I finally had the opportunity to explore Montreal over a long weekend. For the past few years, I’ve been hearing how easily it is to ride a bike in Montreal. How much of a European feel the city has and its great metro system. Whether it's pedaling through neighborhoods, navigating the efficient metro system, or strolling along charming streets, Montreal offers a tapestry of experiences to be discovered by bike, Metro and on foot.
Hotel
I like to stay slightly away from the downtown, tourist areas, but just close enough to get around without a car, still see some tourist sights but also have some local experience.
Getting from the airport into the city using the airport bus was rather seamless. You can read about how to do that here.
I stayed at the Boxotel Hotel. A few blocks from Saint Denis, which is part of Montreal’s Summer Street. The hotel also was a short walk from both Beri-UQAM and Saint Laurent metro station. There are two BIXI bike share stations nearby. At the time of writing this, the Boxotel Hotel offered free BIXI bike rentals. It was free in the sense that the first 45min of each rental were free. So just dock your bike before 45min and pick up another bike. The e-bikes were not free and you pay by the minute. I didn’t know about the bike rental service when I booked the hotel so it came as a really nice surprise. Since I did not rent an e-bike, this saved me a ton of money.
Bicycle
Montreal truly had some of the most extensive protected bike lanes I’ve experienced in North America. Protected bike lanes connecting to other protected bike lanes is something I rarely see in North America. But like most cities in North America, there are gaps and the bike lanes do disappear or turn to sharrows. They also detour. I rode a lot on the Saint Denis protected bike lane also known as the REV MTL.
The protected bike lane on Saint Denis detours onto Berri Rue for a couple blocks before going back to Saint Denis. Unless you are a local, you wouldn’t know this until after a few trial and errors riding on Saint Denis.
Metro
The Montreal Metro, with its rubber tire trains adopted from Paris is a rather extensive and efficient system.
The system was felt busy at all times of the day and depending on the station, there are cafes and shops along with hotels that connect to the metro. There are underground tunnels that connect to the metro with shops along with hotels and businesses above. The metro can reach several neighborhoods, but I found it best to combine it with a BIXI bike when I got out of the station.
Foot
The city is very walkable and what looks like a far journey on Google Maps was actually very quick. Plus, by walking you find interesting buildings and scenery you would normally not see if you are underground riding the subway or on a bike, let along a car. I found that it didn't matter if I was in Old Montreal or any of the residential neighborhoods slightly more suburbanish, walking is very easy.
How I Spent My Time
So, here’s what my long weekend trip looked like. As soon as I checked into the hotel, I headed off on the BIXI bike to explore the area. I rode through the various summer streets near my hotel. I rode through neighborhoods and then I attempted to ride up Mount Royal.
Because I was on a heavy bike share, I couldn’t quite make it to the top. So, I opted to take in the views on one of the lower parking lots. I used both Maps.Me and Google Maps to guide me up. Both of which were not great and took me on a few sketchy roads that I would not recommend for those that are not used to riding with fast traffic. On my way down, I saw what looked like a car-free path that I could have taken but that’s not how Google or Maps.Me guided me. After that exhausting ride up, it was time to look for food. Whenever I’m in Canada, at least one meal has to be poutine. So, I biked to La Banquis. This place is on La Rachel Rue and this street has an amazing protected bike lane which makes it very easy to get to. There was also a bike share docking station about a block away.
After dinner, I biked towards old town Montreal. I rode down mostly Saint Urbain. This was a very busy street with only a painted bike lane. I would definitely not recommend this street if you are not used to mixing with traffic. In addition to the cars, there are buses that pull into the bike lane to pick up and drop off passengers, so you are weaving between passenger vehicle, buses and a few other cyclists.
Old Town Montreal is what really makes you feel like you’re in Europe with a large pedestrian plaza next to Notre Dame. It amazes me how they still let people drive down those narrow streets despite having so many streets outside of downtown closed off to cars and open for people walking and biking.
