Vieux-Montréal, or Old Montréal, was established by French settlers in 1642, making it one of the oldest city neighborhoods in North America. Many of the squares and buildings and all of the charm remain from the 17th century settlement. Our hotel was located in Old Montréal so we naturally saw a lot of the area just in our comings and goings. In addition to our wanderings through Old Montréal, I followed an excellent walking tour from Lonely Planet’s pocket guide to Montréal and Québec City. The easy loop took me about an hour at a leisurely pace. Leaving from Le …

We did a lot of outdoor exploring in Montréal, enjoying both the city’s streets and green spaces. The only indoor attraction that we visited that required a ticket for entry was the Basilique Notre-Dame. The gorgeous Gothic Revival cathedral dominates Plaza d’Armes. Designed by James O’Donnell in 1823, the architect was so enamored with his own work that he converted to Catholicism so that he could be buried there. After enjoying the exterior of the church, we waited on a short line for tickets and went inside. While the outside of the cathedral was beautiful, the inside was absolutely breath-taking. …

Known as “The Mountain”, Parc du Mont-Royal sits high above Montréal, offering an easy escape into nature from the city below. Parc du Mont-Royal is Montréal’s version of NYC’s Central Park and was, in fact, designed by the same landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. The 200+ hectare park is a haven for outdoor activity year round, from biking and boating in the warmer months to ice skating and snow shoeing in the colder ones. You can get to the park through a combination of the Metro (Mont-Royal station) and the bus (#11), but we opted to walk. We really enjoyed …

Our trip to Montréal was different from most of our trips, both because we went without the kids and because our itinerary wasn’t fully planned out. Typically I have all of our activities booked or at least planned ahead of time and we figure out our dining at the last minute. But this trip was the opposite. Because this trip was just my husband and I and we were celebrating our anniversary, we had dinner reservations at nice restaurants for two of our three nights, but our days were wide open for just wandering around the city, exploring its main …