Excellent walking city. Places to eat, art, music.Old Port is a very friendly city..English and French main languages..Located along the river, great views..Many biking paths to navigate around the city.
The waterfront has a large ferris wheel, paddle boats, a ropes course/zipline, and an inflatables park. Plenty of things to do. we also enjoyed browsing among the shops on Rue Saint Paul for souvenirs, art, and cafes.
Narrow winding streets lined with shops and cafės. Many, many dining choices. Take a taxi or metro as parking is very difficult. I went in early May and they were just setting up the outdoor areas. If you are a tourist, this would be the number one place to go and spend a few hours just wandering the streets.
We only had a full day to see the city and taking advantage of the Hop On Hop Off was a great way to hear about the popular and tourist spots. But take heed that parking in Montreal is hard and also a lot of road constructions going on. There is a paid garage next to the Hop On Hop Off office (next to Avis). It is a valet parking but a full day's park is reasonable. The tour is about 2 hours long (because of traffic and all the stops). We did stop and got off a few places to do some shopping. Our first narrator was very friendly and spoke very good English. Our second narrator had a thicker accent and was more interested in flirting with the college girls sitting in front of us than telling about the places. Oh, be careful with the branches. The city haven't trimmed them back and several of us sitting on the top floor got hit. So duck down!
The walk through the quaint cobbled streets of Old Montreal is very pleasant, there are some great old buildings and architecture. Lovely little cafes and coffee shops and the old market which is quirky and very interesting.
