Downtown.
Downtown is the best place to stay, to start, and to navigate from. There are lots of areas you can see but, downtown has enough to keep you occupied for any long weekend and still walk/fly away with a good sense for the gritty authenticity of Montreal.
Side note: please don’t be surprised that there are more places to eat than to shop in this guide. The options are plentiful!
To start, my three hands down recs are:
Style: laidback, understated, casual chic vibe
Shop: Boutique Unicorn
Stay: Humaniti Hotel (part of the Autograph Collection)
Montreal has the second largest French-speaking population other than Paris and so I was expecting a little of the French attitude but, alas, none. While not the most friendly-forward crow, they will talk when you speak and try their best to understand if they don’t speak English….which is a real possibility. Out of the maybe 20 people I purposefully spoke with almost half did not speak English!
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