Trip Report - Montreal July 2009 - Weekend, first visit

First time to Montreal, Wknd Trip, Friday PM to Monday PM

WEATHER: Temperature warm, with cool breeze at night.
HOTEL: from price line - Downtown area; OMNI, liked it. Only snag was forgot to call the hotel the day before to request 2 double beds, so got stuck with a King and Cot (mattress cot) for the first night, and kept asking (squeeky wheel) the next AM for 2 doubles, not easily accommodated, but finally wore them down.

TAXI: Taxi from airport to MTL was 38.00 standard + tips. Other sample taxi rides across town were 12 - 15 depending.
STREETS/AREAS around the OMNI: nice map from concierge, though bulky. If you think of the downtown as a grid from North to South, the OMNI is on Sherbrooke street. Next parallel street down is (maissoneuvre?) you will know if from the bike lane, and Next street down is the main "touristy" but fun shopping street, St Catherine. Thinking of "perpendicular" streets to the streets I just listed, you can go "west" on any of those streets, and several blocks over arrive at the touristy but fun "crescent" street. Going the other way east, in the day we walked St. Catherine all the way east to the perpendicular "main" street St. Laurent. and then headed south to the Olde Town. It is a long walk, esp. when stopping in shops... I estimate over an hour, walking and stopping in stores. Toward Olde town you first go through China town, and finally arrive at the more narrow streets with mainly galleries, tourist souvenir shops, and restaurants, and the Pier Area.

FOOD: Friday night late arrival, the hotel recommended Alexandres, I had a nice cheese plate for around 13$. only a few people were out. There was an interesting club right next door with 80s music "Funky Town?" that many 20 YOs were frequenting. (could have gone over to cresent street for more hustle and bustle) Lunch - went over to Olde town, enjoyed Garden de Nelson - waitress attentive, great crepes, around 15$ and bloody marys good. Early dinner - very much enjoyed a restaurant on Maissoneuvre toward cresent near hotel - I forget the french, but the translation in english is the Bent Pea...nice outside dining right on the street, where sidewalkers walk through the dining area (good people watching) had a great slant on the "poutin" dish...this was in a crock, with lamb and a thick meat broth, wiht chunky potatoes strips and grueyere cheese. YUM!! Also met people who had a nice dinner at Gibbys (steak in olde town area, but not "right" in the area". Snack: Good plain nachos at Sir Wm Churchhills on Crescent (more people watching) NightLife - Weren't into clubs, but on Saturday night went to Thursdays and Sir Wm Churchills for fun on Crescent. We did not check out places on St. Laurent near St. Catherine, but checkout out Olde town on Sunday, which was more dining than laid back bars. All in all, a wonderful city, with friendly people....even in the high end stores. COFFEE: if you like "your" coffee vs. trying other brands, there are a bunch of starbucks everyone.
SNACK STORE: I was bummed out to have found this later on in the trip....would have been nice for snacks in room (cheese crackers fruit "To go") A little shop with Dejeuner in the name, on maissoneuvre going toward crescent, block before crescent (lefthand side facing crescent)

SHOPPING: St Catherine.... didn't find a lot in Olde Town (just tourist souvenirs) there were a few indoor groupings of stores shown to us by conceirge. was a little disappointed - didnt find a lot of quaint shops, just the usual stores - felt like we were missing something but a lot of sales. Also a lot of shops and restaurannts on ST Denis St. at some point there, we ran into the "Just for Laughs" festival, which was PACKED and people seems to be having a great time just hanging out in the streets, randomly ran into a parade for the festival.

MISSED: What we missed but would have liked to check out - an italian place called "something"Noce (buenno?) supposed to have a good bar/dining atmosphere.
Also could have checked out the Sofitel hotel bar - across the street on Sherbrooke, to the left 1/2 a block or so. Did not get a chance to check out the large Parc on Sunday (to see if there were restaurants up there, etc.) but did find the Parc with the big fountain, which was East on the map.