Montreal
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Montreal - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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18 Recommendations
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1. Christ Church Cathedral
DowntownThe seat of the Anglican (Episcopalian) bishop of Montréal offers downtown shoppers and strollers a respite from the hustle and bustle of rue Ste-Catherine, with free noontime concerts and organ recitals. Built in 1859, the cathedral is modeled on Snettisham Parish Church in Norfolk, England, with some distinctly Canadian touches. The steeple, for example, is made with aluminum plates molded to simulate stone, and inside, the Gothic arches are crowned with carvings of the types of foliage growing on Mont-Royal when the church was built. The stained-glass windows behind the main altar, installed in the early 1920s as a memorial to the dead of World War I, show scenes from the life of Christ. On the wall just above and to the left of the pulpit is the Coventry Cross; it's made of nails taken from the ruins of Britain's Coventry Cathedral, destroyed by German bombing in 1940. Free Saturday group tours can be arranged by calling the office.
635 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H3A 2B8, Canada514-843–6577-ext. 241Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Sat. tour not offered during COVID -
2. Casino de Montréal
The IslandsYou have to be at least 18 to visit Montréal's government-owned casino, but you don't have to be a gambler. The casino is currently home to three bars and four restaurants, ranging from deli style to gourmet. You can even come just to look at the architecture—the main building was the French pavilion at Expo '67. But if you do want to risk the family fortune, there are more than 3,000 slot machines, a keno lounge, a high-stakes gaming area, and 120 tables for playing blackjack, baccarat, roulette, craps, and various types of poker. There is also music, including cabaret.
1 av. du Casino, Montréal, Québec, H3C 4W7, Canada514-392–2746Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
3. Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde
DowntownThe best reason to visit this cathedral is that it's a quarter-scale replica of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome—complete with a magnificent reproduction of Bernini's ornate baldachin (canopy) over the main altar and an ornately coffered ceiling. When Bishop Ignace Bourget (1799–1885) decided to build his cathedral in the heart of the city's Protestant-dominated commercial quarter, many fellow Catholics thought he was crazy. But the bishop was determined to assert the Church's authority—and its loyalty to Rome—in the British-ruled city. Bourget didn't live to see the cathedral dedicated in 1894, but his tomb holds a place of honor among those of his successors in the burial chapel on the east side of the nave.
1085 rue de la Cathédrale, Montréal, Québec, H3B 2V3, Canada514-866–1661Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
4. Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes
Latin QuarterArtist and architect Napoléon Bourassa called his work here l'oeuvre de mes amours, or a labor of love—and it shows. He designed the little Byzantine-style building himself and set about decorating it with the exuberance of an eight-year-old making a Mother's Day card. He covered the walls with murals and encrusted the altar and pillars with gilt and ornamental carving. It's not Montréal's biggest monument to the Virgin Mary, but it's the most unabashedly sentimental.
430 rue Ste-Catherine Est, Montréal, Québec, H2L 2C5, Canada514-845–8278Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
5. Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul
DowntownMontréal's largest Presbyterian church—sometimes affectionately called the A&P—is worth a visit, if only to see the glorious stained-glass window of the risen Christ that dominates the sanctuary behind the white-stone communion table. It's a memorial to members of the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada (the Black Watch) who were killed in World War I.
3415 rue Redpath (main entrance on rue Sherbrooke), Montréal, Québec, H3G 2G2, Canada514-842–3431Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, For guided visit, phone in advance to make arrangements -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Fondation PHI pour l'art contemporain
Old MontréalHoused in two heritage buildings, this nonprofit organization aims to showcase compelling contemporary art from around the world. The Foundation presents two to three major exhibitions a year in addition to a series of public events, special collaborative projects, and a forward-thinking education program. A free app takes you through the exhibits, and podcasts provide a fascinating look at the artists themselves. Check the website or call before you visit as the Fondation Phi closes regularly for installations.
