Montreal, to do?

[JBinCalgary]

Hey all, this coming January my wife as daughter are traveling to Montreal. We will be staying at the fairmont downtown. What are some good family orientated things to do in and around the area?
Thanks

[Rico Rommheim]

Montreal is all about neighbourhoods. Each of them with different architecture, shops, culture and lifestyle. Exploring them might be a fun thing.

I cannot confirm on the dates but the Montreal winter festival is basically oriented towards family and kids. I don't know if its in january though. But there's tubing, maple syrup scarffing and so on.

There's also the Montreal en Lumiere festival, which is fanstatic, but Next edition will take place from February 16 to February 26, 2012

You guys will be staying at the Fairmount, which is in the deadest end of downtown, but a few minutes walk north of Rene-Levesque and you're on Ste-Catherine.

I recommend a day trip on Mont-Royal, its really neat in the winter, there are activities going on everywhere.

Damn, I can't remember anything else right now, I know that there's always interesting things going all the time, but I don't know the dates???

anyone else here have advice? And that excludes any moronic and ignorant comments like that of Steve Rowland, who, incidentally, I've never seen or heard of in the 6 years I've been a member...

[Rico Rommheim]

If your wife and daughter are into electronic dance in and around ice hotels in -15 degress, then igloofest is for you. It starts on Jan 12.

[Eustache]

Winter festival is from January 21st to February 5th. It's called Fête des neiges, here's their website to see the activities available:
http://www.parcjeandrapeau.com/106-F...eal-event.html

There will also be a snow village in parc Jean-Drapeau which you can visit:

http://www.parcjeandrapeau.com/248-S...age-event.html

You can rent snow shoes at this same park to and you can do ice skating at parc du Mont-Royal and in the Old port.

There's always classics like Biôdome and other museum.

For more ideas, you can visit tourism montreal and there's a more complete list of events:
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Wha...UJNjM0NjM0Nzg0

[begratto]

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

Actually, since Montreal is more or less 50/50 French/English, people (especially tourists) can often get by with only English.

Actually, according to Stat Can, Montreal is 67,8% French, 16,5% English, 15,7% other languages (or a mix of all of the above).

Some people who hang out stricly in the city center or anywhere in the western quadrant of the city might get the impression that English is more prevalent, but the north, east and south part of the city are much, much more French.

Not that it should be of concern for JBinCalgary, as most of the people a tourist will encounter or need to deal with while in Montreal are likely to be bilingual (but not always), anywhere in the city.

ANYWAY

JBinCalgary, I know you have asked for activities to do around the Queen Elizabeth hotel, but please, do not limit yourself to the city centre. Montreal is a big city and tons of interesting stuff is located in other neighbourhoods. The Métro (that's how we call our subway) will take you quickly anywhere you'd want to go, like the Biodome, Mont-Royal, the Plateau Mont-Royal, Sainte-Hélène Island.

Eustache and Rico have already provided excellent recommendations, but I stongly suggest you also take a look at Tourism Montreal's great site, where you can search for activities by date, or by neighbourhood. In both languages, or course! It will give more ideas of things to do / visit.

Bon voyage!

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Montreal is all about neighbourhoods. Each of them with different architecture, shops, culture and lifestyle. Exploring them might be a fun thing.

I cannot confirm on the dates but the Montreal winter festival is basically oriented towards family and kids. I don't know if its in january though. But there's tubing, maple syrup scarffing and so on.

There's also the Montreal en Lumiere festival, which is fanstatic, but Next edition will take place from February 16 to February 26, 2012

You guys will be staying at the Fairmount, which is in the deadest end of downtown, but a few minutes walk north of Rene-Levesque and you're on Ste-Catherine.

I recommend a day trip on Mont-Royal, its really neat in the winter, there are activities going on everywhere.

Damn, I can't remember anything else right now, I know that there's always interesting things going all the time, but I don't know the dates???

anyone else here have advice? And that excludes any moronic and ignorant comments like that of Steve Rowland, who, incidentally, I've never seen or heard of in the 6 years I've been a member...

There's some good stuff in this post.

If you're interested in historical stuff, Fort Stewart on îles Sainte-Hélène is cool, though I don't know if they do tours and stuff in the winter. Of course, there is also Old Montreal which is easy to get to and worth checking out.

[big T]

if you're staying long enough you might consider a day or overnight stay trip to quebec city. a friend of mine from vancouver who recently went with his wife did just that - day trip form/back to montreal with guided tour of the walled city in qc. he booked it directly from the tourist info centre in downtown montreal (dominion square, on peel street just south of ste catherine. close enough to your hotel).