My wife and I will be traveling to Montreal this summer for 3 nts. The is our first visit to Montreal and I think we want to stay in the Old Montreal area. I considered the Downtown area, but being the summertime, I thought old Montreal might be nice. I narrowed the hotels choices to the Nelligan and the Place d'Armes based on reviews in tripadvisor.com. Any advice you can give between the two would be really appreciated. I am interested in hotel location, rooms, service, surrounding area, etc. If your opinion is that I should be staying in downtown area, please voice your opinion. Thanks so much for your help.

I took my wife to Montreal in the summer of 2003. It was a surprise trip where I proposed.

We stayed for the three nights ourselves at the Hotel Place d'Armes. It was honestly one of the best hotels I have stayed at. It definitely had the romance of a boutique hotel.

We had dinner one night at the rooftop restaurant at the Hotel Nelligan. It also looked very nice. I believe the two hotels are run by the same family.

There are pros and cons of each hotel from what I could tell. One of the biggest advantages of HPA is its proximity to the the Notre Dame Basilica and the metro. The Basilica is literally across the street and the metro station is about a block away. We found that getting around on the metro was really easy. The advantage with Nelligan is that it is more in the heart of Old Montreal and is a little closer to some of the other sights in the area. Regardless, all of Old Montreal is within walking distance of both hotels.

If you do stay at the Nelligan, I would avoid rooms on the top floor. Patrons of the rooftop restaurant will be passing by your room on the way to their tables.

My personal favorite now is the Hotel Le Germain, right off of rue Sherbrooke, downtown, steps from Mont Royal, the Museum of Fine Art, countless shops and boutiques and fine restaurants.
www.hotelgermain.com
We stayed at the Omni when it was the Four Seasons, and again when it was the Westin and then the Omni lol.
A Jr Suite with a view of Mont Royal is a lovely room with a huge bath and room service and all that a large good hotel will give you.
But my favorite remains the Le Germain.

I like going to Old Montreal, I enjoy eating there and shopping, but I prefer to be in town, closer to the Plateau and Westmount and Outremont and Holt Renfrew lol.

If your heart is set on Old Montreal, try to find the March 2006 Gourmet magazine, it is ALL Montreal with a great article that compares the 4 most popular boutique hotels in town..
Scarlett

Thanks for the reminder about the Gourmet issue about Montreal. We weren't planning on going this year but we are thinking we can't resist.

Hi Scarlett,

I will also consider the hotel germain. What is its proximity to a metro, thats fairly important to us.

Thanks so much to all for your reply's.

http://tinyurl.com/zwe7b

We never took the Metro and I cannot remember where the stop is..I think it is close though.
This is the Montreal Metro Map..

The hotel address is rue Mansfield off of rue Sherbrook..

Hi Scarlett,

Thank you so much.

You are welcome, have a great time !!