Visiting Montreal with teens
/After my hometown of Ottawa, my favourite Canadian city is Montreal. Its combination of modern diversity, tall buildings, and rich history makes it one of my favourite places. This March break, I took a two-day trip to Montreal.
We arrived at the Residence Inn by Marriott Montreal Downtown, our go-to hotel in the city, on a sunny Friday afternoon. Located in the heart of Montreal on Peel Street, this hotel is the perfect starting point for any journey through the town. We made our way up to our hotel room, which offered a view of the buildings from the 20th floor straight out of an 80s Wall Street movie.
Once we brought up our luggage, we took a quick walk through Dorchester Park and Queen Mary of the World Cathedral with its beautiful architecture, to Central Gare station. There, we boarded Montreal’s new REM Train line. This train opened last year and it travels almost entirely above ground and is fully automated. An example of innovation in public transit, we settled in at the front window, ignoring notifications of stations, for the train was our destination.
We cruised through downtown, over logistics-land at the harbor, and above the St. Lawrence River, taking loads of pictures along the way. We reached the end of the line at Brossard station and did it all again until we were back downtown. By this point, I had worked up an appetite, so we went for dinner at a Korean restaurant called King Bab, a convenient two-minute walk from the hotel. After a great meal, we returned to our room and turned in for the night.
David on the Big wheel of Montreal
In the morning, we had a filling breakfast of eggs and waffles at the hotel buffet before packing up and checking out. A trip to Montreal would be incomplete without old Montreal, so we headed to this favourite neighbourhood of attractions.
First off was the Big Wheel of Montreal, a 60-meter-tall Ferris wheel located on the shoreline. I went into the spacious glass car, and began my ride upwards. As I ascended, I was able to see further and further into the horizon, from the tall buildings, to the Six Flags park in the distance, to people riding the zipline right next to the wheel. Luckily, the wheel does three full rotations, meaning I had plenty of time to take in the scenery of Montreal. If you find the height to be too much, you can get out before the three turns are up.
We finished off our trip to Montreal with a second high altitude attraction right next door- the Port of Montreal Tower. With the top half of this glass building protruding freely from the bottom half, it is the nightmare of an engineer, but the dream of anyone who wants a panoramic view of the city. The tower includes a glass floor similar to the one in the CN tower, as well as an interactive augmented reality experience detailing some key locations found at the tower.
As one of the greatest cities in the country, Montreal is filled with things to see, and from the new futuristic train, to the towering ferris wheel, to even my hotel room window, I got to see this beautiful city from all angles this weekend.
For more information on the Residence Inn, click here, and for information on a general trip to Montreal, click here.
David is a fifteen-year-old aspiring adventure and travel writer living in Ottawa. Skydiving is on his bucket list. He received complimentary tickets for the ferris wheel and the port of Montreal tower, but all views are his own
