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Hotels Overview

Montréal has a wide variety of accommodations, from the big chain hotels you'll find in every city to historic inns, boutique hotels, and bargain-rate hostels. You can sleep in the room where Liz Taylor and Richard Burton got married or book a bed in an 18th-century stone inn where George Washington didn't sleep, but Benjamin Franklin did.

Keep in mind that during peak season (May through August), finding a bed without making reservations can be difficult. From mid-November to early April, rates often drop, and throughout the year many hotels have two-night, three-day, double-occupancy packages at substantial discounts.

Most of the major hotels -- the ones with big meeting rooms, swimming pools, and several bars and restaurants -- are in the downtown area, which makes them ideal for those who want all the facilities along with easy access to the big department stores and malls on rue Ste-Catherine, the museums of the Golden Square Mile and nightlife on rues Crescent and de la Montagne. If you want something a little more historic, consider renting a room in one of the dozen or so boutique hotels that occupy the centuries-old buildings lining the cobbled streets of Vieux-Montréal. Most of them offer all the conveniences along with the added charm of stone walls, casement windows, and period-style furnishings.

If, however, your plans include shopping expeditions to avenue Mont-Royal and rue Laurier with maybe a few late nights at the jazz bars and dance clubs of Main Street and rue St-Denis, then the place to bed down is in one of the Plateau Mont-Royal's small but comfortable hotels. Room rates in the area tend to be quite reasonable, but be careful: the hotels right in the middle of the action -- on rue St-Denis for example -- can be a little noisy, especially if you get a room fronting the street.