MONTREAL · QUEBEC · CANADA
Cobblestone Old World, bagels, and the river.
Old Montreal walks, Mount Royal mornings, St-Lawrence cruises and Mile End food. The day trips into Quebec’s countryside, and the underground city for the days the weather has other ideas.
Only in Montreal
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Walking tours and river cruises exist in every old city. These three don’t. A pedestrian network the size of a small downtown, an immersive show built for one specific basilica, and a bagel that’s a different food than the one a road south. Plan a day around each.
Below the snow
The Underground City
Thirty-three kilometres of climate-controlled tunnels, plazas, food courts and metro stops under downtown — the largest pedestrian network of its kind on earth. Born from the winters, kept for the convenience. You can cross a city block in February without putting a coat on.
- 1 Montreal RESO Underground City + Downtown Tour by MTL Detours
- 2 Montreal: RESO Underground City and Downtown Walking Tour
- 3 Montreal: Discover Reso – The Underground City
Inside the basilica
AURA at Notre-Dame
A 45-minute light-and-sound show projected onto the Gothic Revival interior of Notre-Dame Basilica — created by Montreal’s own Moment Factory specifically for this nave. The vaulted ceiling, the gold leaf and the stained glass become the canvas. Nowhere else in the world has this show in this building.
- 1 Montreal Premium Driving Tour with River Cruise and Notre Dame
- 2 Montreal: AURA Experience at Notre-Dame Basilica and Cruise
- 3 Montreal: Small Group Tour with River Cruise and Notre Dame
On the boards
Mile End Bagels & Smoked Meat
Wood-fired, honey-water-boiled, sesame-crusted — the Montreal bagel is its own thing, born on these blocks and recognisably different from the New York version one road south. Add the smoked meat at Schwartz’s and the kosher delis of the Mile End and you have a food story no other North American city can copy.
- 1 Montreal Mile End Authentic Food Tour with 7 Delicacies Tastings
- 2 Montreal Mile End Local Guided Food Tour by Local Montreal Tours
- 3 Montréal: Mile End Foodie Tour with Tasting
Start here
If you only do one tour in Montreal.
The tour the most travellers book first. Reliable orientation, a confident guide, and the city laid out in the order that makes sense for a first day.
The classics
Montreal’s Most Popular Tours
Old Montreal walks, hop-on-hop-off loops, Quebec City day trips, the bike tours of the Plateau. The shortlist most travellers end up with.
By neighbourhood
Four cities in one.
Montreal isn’t one place — it’s a Europe-feeling Old Town, a bohemian Plateau, a Jewish-deli Mile End, and a mountain park stitched between them. Old Montreal for the cobblestones. The Plateau for the staircases and the cafes. Mile End for the bagels. Mount Royal for the view down the whole grid.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to see it.
Walking if you want the cobblestones underfoot. Bike if you want the Plateau and Mile End in an afternoon. River cruise for the skyline. Helicopter if you want it all in twenty minutes. Plus the brewery crawls, the food walks, and the ghost tours after dark.
Where everyone starts
Old Montreal first.
Place d’Armes, Rue Saint-Paul, the Old Port, Notre-Dame Basilica. Four centuries of French-then-British stone laid end to end, and the most reliable first half-day in the city. Three Old Montreal walks we’d put first.
From the river
Get out on the St-Lawrence.
The city looks different from the water — the Old Port skyline, the dome of the Marché Bonsecours, the Jacques-Cartier bridge overhead. Slow cruises in the harbour, jet boats through the Lachine Rapids, and the occasional helicopter over the lot. Our shortlist for time on (or above) the water.
Eat the city
Bagels, smoked meat and a brewery crawl.
The Montreal food story isn’t poutine on a postcard — it’s Mile End bagels still warm from the wood-fired oven, Schwartz’s smoked meat stacked an inch thick, and the kosher delis the Jewish community built. Jean-Talon Market for the produce side, the breweries for everything that follows. Three food and drink walks we’d book first.
When the city is enough for now
Beyond Montreal.
Quebec City and Montmorency Falls for the French-fortress half of the province. Mont-Tremblant and the Laurentians for the mountains. Niagara and Toronto if you want to push west. Parc Omega for the wolves. The day trips that turn a Montreal weekend into a Quebec trip.
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