Montreal in 3 Days

Start with the Old Montreal walk from Place d’Armes: the Notre-Dame Basilica, the ruins under Pointe-à-Callière, cobbled Rue Saint-Paul, Place Jacques-Cartier and Bonsecours Market, finishing at the Old Port. In the afternoon, pick up the Lachine Canal at the western end of the Old Port. The canal opened in 1825, closed to shipping in 1970 and is now a Parks Canada national historic site, lined with a paved path that is one of the city’s favourite places to walk and cycle. Walk or rent a BIXI and follow it west past converted factories and lofts for about three and a half kilometres to Atwater Market, the 1933 Art Deco market hall at the water’s edge, for cheese, bread and fruit to eat on the canal bank. Atwater metro is a short walk away. If you booked AURA at the basilica, head back to Old Montreal for the evening show.

Spend the morning on the Mount Royal summit walk: up Frederick Law Olmsted’s switchback road from the Cartier Monument, to the illuminated cross, Beaver Lake and the Kondiaronk Belvedere, the view on every Montreal postcard. Have lunch at the Beaver Lake pavilion or picnic on the lawns. In the afternoon, cross to the mountain’s western summit for Saint Joseph’s Oratory; it is a separate hilltop, so take a bus or taxi rather than trying to walk it. Work your way up from Brother André’s first little chapel to the great dome, and finish on the terrace as the sun sets over the west of the city. Côte-des-Neiges metro, on the blue line, takes you back into town, where the restaurants along Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges make an easy dinner.

Take the metro to Jean-Talon or De Castelnau and start at Jean-Talon Market in Little Italy, open since 1933 and one of the largest open-air markets in North America; from May to October around 300 vendors, mostly local farmers, fill the arcades. Graze your breakfast, then walk south into Mile End and pick up the Plateau and Mile End walk from its northern end: the bagel duel between St-Viateur and Fairmount first, then down Boulevard Saint-Laurent to Schwartz’s for smoked meat, along the staircase streets of Avenue Duluth to Parc La Fontaine, and on to Square Saint-Louis and Sherbrooke metro. Rainy-day or family swap: spend the day at the Olympic Park and Space for Life instead: the Botanical Garden and Insectarium, the leaning tower of the 1976 Olympic Stadium, the Biodome and a Planetarium show.