Montreal: Best Things To Do Right Now

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Montreal rewards a mix of free wandering and a handful of paid sights worth the ticket price. Here’s what’s actually worth your time, split by cost and by what kind of day you’re having.

Free things to do

Old Montreal’s cobblestone streets (Rue Saint-Paul, Place Jacques-Cartier, Place Royale) cost nothing to wander, and the Old Port beside it is a public waterfront park year-round, skating rinks in winter, open-air activities in summer. Mount Royal’s Kondiaronk Belvedere lookout is a free panoramic view of the skyline, reached on foot or by bike through Frederick Law Olmsted’s park (he also designed Central Park). St Joseph’s Oratory, Canada’s largest church, has a free shrine, though the small museum runs $4-5. The Plateau and Mile End neighborhoods, row houses, spiral staircases, murals, cost nothing beyond a coffee. Jean-Talon Market in Little Italy is free to browse even if you don’t buy.

Notre-Dame Basilica’s deep blue and gold interior, depicting the city’s founding rather than biblical scenes, runs about $16 for a daytime visit; the evening AURA light show is about $33.50, with a combo ticket from roughly $45. Book ahead, slots are limited. Pointe-à-Callière archaeology museum sits directly over Montreal’s excavated 1642 founding site, about $29 adult, closed Mondays. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) runs about $31 adult and is free for anyone 25 and under, a genuinely substantial collection for an easy half-day. La Grande Roue, the Old Port’s observation wheel, is about $29.50 and pairs the St Lawrence River with the skyline without the walk up Mount Royal.

For a rainy or winter day

The RÉSO underground city, roughly 33 kilometers of tunnels linking the metro, malls, and hotels downtown, is a genuine winter lifeline rather than a tourist attraction, worth knowing about between December and March. Space for Life in the east end packs four indoor nature museums together: the Biodôme recreates four ecosystems of the Americas, the Botanical Garden has distinct Chinese and Japanese sections (autumn brings the Gardens of Light lantern festival), plus the Insectarium and Planétarium. A combo pass runs about $55-65. The Olympic Park’s Montreal Tower observation deck is closed for renovation until around spring 2027, so it’s the grounds and Space for Life worth the trip east right now, not the tower itself.

Only-in-Montreal experiences

A bagel-and-smoked-meat crawl belongs on every visit: Fairmount Bagel (1919) and St-Viateur Bagel (1957) are Mile End rivals a block apart, and Schwartz’s Deli (since 1928) does the city’s famous smoked meat. La Banquise in the Plateau is the poutine institution, open around the clock with 30-plus varieties. If your trip lands in late February through April, a cabane à sucre (sugar shack) maple-syrup feast is a spring-only tradition worth timing a visit around.

How much time to give it

Two days covers Old Montreal, Notre-Dame, Mount Royal, and the Plateau comfortably. Three adds downtown and Jean-Talon Market. Four brings in the Olympic Park and Space for Life cluster. Whatever the length, Old Montreal and festival crowds are where petty theft clusters, keep bags zipped and in front of you the way you would in any dense old-town core.

Read more: Best Places to Eat in Montreal for where to go beyond the crawl above.