Where to Stay in Montréal, Québec

What is Montréal known for?

Montréal is known as the largest city in Québec and the cultural heart of French-speaking Canada. It is the largest francophone city in the Americas, and the second-largest city in Canada, built on its island around the green rise of Mount Royal. French runs through everything.

Old Montreal keeps the colonial old town by the river, while the Montréal Canadiens and a long bilingual tradition mark the modern city.

What are the main landmarks in Montréal?

Montréal's landmarks run from the mountain to the old town. Saint Joseph's Oratory crowns the flank of Mount Royal, rising above the streets as one of the city's great churches. The old town holds the rest.

In Vieux-Montréal, the Pointe-à-Callière Museum stands on the founding site beside château Ramezay, while the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral anchor the downtown.

What is the history of Montréal?

Montréal was founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, the City of Mary, on the Island of Montreal. The mountain named it. The settlement grew around Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill that gave the city its name, and its first streets became the colonial core now called Old Montreal.

A river town took shape. Built on the island in the middle of the river, the young settlement grew from a French mission into a centre of trade for the whole province. From that founding the city rose steadily.

Montréal became the largest city in Québec and the second-largest in Canada, the largest francophone city in the Americas, holding the cultural and economic weight of French-speaking Canada. Two languages took root here. A long-established Anglophone minority grew alongside the French majority, giving the city its bilingual character, while Old Montreal kept the stone streets of the colonial town.

The founding ground by the river still marks where it began.

Where is Montréal?

Montréal sits on an island in the river, centred on the Island of Montreal and a scatter of smaller islands around it. Water rings the city. The largest of the outer islands is Île Bizard, and the whole cluster gathers around Mount Royal, the hill at the island's heart, east of Ottawa and southwest of Quebec City.

Rivers wrap every side. It holds the low ground of the valley between the mountain and the water.

What is the climate of Montréal?

Montréal has a temperate, continental climate with sharp seasons. Winter grips the island city for months, deep in snow. Inland on its river island, far from the sea, the city sees deep cold and heavy snowfall in winter and warm, humid summers around Mount Royal.

The turn is dramatic. Spring and autumn move fast between the extremes.

How do you get to Montréal?

Most visitors reach Québec through Montréal, the main entry point to the province. Flights land on the island. From the city, road and rail run east toward Quebec City and west toward Ottawa, tying Montréal into the wider country along the river.

The island sits at the crossroads. It is the main arrival point for French-speaking Canada.