On the second day, the weather wasn’t so great. I knew it was going to rain starting around mid-morning. So, I got up, hopped on the BIXI bike and road to St-Viateur for a bagel sandwich. Who knew bagels were a thing in Montreal. There was already a line when I got to St-Viateur and I’m glad I waited. The bagel was chewy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. But it was also on the thinner bagel which I really liked.
Personally, bagels nowadays have gotten so big, I feel full just looking at one. There are several locations for St. Viateur and I went to the closes one on Mont Royal. Mont Royal is also part of the summer streets which make walking and eating outside, despite the rain slowly creeping in really enjoyable. My second day because a truly multi-modal experience. After breakfast, I rode around and explored more of the city. I rode to Jean-Talon metro station. By this time the rain was really coming down. I decided to ditch the bike and bought a day pass (good for 24hrs) and explored more indoor places. Montreal has a number of underground shops and cafes in the metro station. I also visited the World Trade Center which has a glass roof between two buildings and created a beautiful indoor space.
From there, I took the metro to Gare Centrale. Since I am a train nerd, I hopped on the newish REM train. Eventually, the REM will connect Trudeau airport to downtown.
After riding the REM, I made my way back to Berri-UQAM by metro and just strolled around underground some more. I was also wandering around UQAM trying to find the nearest exit to my hotel. Once I got out, since it was still raining, I hopped on the BIXI and rode to my hotel to dry off.
Once the rain stopped around the early evening, I decided to go for a walk to look for food. Montreal (at least near the city center) really is walkable. There are so many pedestrianized streets. And if you feel tired, there are bike share stations everywhere so you can ride back. Don’t feel like riding, there’s a good chance you’ll find a metro station also. Anyways, I grabbed dinner at this random place I walked by called Bar Pamplemousse.
After dinner I just strolled around for probably a good hour taking in the city. I decided to grab a drink at Pub Quatier Latin before heading back to my hotel.
On my final day there, the rain was gone and it was sunny. I took a walk in the morning and discovered Saint Laurent starting at Sherborne has also been pedestrianized for the summer. I can’t believe how often I randomly come across Montreal’s summer streets. Since I bought a day pass yesterday, it was still valid. I walked to the Saint-Laurent station and took it to Berri-UQAM. From there I transferred to to head towards St. Helen Island to check out the Biosphere.
St. Helen Island felt sort of like an amusement park and it’s great that they built a metro station right there. Otherwise, there would be tons of traffic and you would have to have a massive parking lot taking much of the greenery away from the island. After the island, I took the metro back to Saint Laurent and walked back up to Saint Laurent and Sherborne to grab brunch at Osmo x Marusan. I seriously probably had the best egg sando here. This was their take on the Japanese egg sando.
After brunch I strolled around the city some more getting ready to head back to the airport. The 747 airport bus left the Gare d'autocar de Centrale station, which was also one of the Berri-UQAM exits I took when I first arrived.
Conclusion
I considered this three day car-free trip to be a success. A few things to keep in mind if you plan to visit Montreal car-free.
The metro pass is by zone. As a visitor you’ll most likely be in Zone A. You probably only need to buy a Zone A day pass. Day pass is good for 24hours.
BIXI bikes are everywhere but it’s good to download the Bixi app to also find the nearest bike station. I guarantee you, the one time you need to find a docking station, is the one time there won’t be one near you. I lucked out where my hotel offered free (to some degree) Bixi bike rentals. But renting a Bixi can get costly and I couldn’t find, but also didn’t spend too much time either, trying to find a bicycle rental shop. So, bring a comfortable pair of tennis shoes because you may just end up doing a lot of walking. Even in September, the weather felt a bit muggy so I would avoid cotton and jeans. Bring something breathable.
Overall I felt relatively safe walking around. Like any big city, there are pockets of people houseless. But I really didn’t see a lot of houseless people. And just because they’re houseless doesn’t mean they’re dangerous. One block might look really nice, and then the next block look a bit seedy or rundown. There are road construction almost everywhere. One thing I noticed about all the road construction was it looked like a lot of the construction was so they can add protected bike lanes. If that is true, I can’t to go back in a few years to see more protected bike lanes being added to Montreal’s already amazing bike infrastructure.
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