Montreal Master Thread

[Yehoshua]

Montreal Mini TR

Sunday, October 12, 2014
Our flight from PHL to YUL was on US Airways Express.  We used 4,500 Avios OW/per person.  The flight left PHL at 1:30pm and arrived in YUL on time at 3:00pm.  Thanks to T-Mobile I was able to use data and texting in Canada.  It took a few minutes for it to connect to the network and another few minutes for texting to work.

Since we were travelling on Succos, I had the 4 Minim with me. We did declare them on for customs, and we were not given any problems.

We decided not to rent a car for our 27-hour stay.  The prices were extremely high and that wasn't factoring in gas and parking which was in effect on weekends and holidays.   We bought the 3 day metro pass for CAD$36 which was obviously more than we needed for 27 hours, but the 24 hour pass would not have been enough.

Taking the 747 bus couldn't have been any easier.  The automatic ticket machines are right by the exit and the bus was right outside the door. The busses run very frequently during the mid-late afternoon, so within 5 minutes of boarding we were on our way.

We were staying at the Residence Inn Westmount using our free Cat 4 award from opening the credit card. While this hotel is only a Cat 3, it was in a good location and suited our needs perfectly.
After getting off the bus at the Atwater stop we decided to walk half a mile to our hotel. After checking in and securing a suite upgrade, we decided to make the most of the 2 hours of sunlight we had left and go to Mount Royal Park.


Our suite at the Residence Inn Westmount

Per the hotel's suggestion we took a bus to the base of the park and walked from there to find the first lookout. A word about the lookout.  There's a large parking lot we're people walk the 5 minutes up to the lookout. Unfortunately there were no signs pointing the way.  At first we headed right (the wrong way).  Then my wife needed to use the washroom (hey, we were in Canada), and people pointed us towards one in the opposite direction. After walking there and back to the parking lot it was almost sunset. We went left this time and made our way up to the lookout (where there were bathrooms we could have used).


View of Montreal at sunset

After taking a few pictures there, it was nearly dark and we were not in the mood of walking 10 minutes to the second lookout.  We took the bus from inside the park and made our way by 2 buses and a train to Yakimono for dinner.

When we got to Yakimono the restaurant was packed.  We didn't have a reservation, but we were able to snag the last table that was on the patio,  right by the plastic door flap. While it was a little chilly with people coming in and out, it was a right next to a heat lamp so we were okay.

The food itself was amazing.  We got three rolls of sushi as well as a mixed fries (per suggestions on DDF).  Halfway through the meal my wife's cousin and her husband stopped by and recommended we try Sprinklz for dessert, so we skipped dessert at Yakimono.


Mixed fries at Yakimono


Sushi at Yakimono

After we finished eating, we took the subway to Sprinklz. We tasted a few flavors decided that we really didn't like the frozen yogurt. Combine that with the fact that they didn't accept credit cards under CAD$5 and I didn't have any CAD on me, we just decided to skip it and head back to the hotel.

Monday, October 13, 2014
Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. For those who are curious, Wikipedia describes the holiday as a harvest festival,  similar to Succos which is why it's in October and not November.  It's not really that celebrated in Quebec, as it's treated more like we treat Labor Day (a day off but with no real celebrations).

I decided to go to Chabad of Westmount for shachris, which was at 8:30am since it was only a 10-minute walk from the Residence Inn.  Before I left I made sure to take some breakfast from the buffet, as it would close at 9:30am and I might have missed it.


Chabad of Westmount. You can't see it from Google Street View as it's in a building on a plaza above street level.

The kosher part of the breakfast buffet consisted of cereal and milk and fruit. I asked an employee (who only spoke French) what brand the bagels and bread were to see if they were kosher.  Even though my French is not that great, she was happy to take me down to the storage room and show me the packaging of all the food.

Turns out the bread and bagels were not kosher, but the waffle mix was kosher.  Too bad the waffle irons weren’t! I took some bowls of cereal and cups of milk up to our room on a tray and kept the milk cold in the fridge until I got back from shachris.

After a quick breakfast, we were out the door by 10:30am for our day in Old Montreal.

Based on suggestions from the hotel, we decided to walk to Old Montreal and the Old Port. We took St. Cathrine's St. and had fun looking at all the stores.  We also went into one of the malls that is part of the Underground City to explore. While there was no real reason to walk underground on such a clear, sunny day,  it would  definitely be a lifesaver in the middle of winter. You could walk for quite a few miles without going outdoors once.  It's pretty awesome.

On our way to the old port we walked though China Town. I don't think it's really worth the time as there's nothing interesting to see and it's only a few blocks long.  It might be more interesting if we could have eaten at the restaurants, but they obviously were not kosher.

We spent most of the day just walking around the Old Port area and Rue St. Paul.  I've heard from many people that Montreal is the Paris of North America. While I've never been to Paris, I don't think Montreal could be close. Besides for Rue St. Paul, none of the streets even look European! To me Montreal felt just like any other part of Canada or the US just things were in French. Rue St. Paul was the old Street we saw that actually felt like a European street, which ended up being just fine for us.


Old Port

For lunch we just ate some rice cakes and peanut butter (courtesy of the US Air lounge in PHL; hey, it wasn't 100% useless ) that we brought with us.  We stopped on one of the piers that was part of the old port to eat.

We then decided just to walk on the path by the water.  On the way we saw a group of street performers playing music and stopped to watch them for a bit.  As we were walking on the path by the water we say a bochur riding a tricycle thing with a portable succah on the back. I wonder if he got anyone to go inside?


