Last time I visited Montreal was 7 years ago on a university group tour. It was in a freezing cold February, I still remember we were walking on the street late in the night when it felt like -40°C outside. Crazy school time 😄
Fast forward to May 2022, I finally got the chance to visit Montreal again this year. Considering the Tulip Festival was around the same time, I also added one day to Ottawa, although have visited Ottawa back in winter 2017, still worth to stop by.
Weather
This trip was planned for May 14 to May 19. Spring in Eastern Canada is rather drastic – like it was snowy yesterday and steamy today, then you get a thunderstorm tomorrow 😂 Temperature in Montreal during May can go 11-28°C, quite a range isn’t it 😄
If you also plan to go Montreal in May, I’d suggest packing both pants or jeans👖and shorts 🩳, and get a jacket too.
Accommodations
The hotel we stayed in Montreal called Hotel Manoir Sherbrooke. Highly recommend. I was enchanted by the historic charm and personalized service of this boutique gem. The rooms are comfortable and tastefully decorated, providing a perfect sanctuary after a day of exploring the city. 🏨💤 Plus, the complimentary breakfast served with a side of warm hospitality was the ideal start to my mornings! 🍳☕️
Itinerary
- Day 1 – Drive from Toronto to Montreal, walk in the city. Stayed at the vintage Hotel Manoir Sherbrooke
- Day 2 – Mount Royal Park, Saint-Paul, Old Port, Old Montreal, Chinatown
- Day 3 – Mile End, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
- Day 4 – Drive to Ottawa for Canadian Tulip Festival, visit Almonte. Stayed in The Grand Hotel
- Day 5 – Visit Perth and Port Perry, back to Toronto
If you have more time in Ottawa, here’s an alternative and more complete version of itinerary:
(7-day itinerary for Montreal and Ottawa)
- Day 1 – Drive from Toronto to Montreal, walk in the city. Stayed at the vintage Hotel Manoir Sherbrooke
- Day 2 – Mount Royal Park, Saint-Paul, Old Port, Old Montreal, Chinatown
- Day 3 – Mile End, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
- Day 4 – Drive to Ottawa, visit Canadian Tulip Festival, Byward Market
- Day 5 – Parliament Hill, Rideau Canal, Canadian Museum of History
- Day 6 – National Gallery of Canada, National Arts Centre, University of Ottawa. Stayed in The Grand Hotel highly recommend it 👍
- Day 7 – Visit Almonte, Perth and Port Perry, drive back to Toronto
Day 1 – Toronto to Montreal, walk in the city
First day was mostly on the road. We hit the road at around 9:00am, rested at a few stops, arrived in Montreal at around 2:30pm in the afternoon. It was about 5.5 hours’ drive in total, 6 hours if you decide to stop by somewhere for lunch.
After checking in at the hotel, we went to the allegedly No. 1 poutine place in town – La Banquise. It opens 24-7 but still has long lines all the time. We were lucky enough to get a table right away when we reached. I ordered La Elvis – classic poutine with ground beef, green peppers and mushrooms on top, and it was tasty. The cheese curds were surprisingly squeaky and milky, completely different from the ones I’ve had in Toronto, where cheeses were rather melted. The thickness of the gravy was right to the point, fries was a bit on the soft side, and the entire dish wasn’t greasy at all.
After the heavy late lunch, we decided to walk back, stopped by Parc La Fontaine, passed by a busy pub street, stayed at one of them for a few drinks, then headed back to the hotel.
For Montreal stay, I highly recommend this Hotel Manoir Sherbrooke. It’s a perfect combination of vintage charm, historic elegance and comfort, the staff there were super nice. It also has modern amenities and is located in the heart of downtown Montreal.
Day 2 – Mount Royal Park, Saint-Paul, Old Port, Old Montreal, Chinatown
Today was a productive day. We started with Mount Royal Park in the morning, checked out the beautiful view of Montreal city from the observatory, then came to Schwartz’s for its legendary smoked meat sandwich.
In the afternoon, we headed to the Old Montreal, walked through Old Port and Saint-Paul Street West and finished off with stopping by Chinatown which wasn’t far away.
Day 3 – Mile End, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Today was a rainy day 🌧️ so we spent most of the time indoor.
We had our breakfast at St-Viateur Bagel, tried their well-known smoked salmon bagel sandwich 🥯 – trust me you have to order this if you haven’t tried. I haven’t had a salmon bagel sandwich since my terrible experience 9 years ago (probably because of the stale salmon and bad cheese cream), but this one here was a total game changer, it made me fall back in love with salmon bagel. Their smoked meat bagel sandwich was amazing too.
If it wasn’t because of the weather, we could have spent more time walking around Mile End, which is known as Montreal’s version of Brooklyn, a neighbourhood full of history and is now an artsy area with fine eateries.
After breakfast, we headed to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 🖼️ and spent the almost the rest of the day. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space, occupying both sides of the Sherbrooke Street and is connected underground. It has a broad range of collections, definitely worth spending at least 3 hours here.
If you walk on a street in Montreal, it’d be fairly easy to spot a mural at any place within 5 minutes of your walking distance. I did some research after came back, turned out that Montreal is also known as “mural city”; they take their mural culture street art quite seriously. They started the mural festival since 2012, and have enabled the creation of over 3,500 murals around the city by 2020. The photo above is one of the most famous murals, commemorating Leonard Cohen, a world-class singer, songwriter and poet and an icon of Montreal’s.
Day 4 – Drive to Ottawa for Canadian Tulip Festival, visit Almonte
Today concluded our last day in Montreal, although hard to say goodbye.
After checking out and breakfast at St-Viateur Bagel (yes, another salmon bagel), we headed our way to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival. There were about 140 different breeds of tulips in exhibition and all so pretty 🌷Here’s a sneak peek of some:
After appreciating the flowers, we headed to a small town nearby called Almonte, and stayed at a vintage hotel around called The Grand Hotel. It was such a lovely place, with restaurant, patio and wedding venue available. There are many nice vintage hotels in small towns within Ontario, can easily make a weekend mini-getaway.
Day 5 – Visit Perth and Port Perry, back to Toronto
Last day of this trip and it was again 🌧️ We dropped by two more towns on the way back. One was Perth and one was Port Perry, two of the charming towns in Ontario.
