot and do not refrigerate them.

Food · Little Italy

One of North America's largest open-air public markets, running year-round and supplied heavily by Quebec growers.

Local tip: Go in September when the Quebec harvest is at its peak and the whole market is local rather than imported. The surrounding streets — Little Italy proper and the Maghrebi shops on Jean-Talon — are as good as the market itself.

Landmark · Southeast, on the river

Cobbled streets and eighteenth-century stone buildings around Notre-Dame Basilica, on the waterfront where the city began.

Local tip: It is the tourist quarter and residents mostly avoid it in summer. Come in winter instead, when the stone and the snow do something the postcards never show, and the crowds are gone entirely.

Nature · Southwest

A disused canal turned linear park with a cycling path running from the Old Port out to Lac Saint-Louis.

Local tip: Fourteen kilometres of flat, separated, genuinely pleasant cycling — and the Atwater Market sits directly on it about a third of the way along, which is the correct place to stop.

Nature · Ahuntsic, north end

A river island park at the northern edge of the island, with rapids, a restored mill and almost no visitors.

Local tip: Reachable by metro and a short bus, and virtually unknown outside the surrounding neighbourhood. In winter the trails are groomed for cross-country skiing and it is the easiest genuine ski outing inside city limits.