451–465 rue St-Jean, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 2R5, Canada514-849–3742Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues., Reservations essential -
7. Galerie Blanc
The VillageBlanc is an open-air art gallery whose mission is to bring the general public closer to art. Open 24/7, rain, snow, or shine, exhibitions showcase the work of different artists and change regularly. The gallery is open to anyone and there is no admission fee. It's located on rue Ste-Catherine E. between rue Wolfe and rue Atateken.
rue Ste-Catherine E., Montréal, Québec, H3B 4G5, CanadaSight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
8. Lac aux Castors
Parc du Mont-RoyalMont-Royal's single body of water, actually a reclaimed bog, is a great place for kids (and parents) to float model boats or rent a rowboat in the summertime. In winter, the lake's frozen surface attracts whole families of skaters, and nearby there's a groomed slope where kids of all ages can ride inner tubes. The glass-fronted Beaver Lake Pavilion is a pleasant bistro that serves lunch and dinner. Skate and cross-country-ski rentals are available downstairs. In summer, rowboat rentals are available.
Off chemin Remembrance, Montréal, Québec, Canada -
9. Marché Bonsecours
Old MontréalYou can't buy fruits and vegetables in the Marché Bonsecours anymore, but you can view an exhibit; shop for local fashions, crafts, and souvenirs in the row of upscale boutiques that fill its main hall; lunch in one of the cafés or restaurants; or grab a craft beer. But the Marché is best admired from the outside. Built in the 1840s as the city's main market, it is possibly the most beautifully proportioned neoclassical building in Montréal, with its six cast-iron Doric columns and two rows of meticulously even sash windows, all topped with a silvery dome. Perhaps the marché was too elegant to be just a farmers' market.
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10. McGill University
DowntownMerchant and fur trader James McGill would probably be horrified to know that the university that he helped found in 1828 has developed an international reputation as one of North America's best party schools. McGill also happens to be one of the two or three best universities in Canada, and certainly one of the prettiest. Its campus is an island of grass and trees in a sea of traffic and skyscrapers. The statue of James McGill himself was removed in Summer 2021 after several bouts of vandalism aimed at the representation of the deceased slave owner. Take the time to stroll up the drive that leads from the Greek Revival Roddick Gates to the austere neoclassical Arts Building and meander over to the splendid Romanesque Redpath Hall building. McGill's first dedicated library is now a grand 300-seat concert hall ( www.mcgill.ca/music/about-us/halls/redpath-hall), though the newer library building next door still bears the generous benefactor's name. If you have an hour or so, drop into the temple-like Redpath Museum of Natural History ( www.mcgill.ca/redpath) to browse its eclectic collection of dinosaur bones, old coins, African art, and shrunken heads.
View Tours and Activities859 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H3A 2K6, Canada514-398–3000-main switchboardSight Details
Rate Includes: Suggested donation: C$10 -
11. Place de la Grande-Paix
Old MontréalIf you're looking for peace and quiet, the narrow strip of grass and trees on Place d'Youville just east of Place Royale is an appropriate place to find it. It was here, after all, that the French signed a major peace treaty with dozens of aboriginal nations in 1702. It was also here that the first French colonists to settle in Montréal landed their four boats on May 17, 1642. An obelisk records the settlers' names.
Between Place d'Youville and rue William, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 3Y5, Canada -
12. Place Jacques-Cartier
Old MontréalThe cobbled square at the heart of Old Montréal is part carnival, part flower market, and part sheer fun. You can pause here to have your portrait painted, buy an ice cream or watch the street performers. If you have more time, try to get a table at one of the sidewalk cafés, order a beer or a glass of wine, and watch the passing parade. During the holiday season you can order a mulled wine or hot cider in the market and warm up by one of the wood-burning stoves from your perch on an Adirondack chair. The 1809 monument honoring Lord Nelson's victory over Napoléon Bonaparte's French navy at Trafalgar angers some modern-day Québec nationalists. The campaign to raise money for it was led by the Sulpician priests, who were engaged in delicate land negotiations with the British government at the time and were eager to show what good subjects they were.
