Getting there

Planes

British Airways and Air Canada have daily direct flights from Heathrow to Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport | about 13 miles south of the city. You can take the Metro (underground rail) to downtown | and there’s a regular scheduled shuttlebus. Direct flights from NYC go from all three major airports (JFK | Newark and La Guardia) to Montreal in a speedy hour and a half or less.

Trains

VIA Rail Canada (https://reservia.viarail.ca) offers swift and simple connections to Quebec City, Ottawa, and Toronto. There is a direct train service to New York, which, on the upside, offers some leafy, lake-y views of the Adirondacks, but even the most passionate landscape painter might have reservations about staring out of windows for eight and a half hours…

Automobiles

There’s a Hertz branch at the airport (www.hertz.com) | but cars are not necessary for navigating Montreal’s compact centre and the old-town’s streets are easily traffic-clogged.