Hotels in Montreal, Canada

Best time to visit Montreal

Montreal is an exciting city to visit, regardless of the season. Summer is peak tourist season with average temperatures around 75 – 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Book your accommodation in advance to ensure hotel availability and reasonable room rates. At this time of the year, the city is buzzing with activities and outdoor festivals, such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and the Just for Laughs street festival. In fall, expect temperatures to drop from 50 degrees Fahrenheit in September to 25 – 30 degrees Fahrenheit by November. By late fall, the city is free of the throngs of tourists, and hotel availability and rates are better. Winters here are brutally cold with temperatures ranging from 0 – 20 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the thick snow cover lends a fluffy white backdrop to enjoy gourmet meals, and attend the Montreal en Lumière festival.

Getting around Montreal

Walking is one of the best ways to explore the city’s elegant architecture and urban art, and experience its classic French vibe. Montreal is a pedestrian and bike-friendly city with almost 500 miles of bike paths and affordable daily rentals. The city’s official bike-share program is called BIXI Montréal. For $5.00 CAD, you can buy a 1-day access pass that allows you to unlock a bike at any of the bike stations in the city with unlimited rides of maximum 30 minutes within a 24-hour period. Montreal’s public transportation system operated by STM includes buses and trains for a cash fare of $3.25 CAD per trip. You can also buy a 1-day ticket for $10.00 CAD, and enjoy unlimited bus and metro travel for 24 hours from time of validation. Taxis and ride-share options such as Uber are easily available throughout the city. While parking is cheap, it is quite difficult to find a spot, particularly in the touristy neighborhoods. It is best if you avoid driving in Montreal.

Get a Montreal Attraction Pass

Invest in a Montreal Attraction Pass to get access to 23 popular attractions and activities within a 72-hour period at a cost of $113.83 CAD. An added attraction of the pass is that its built-in chip gives you unlimited access to all modes of public transportation, including the 747 Aéroport P.-E.-Trudeau shuttle.

Best places to stay in Montreal

Vibrant and loud, yet elegant and historic, Montreal is a cosmopolitan city with so much French flair, that you can easily forget you are not in France. Over 200 ethnic communities have stitched their own tiny patches into Montreal’s urban quilt. Similarly, every neighborhood in the city has its own unique charm, and caters to a wide range of travelers. Here are a few areas you may want to consider visiting and staying in during your visit to Montreal.

Vieux-Montréal (Old Montreal)

Packed with most of the popular tourist attractions, the Old Montreal neighborhood is full of cobblestone streets lined with quaint cafés, interesting art installations, tiny antique shops, and restaurants with sunny patios. Steps away from some of the popular museums and basilicas in this area, you have Hôtel Bonaparte that offers bright, charming rooms with soaring ceilings, and French skylights. Some rooms come with a private terrace, a perfect place to relax and unwind on warm, sunny days. You can also look at Hôtel Épik Montréal, just a 4-minute walk from the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. This stylish hotel offers boutique-style accommodation, and chic rooms with exposed stone walls, high-beamed ceilings, and contemporary decor.

Plateau Mont-Royal

A neighborhood that is funky and bohemian, yet vintage and elegant, Plateau Mont-Royal is full of students, artists, and young families. As you wander through this area, you will experience an assortment of foreign cultures and languages, and enjoy some of the best street art, restaurants, cafés, and nightlife. Stay in the bright, airy rooms in Casa Bianca, an elegant B&B set in a landmark French Renaissance–inspired 1912-dated mansion, amid the trendy shops and restaurants on Esplanade Avenue. On the lively rue Saint-Denis, you have the 19th-century Hôtel Anne Ma Sœur Anne that offers fully equipped self-catering studios. Enjoy the large private terrace as well as several complimentary extras that this hotel offers.

Griffintown

From the oldest blue-collar neighborhood in entire North America, Griffintown has transformed into a chic locality that boasts celebrity-chef restaurants, cool cafés, posh art galleries, and bars with an industrial vibe. Consider the Hôtel Alt Montréal for modern comfortable rooms, just steps away from the Lachine Canal. Enjoy spectacular views of Downtown Montreal’s skyline from the spacious and sophisticated rooms in Marriott Montreal Château Champlain, a luxury hotel in the heart of Griffintown.

Mile End

Technically a part of the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood, the 10 blocks that make up Mile End are the Mecca of hipsters, artists, and foodies. The area boasts plenty of restaurants, cafés, and trendy boutiques, and has a very artsy vibe. At the border of Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End, you have Pensione Popolo, a cozy hotel with comfortable rooms. The hotel offers free access to all concerts presented at the Casa del Popolo, a historic café, popular for Indie bands, and other live music. In the heart of Mile End, just 2 blocks from Parc la Fontaine, check out Hotel de Paris, a boutique hotel with modern rooms, set in a stately stone mansion with an annex across the street.

Cheap hotels in Montreal

Montreal offers a wide range of affordable accommodation options, including cheap hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, and hostels. Most of these are conveniently located in lively areas, amid plenty of restaurants and shops. In the Latin Quarter within Downtown Montreal, you have Hôtel Lord Berri, a charming European style hotel, just across the street from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Right across from Montreal Convention Centre, and a 15-minute walk from Old Montreal, stay in the modern, comfortable rooms at Holiday Inn Montreal Centreville Downtown hotel. Check out the charming rooms and suites of Hotel Quartier Des Spectacles, a historical hotel set in a centennial building in Montreal’s lively entertainment district, Quartier Des Spectacles.

The charming city of Montreal boasts a hectic urban art and theatre scene, innovative gastronomic delights, and historic architecture and monuments. There is so much to see and do in Montreal that usually one trip inspires another, and each time you visit, you will discover something new. Here are a few suggestions that you can include in your itinerary if you are visiting Montreal for the first time.

• Put on your walking shoes or hire a bike to ride atop the 761-foot hill of Mont-Royal. Enjoy breathtaking park and city views from the Chalet du Mont-Royal building near the summit. Remember to stop by at Croix du Mont-Royal (Mont-Royal Cross).
• Admire the Renaissance architecture, intricately carved murals, and thousands of votive candles leading to the crypt, when you visit the Oratoire Saint-Joseph (St. Joseph’s Oratory). This basilica sitting adjacent to the Mont-Royal is the highest point in Montreal.
• See 22,000 species of flora in 10 themed greenhouses in the Jardin Botanique Montréal (Montreal Botanical Gardens). Enjoy a leisurely stroll through a Japanese Zen Garden, a Chinese Garden, a vibrant rose garden, and a beautiful alpine garden.
• Admire a fine collection of art by renowned artists, such as Rembrandt, El Greco, Renoir, Cézanne, and Picasso at the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).
• Discover Montreal’s history as a fledgling colony, development through the years, and present-day multicultural lifestyle at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum (Museum of Archaeology and History).
• In Parc Maisonneuve, visit the Biodôme de Montreal (Montreal Biodome) to see 4 distinct ecosystems, a polar environment, a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian forest, and a marine setting.
• Wander around the cobblestone streets of Vieux-Montréal (Old Montreal) to admire notable sites, such as the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal, the Vieux-Port (Old Port), the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), and the Marché Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market). Stop by at the cozy cafés, shop at kitschy souvenir shops, and enjoy live street performances during the summer.
• Enjoy the aroma of grilled sausages, Quebecois cheeses, mounds of fresh produce, home-grown spices, and handmade chocolates, as you stroll through the Jean-Talon Market.