Bordered by rues Notre-Dame Est and de la Commune, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 3B1, Canada -
13. Place Royale
Old MontréalThe oldest public square in Montréal, dating to the 17th century, was a market during the French regime and later became a Victorian garden.
Bordered by rues St-Paul Ouest and de la Commune, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 3Y5, Canada -
14. Place-d'Armes
Old MontréalWhen Montréal was under attack, citizens and soldiers would rally at Place-d'Armes, but these days the only rallying is done by tourists, lunching office workers, and flocks of voracious pigeons. The pigeons are particularly fond of the triumphant statue of Montréal's founder, Paul de Chomedey, with his lance upraised, perched above the fountain in the middle of the cobblestone square. Tunnels beneath the square protected the colonists from the winter weather and provided an escape route; unfortunately, they are too small and dangerous to visit.
Bordered by rues Notre-Dame Ouest, St-Jacques, and St-Sulpice, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 1T2, Canada -
15. Square Dorchester and Place du Canada
DowntownOn sunny summer days you can join the office workers, store clerks, and Downtown shoppers who gather in these two green squares in the center of the city to eat lunch under the trees and perhaps listen to an open-air concert. If there are no vacant benches or picnic tables, you can still find a place to sit on the steps at the base of the dramatic monument to the dead of the Boer War. Other statues honor Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–96) and Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841–1919), Canada's first French-speaking prime minister. Meanwhile, the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister, has been removed for he was one of the architects of Canada's inhumane residential school system for Indigenous children.
Bordered by boul. René-Lévesque and rues Peel, Metcalfe, and McTavish, Montréal, Québec, H3B 2V6, Canada -
16. Square Victoria
Old MontréalAlthough Square Victoria officially lies within the Quartier International, or International District, Montrealers consider it a part of Old Montréal. The square nicely blends its French and English heritage with an 1872 statue of Queen Victoria on one side and an authentic Parisian métro entrance and a flower market on the other. Both are framed by a two-block stretch of trees, benches, and fountains that makes a pleasant place to relax and admire the handsome 1920s office buildings on the east side. The art nouveau métro entrance, incidentally, was a gift from the French capital's transit commission.
Rue du Square Victoria, between rues Viger and St-Jacques, Montréal, Québec, H2Z 1R1, Canada -
17. St. George's Anglican Church
DowntownThis is possibly the prettiest Anglican (Episcopalian) church in Montréal. Step into its dim, candle-scented interior and you'll feel you've been transported to some prosperous market town in East Anglia, England. The double hammer-beam roof, the rich stained-glass windows, and the Lady Chapel on the east side of the main altar all add to the effect. It certainly seems a world away from Centre Bell, the modern temple to professional hockey that's across the street.
1001 av. des Canadiens-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3B 3B3, Canada514-866–7113Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
18. St. Patrick's Basilica
DowntownBuilt in 1847, this is one of the purest examples of the Gothic Revival style in Canada, with a high-vaulted ceiling glowing with green and gold mosaics. The tall, slender columns are actually pine logs lashed together and decorated to look like marble, so that if you stand in one of the back corners and look toward the altar you really do feel as if you're peering at the sacred through a grove of trees. St. Pat's—as most of its parishioners call it—is to Montréal's Anglophone Catholics what the Basilique Notre-Dame is to their French-speaking brethren—the mother church and a monument to faith and courage. One of the joys of visiting the place is that you'll probably be the only tourist there, so you'll have plenty of time to check out the old pulpit and the huge lamp decorated with six 2-meter- (6-foot-) tall angels hanging over the main altar. And if you're named after some relatively obscure saint like Scholastica or Aeden of Fleury, you can search for your namesake's portrait among the 170 painted panels on the walls of the nave. For a solemn experience visit on the third Sunday of the month (September through June), when the mass is sung completely in Latin.
454 boul. René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H2Z 1A7, Canada514-866–7379Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free
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