Pedi-Succah

On the way back to the subway we stopped by the Westin and the W Montreal just to check out the hotels.  Both were nice, but the Residence Inn was closer to shul and the kosher restaurants.
We left Old Montreal for Pizza Gourmetti. We got to Pizzettes to go which we later ate for dinner at the airport. I know, I know it was Succos and the airport didn't have a succah,  but once it got too cold outside to sit in a succah anyways (keep in mind I'm from LA and cold is subjective)  we didn't have a problem.


Pizzette from Gourmetti

After picking up our pizzas we went back to the hotel to collect our bags (we'd checked out before we left in the morning and the hotel was storing our stuff for us) and then headed for the airport.
Everything went smoothly getting to the airport until they delayed our return flight due to high winds in Philly. Apparently whenever this happens the flights to Canada are the first to be delayed. However, since US customs closes at 7:45pm regardless of how delayed a flight is, we had to be at the airport early,  as if our flight was leaving on time at 7:59pm. What this meant was 4 hours sitting in the terminal watching all flights leave, all the shops close,  and many of the night cleaning crew clean up and go home. We finally did leave 2 hours late and had a smooth ride back to Philly.

[Yaalili]

Excellent report Yehoshua, I love Montreal, been there countless amount of times. Seems like you got a good picture of the scene there.

[morgs]

Nice-thanks for sharing!!

[Yehoshua]

Excellent report Yehoshua, I love Montreal, been there countless amount of times. Seems like you got a good picture of the scene there.

Thanks.

Nice-thanks for sharing!!

I figured with only one TR from Montreal so far it wouldn't hurt to add another.

[YankyDoodle]

Thanks. I figured with only one TR from Montreal so far it wouldn't hurt to add another.

Nice TR

So after everything, are you still happy with your decision to not get a car? I don't ask this mockingly, but it seems like you had quite a bit of extra hassle and maybe didn't get as full a picture of the city as you might have liked? Obviously everyone's situation is different (kids, length of stay, distance of hotel from transportation etc)  but for your trip would you have done it differently?

[Yehoshua]

Nice TR

So after everything, are you still happy with your decision to not get a car? I don't ask this mockingly, but it seems like you had quite a bit of extra hassle and maybe didn't get as full a picture of the city as you might have liked? Obviously everyone's situation is different (kids, length of stay, distance of hotel from transportation etc)  but for your trip would you have done it differently?

No, I definitely would not have rented a car. The metro was fast, efficient and much cheaper than driving. What made you think from my TR that I had a hard time?

[ar]

Hi Guys!
I'm with my wife in Montreal & wanna eat out at a good restaurant tonight. Any recommendations?  Chops or Erie & Elie's ?

[Achas Veachas]

Hi Guys!
I'm with my wife in Montreal & wanna eat out at a good restaurant tonight. Any recommendations?  Chops or Erie & Elie's ?

Between the 2, Chops.

[ar]

Between the 2, Chops.

Did chops & it was great indeed!

[Achas Veachas]

Did chops & it was great indeed!

Anytime

[insider]

Do you have suggestions for discounted lift tickets for Mont Tremblant? I tried liftopia.com. They quote $193 for 3 days. Any suggestions for things to do are appreciated.

[Alexsei]

Do you have suggestions for discounted lift tickets for Mont Tremblant? I tried liftopia.com. They quote $193 for 3 days. Any suggestions for things to do are appreciated.

Costco black friday deal
http://www.costco.ca/Black-Friday-Mont-Tremblant-Resort-Lift-Ticket-All-Ages-2-or-3-pack-e-Ticket-.product.100020490.html

[insider]

Costco black friday deal
http://www.costco.ca/Black-Friday-Mont-Tremblant-Resort-Lift-Ticket-All-Ages-2-or-3-pack-e-Ticket-.product.100020490.html

Thank you. That's a really nice deal. Would US membership work in Canada? Do you think they would ship it to US?

[Achas Veachas]

Thank you. That's a really nice deal. Would US membership work in Canada? Do you think they would ship it to US?

Yes

[Alexsei]

Thank you. That's a really nice deal. Would US membership work in Canada? Do you think they would ship it to US?

Take in consideration 167.99 CAD is 147.96 USD.... be sure to use a card with no foreign exchange fees

[insider]

Take in consideration 167.99 CAD is 147.96 USD.... be sure to use a card with no foreign exchange fees

Thank you. I was about to buy it, but they have a blackout period December 26, 2014 - January 2, 2015

[Alexsei]

Thank you. I was about to buy it, but they have a blackout period December 26, 2014 - January 2, 2015

[Yaalili]

Montreal Mini Winter-Night TR

My friend and I were in YUL for Shabbos, and had a good few hours Motzei Shabbos to explore. a STM night metro pass, give you unlimited rides on the metro from 6pm till 5am for C$5. We went to Bonaventure station, which is kind of the center of the Montreal underground city. Lots of parts of the underground are actually overground, though most places that we walked past were already closed for the night. The one place that was alive in that area was the Ice skating arena.



Surprisingly there was a lot more happening outdoors than indoors on this cold polar night.



After a stop for some good Canadian beer, - no pic there - we went to Exception for Dinner. Pizza was good, but nothing special. For YUL my favorite pizza was from Pizza Gourmetti. We also ordered the pizza here with whole wheat, and they brought it out to us a regular pie. The Poutine here, was decent, though I have had a better one at Pizza Pita, the Poutine was very dry when they brought it out to us. Some other dishes were that I don't have pictures of were mediocre too.

[joelr773]

I know there's a place for snow tubing in Montreal I think next to the border port Champlain but can't remember the name anyone to help me ? Also info about it if I need to get tickets in advance I'll be in the area this weekend

[Dan]

What will be open or closed on Canada day?