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Are you in Montreal, and you don’t know what to do or where to visit to kill your boredom? Montreal is known as the largest city in the Quebec region of Canada, Montreal, Quebec it is a diverse and multicultural region of Canada. Most of the people living in this region are bilingual, speaking both French and English.
The multicultural nature of the city makes it a tourist destination with lots of things to explore and enjoy. Montreal has everything every visitor loves to enjoy and experience from the historical, cultural, culinary, architectural, entertainment, and mandatory travel experience view. The landmarks, nightclubs, museums are available to give you a fun time. Below are things to do in Montreal all through the year.
Walk Through Montreal Botanical Gardens
The Botanical garden is a beautiful scenery spread out over 190 acres of thematic and cultural gardens, Art Deco pavilions, and greenhouses. Thanks to a humongous collection of plants, the gardens have ten large greenhouses with each one designed with a specific theme. It is the habitat for over 22000 species of flora, offering you scenic views any time of the year.
It is considered as a reputable collection of flowers in the world due to its large number of plant species, making it one of the most cherished attractions of the city either for educational or leisurely trips.
There is also has an insectarium museum regarded as one of the largest museums in North America dedicated to insects. The collections in the museum include 250,000 specimens of naturalized and living insects. While on a visit, look out for permanent exhibits like the Atta Ants, We are the insect, Butterflies Go Free with a unique appeal to children and the Buzz ground. Visitors of the garden as regarded it as a must-visit for visitors with the toxic pant garden as a major attraction. Check out a visitor’s guide on Mount Royal Park.
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Enjoy and Experience Street Fairs
Montreal has different kinds of street fairs all year long at different parts of the city. Every time of the season, there are tons of street fairs in various neighbourhoods and also thoroughfares to experience.
Stepping out of your room into any of the multiple street fairs during the best times of the season will present you with different kinds of activities happening in the city. You will have excellent shopping experiences, dances and music, and a variety of local drinks and food for taking.
The month of July, May, and June are mainly known to be the season of festivals. The Quartier Latin fair, for example, closes off the road to ring in the terrasse season at the end of May. The Plateau also turns the whole of Saint-Laurent Boulevard into a pedestrian street.
During fairs and festivals, you will get to confirm the dynamic and multicultural nature of the city with different groups wearing different colourful cloths. If you are a good dancer, you should be ready to learn a few steps from any of their ever-entertaining dances.
You can’t afford to miss the Italian week that happens during the beginning of August for the famous Verdon’s sugar shack themed fair at the Cabane Panache et Boos rind happening in late March.
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Visiting and Hiking at The Mount Royal
Often themed by locals and tourists as one of the best places to start exploring on a visit to Montreal, Mount Royal is a refreshing walk or a bus ride if you don’t like walking. The tour is amazingly free, and the observatory will give you a magnificent view of downtown Montreal and the mountains located on the South Bank. A great selfie spot for picture lovers.
If you are early enough, you should try to watch the sunrise from the top of Mont-Royal. It offers you a chance to see how the morning sun makes its way across the skyscrapers one after the other.
If you are a fan of hiking, Mount royal has a small hill the local call a mountain, about 200m, offering you an all-encompassing view of the whole city. This makes hiking one of the best activities to partake in on a visit to Montreal. Getting atop the hill takes about 15 minutes. It’s always a beautiful and easy walk, and there are buses available if you don’t feel like walking.
Every Sunday, there is a large number of tam-tam performers on the east end of the Mountain where the locals always gather on Mount Royal Park to enjoy their free day. You are sure of a great experience. If it’s sunny, don’t forget to take an umbrella or blanket and make sure you enjoy the beat at the park. Check out a visitor’s guide on Mount Royal Park.
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Take A Tour Of The Authentic Culinary And Delicacies Across The City
Montreal is unarguably a foodie city. The city is nothing without the delicacies. The nature of the culinary might be oily, but that doesn’t mean that’s all the food is about in Montreal. Real Montrealers always enjoy treating themselves to a good meal. It interesting to know the city has more restaurants per capita than cities like New York.
Heard of the Montreal classics like the poutine smoked meat or bangles? They can all be found in this fantastic city. A combination of three neighbourhoods (the Plateau, the Mile End, and the McGill Ghetto) are known to have the best of signature dishes (such as St-Viateurand Fairmount, Schwartz, and LA Banquise). You can’t afford to miss starting or completing a historic food tour by visiting slices of Montreal history by feasting on a particular sandwich at the Wilensky’s Light Lunch or enjoy a mash at the Beauty’s. Take a look at the top restaurants in Montreal to get a good meal.
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Get Lost And Shop To Your Satisfaction In The Underground City Of Montreal
Let’s dive into the underground city of Montreal. The city has an underground city because of the soil in the city. To build skyscrapers around here, engineers need to dig deep foundation leading to the idea of the underground city.
The underground marvel is a sprawling network of various connected subterranean tunnels that runs through the core of the downtown with easy access to the metro system. It is heated during the winter and air-conditioned during the summer. Contrary to the one in Toronto, Montreal serves the locals and is easy to use.
