Luxury holidays in Montreal

When to go

The Canadian winter’s a punishingly chilly period, but it can be sunny, snowy, crisp, clear and beautiful too. So, do visit, just be prepared for the extreme temperatures. Autumn is short-lived but the changing colours of the maple trees make it worth catching. Summer (June to September) is warm and packed with festivals and the whole city takes advantage of the few months of heat. Spring is possibly the least desirable time to visit as the March-to-May months generally bring mushy snow and damp shoes.

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 are car-hire booths at the airport but cars are not necessary for navigating Montreal’s compact centre and the old-town’s streets are easily traffic-clogged.

• Taxis

  Cars can be readily flagged down in the street and cost a pittance compared to cab fares in cities such as London. A cab from the airport to downtown Montreal is roughly CA$30.