Attraction Montreal — Olympic Park, Canada

Space for Life and the Olympic Park: Gardens, Bugs, Ecosystems and Stars

A full day in Montreal's east end: the Botanical Garden and its Chinese and Japanese gardens, the Insectarium, the leaning tower of the 1976 Olympic Stadium, the five ecosystems of the Biodome and a dome show at the Planetarium.

Duration: 1 day
Distance: 6 km
Difficulty: Easy
Best season: Year-round; June–October for the outdoor gardens

Print day cards

The east end of Montreal holds the biggest cluster of museums in the city, and most visitors see only one of them. On one side of Rue Sherbrooke is the Botanical Garden, 75 hectares founded in 1931 and among the most important botanical gardens in the world, with the Insectarium on its grounds. On the other side is the Olympic Park built for the 1976 Summer Games: Roger Taillibert’s concrete stadium, the 165-metre tower that leans over it at 45 degrees, and the old Olympic velodrome, now the Biodome, with the Planetarium next door. Together these four museums (plus the Biosphere, across town on Île Sainte-Hélène) make up Space for Life, which calls itself the largest natural science complex in Canada.

Done properly this is a full day, and it rewards a plan. Start in the gardens in the morning while it is cool and the light is good, drop into the Insectarium, cross Sherbrooke for a look at the stadium and its tower, and spend the afternoon indoors at the Biodome, finishing with a timed show at the Planetarium. In winter, when the outdoor gardens sleep under snow from November to April, flip it: the greenhouses, Biodome and Planetarium make one of the best cold-weather days in the city.

Getting there. Take the green line of the metro. Pie-IX station is closest to the Botanical Garden entrance on Rue Sherbrooke and to the stadium; Viau station is closest to the Biodome and Planetarium. Walking between the two sides takes around 15 minutes.

Permits & tickets. Each museum is ticketed separately, and there are combination tickets for two or more. Space for Life strongly recommends buying fixed-time tickets online, and a Planetarium show reservation is the one most likely to sell out. Prices, hours and combos change, so check the official Space for Life site before you go.

Good to know:

The Montreal Tower, the leaning tower of the stadium, is closed for a major renovation. The Olympic Park currently announces a reopening around spring 2027 with a new glass cabin and rooftop access; check its site before you plan on the view.
The outdoor gardens are snow-covered from roughly November to April, but the greenhouses stay open year-round.
Allow at least two hours for the Botanical Garden alone in summer; it is far bigger than it looks from the entrance.
The Biodome is kept at the conditions each ecosystem needs, which means warm and humid in the rainforest and chilly by the penguins. Dress in layers.

Tips & Insights for this route Planning this route? Read our practical tips before you go — 9 tips. Read the tips

Download waypoints (GPX) Points of interest in walking order — not a trail trace.

Day by day

DayDistanceAscentDescentWalking time

Day 1 Hardest dayGardens in the morning, ecosystems and stars in the afternoon

Distance6 kmAscentNot recordedDescentNot recordedWalking timeNot recorded

Day 1

Gardens in the morning, ecosystems and stars in the afternoon

Pie-IX metro station → Viau metro station 6 km

Navigate this day Print day

Start in the Botanical Garden, move through the Insectarium, cross to the Olympic Park and finish indoors at the Biodome and Planetarium.

Segments

The Botanical Garden 3.5 km Map

Sherbrooke Street entrance → Chinese and Japanese gardens

Garden paths, greenhouses

Founded in 1931 after years of campaigning by the botanist Frère Marie-Victorin, the garden covers 75 hectares and holds around 22,000 plant species. Start in the exhibition greenhouses by the entrance, then head into the grounds. The highlights are the Chinese Garden, built in 1990–1991 by artisans from Shanghai in the Ming style; the Japanese Garden of 1988 with its tea pavilion and koi pond; and the First Nations Garden, opened in 2001. Allow two to three hours.

About this place

The Montreal Botanical Garden is a large botanical garden in Montreal, Quebec, Canada comprising 75 hectares of thematic gardens and greenhouses. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008 as it is considered to be one of the most important botanical gardens in the world due to the extent of its collections and facilities.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: GarrettRock (talk) (Uploads) · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Insectarium 0.3 km Map

Botanical Garden grounds → Insectarium

Indoor museum

Inside the garden grounds, the Insectarium was founded in 1990 by the collector Georges Brossard and bills itself as the largest insect museum in North America. It reopened in 2022 after a full rebuild designed around seeing insects the way they live, with live colonies and a walk-through vivarium alongside the pinned collections. Allow about an hour.

About this place

The Montreal Insectarium is a natural history museum located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring a large quantity of insects from all around the world. It is the largest insect museum in North America and among the largest insectariums worldwide. It was founded by Georges Brossard and opened on February 7, 1990. Its average attendance is 400,000 visitors per year. It displays both live and dead insect collections, from butterflies to bees and ants.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Funke · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Olympic Stadium and the Montreal Tower 1 km Map

Botanical Garden exit on Rue Sherbrooke → Olympic Stadium esplanade

City sidewalk and open concrete esplanade

Cross Sherbrooke to the stadium Roger Taillibert designed for the 1976 Summer Olympics. Its tower, 165 metres tall and inclined at 45 degrees, is the tallest inclined tower in the world. The observatory at the top is closed for renovation, with a reopening announced for around spring 2027, so for now this is a walk-around stop: take in the scale of the concrete from the esplanade and read the Olympic history on site. About 30 minutes.

About this place

Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Montreal, Canada, located at Olympic Park in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of the city. Built in the mid-1970s as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics, it is nicknamed "The Big O", a reference to both its name and to the doughnut-shape of the permanent component of the stadium's roof. It is also disparagingly referred to as "The Big Owe" in reference to the high cost of its construction and of hosting the 1976 Olympics as a whole.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Harrystyle · CC BY 3.0
The Biodome 0.8 km Map

Olympic Stadium esplanade → Biodome

Indoor walkways

The 1976 Olympic velodrome was reborn in 1992 as the Biodome and reopened in 2020 after a major renovation. Inside are five ecosystems of the Americas under one roof: a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian maple forest, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Labrador coast and the sub-Antarctic islands, where the penguin colony is the crowd favourite. Allow about 90 minutes.

About this place

The Montreal Biodome is a museum of enclosed ecosystems located at Olympic Park in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that allows visitors to walk through replicas of five ecosystems found in the Americas: Tropical rainforest, Laurentian maple forest, a Gulf of St. Lawrence estuary, Labrador Coast, and Sub-Antarctic Islands.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: PtitLutin (photograph); Roger Taillibert (architect) · CC BY-SA 2.5
The Planetarium 0.2 km Map

Biodome → Planetarium

Indoor museum

Next door, the Planetarium opened in 2013 in a building shaped by two great cones, one for each of its dome theatres, Chaos and Milky Way. Shows alternate between science-first astronomy and more immersive, artistic programs, all offered in French and English, and there is a small exhibition on meteorites and the search for life beyond Earth. From here, Viau metro is a short walk. Allow about 90 minutes including a show.

About this place

The Montreal Planetarium is a planetarium located in the Space for Life, near the Olympic Stadium and the Biodome in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the successor to the Dow Planetarium, closed in 2011. The new installation has two separate theatres as well as exhibits on space and astronomy. It was officially opened in April 2013.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Mtlfiredude · CC BY-SA 3.0