Taking a walk across the full city circuit is over 30km. It has functional passageways to link you from downtown to malls to restaurants. It is one of the largest in the world, with Close to half a million people using daily.
Experience the thrill of the city by shopping in the famed Montreal underground city. The underground town offers a pedestrian network under the heart of the city that links metro stations to shopping malls. It’s a lifesaver when you want to do a lot of activities at the same time. It is the favourite destination for the whole family because it opens the door to entertainment.
Ice skating in Montreal
The fascinating thing about skating in Montreal is that you can ice skate at any time of the year. Outdoors during the winter and indoor in the summer. Indoor venues and outdoor rinks, there’s no city better prepared than Montreal when it comes to ice skating.
Either you want a Patinoireto’s help to enjoy a good hockey game, a surface stick for Salchow jump, or a track of skating laps, the city has it all. Next to skiing, ice skating is one of the best things to do in Montreal during the winter. To know if the ice conditions are suitable outside for skating, dial 211 to get an update on the city ice condition before heading out. So get ready to glide!
One of the most popular places for ice skating is the Atrium Le 1000, Beaver Lake or the Old Port.
Always open all year round with extended hours during winter and fall. The rinks are always usually furnished with locker, skate, helmets, free wifi. A food court surrounds it with 15 restaurants that include excellent Montreal hot dogs. If you’re going to be available for a while, three months membership plan is open. Visit here to know the best skating rinks in Montreal.
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Have A Taste Of History In The Old Town Of Montreal
Everything sounds even more fascinating by knowing more about history. Vieux-Montreal, as popularly called by the French-speaking locals, it has different kinds of architectural marvels that date back to the 19th century, early-century buildings, and skyscrapers. If you are in the old port of Montreal, you will not run out of things to do.
Venture into the streets and marvel at its cobblestone streets full of majestic architecture that will make you think like you are in Europe. From there, take a tour of the St-Paul street to help you understand more about the history and also how it shaped the present-day culture.
There are lots of souvenir shops, art galleries, bars, and restaurants all through the way to ensure your enjoyment. You can’t run out of fun in the city either during the day or night. You shouldn’t miss the performance of the street performers at the Gothic Revival Church Notre-Dame Basilica, the Clock Tower Beach, or the Inuit art at Galerie d’art Images Boreales. To have a better insight into this city’s history, you should click here.
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Experience Art At Its Finest At Different Museums And Art Galleries
Start your tour off by experiencing the exquisite art at the Museed’Art Contemporain. It is the premier destination of collections of contemporary art with over 7000 pieces by over 1500 artists both at local, national, and international levels. MAC, Founded in 1964, it is the first in Canada to combine both visual and performing art exhibit regularly. Since then, it has become a gathering for all art enthusiasts to gaze at art, both contemplative and provocative. You should not miss visiting during Montreal’s annual Nuit Blanche festival with VJ and DP performances, temporary installations, and art workshops.
After visiting the MAC, then head to the Montreal Museum of fine arts. The museum
is vast, and you can be assured to have a great time there. The museum exhibits a collection of over 44000 artworks with a lot of temporary exhibitions too. The entrance fee is free for people above the age of 65 and people under 31. Check out the best museums and art galleries to visit.
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Feel Like a Local of Montreal By Riding A Bike in Montreal
Montreal has countless paths for bikes, and there are a lot of people using them. So you can conclude Montreal is a bike-friendly city. You don’t have to feel uncomfortable because a lot of people use a bike here. Biking is best during the warmer seasons. The Bixi bikes are most common in Montreal and similar to the Velib in Paris. Bixi allows you to hire bikes for a full day of few hours, with returns made to any bike station in the city. If you are looking for wild fun, this is definitely for you. Use their app to find the nearest place available for parking. The price is meager, depending on the amount of ride. Get the biking routes through here.
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Take a Visit to the Montreal’s Olympics Stadium
The Olympic Stadium in Montreal, also called “The Big O” is a multi-purpose stadium situated at the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve part of Montreal. Constructed in the mid-1970s, it served as the main venue for the 1976 Olympics. The big O nickname is a reference to the doughnut-shape of the component of the roof. The stadium is called “Big Owe” due to the high cost of construction and the summer Olympic as a whole.
On a visit to Montreal, you should not miss visiting this iconic structure. The stadium has the largest sitting capacity in Canada, with 56,040 sits. Following the 1976 Olympics, artificial turf was installed and became the home of Montreal’s football teams and professional baseball team.
The stadium now serves as a facility for special events. The capacity of the stadium can also be increased with temporary seating. You can still take a picture of the tower because it is an engineering marvel. To experience the stadium at its peak, you should check out the upcoming events scheduled at the stadium. A game will surely guarantee you a truly memorable experience.
Credit: olympique.ca
Conclusion
No matter the neighborhood you find yourself, there are always fun things to do in Montreal. Follow this guide extensively, pick each one daily, and have the best travel experience ever.
Sharemycasa has you covered with everything you need to have a comfortable and reliable stay in Montreal, Quebec. 24/7 online support to ask any questions related to your travel destination. Sharemycasa gives you tips on the culture and a detailed city guide, and a translated copy if needed.
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