We only had one full day in Montreal and we started very early. My wife and I went to the Burgundy Lion Pub in the Little Burgundy neighborhood to watch the Merseyside derby with the Montreal Liverpool Supporters Club. The match ended 0-0 but had its exciting moments. We met many of the supporters and even a visitor from Australia. We Ubered back to the Sheraton after the match.

Once we got back to the Sheraton and met up with our daughter and her friend, we walked down to old Montreal. It was about a 20 minute walk and the weather was perfect in the low 70s. We browsed around the stores and art galleries after we passed by the Notre Dame Cathedral.

From there, we walked all the way through the UQAM campus and the Latin Quarter to Parc La Fontaine and the Plateau Mont-Royal.

We met up with my daughter’s friend who had driven all the way from Ontario to meet her. After late lunch at La Banquise, we split up. My wife and I went back to the hotel for a nap and the girls went to the botanical gardens.

In the late afternoon, I walked up from the hotel to Mont-Royal. There are about 400 steps up to the chalet where you can look out over the skyline. Before you even reach the steps, it’s a steep walk up through part of the McGill University campus.

The sunset views were great.

The next morning, we stopped for bagels on the way out of town. I drove to Quebec City and it was a fairly easy drive. We took a supposedly more scenic route on our way there, although both routes were via highways and not very scenic either way.

In Quebec City, we walked everywhere as we stayed right in the center of old town. There are lots of galleries and antique stores that my wife enjoyed browsing.

If I had another day, I might have paid to enter the museums at the fort and the archeological area, but given the limited time, I preferred to stay outside and enjoy the wonderful weather.

I would have driven up to Montmorency Falls the next morning, but we needed to get back to Montreal a bit earlier to meet up with a family member who lives there.

We probably enjoyed Quebec City a bit more as its pretty unique and easy to see in a day. If we had more time, we could have explored Montreal a bit more, but we had fun exploring the different neighborhoods. Overall, I can recommend a long weekend trip from the East Coast to Montreal and Quebec City. There are nonstop flights from many cities and it’s about a three hour drive or train ride between the two cities.

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