Trips Over the Border

Montreal is a taste of Europe within the Americas. This old city has a skyline of skyscrapers and beautiful old churches. It has many budget and boutique hotels, all for prices much cheaper than NYC. The shopping is extensive and the fashion is daring. Many people speak French, but they all speak English, too. And I haven't even mentioned the great food, from traditional French bistros to creatively served Sichuan cuisine.

Some of my favorite things to do are:

• Visit the Botanical Gardens
• Shop and eat on Saint-Denis (funky and international)
• Check out the bright neon lights of St. Catherine
• Walk for blocks in the Uunderground City

Quick Tips:

Visit Montreal in the summertime!

Montreal is frigid in Winter.

I've visited twice in November, and both times we were glad to spend most of our time in the underground shopping area, using it just to move around the city. In the summertime the weather is great, as it rarely gets very hot. The flowers will be blooming at the Botanical Gardens.

Best Way To Get Around:

I have never used my car in Montreal. Montreal has a very clean and cheap subway system, as well as very nice buses. Also, if you stay downtown, you'll be able to walk to most places. From the Delta Montreal, we walked to Old Port, Chinatown, and all the way up Saint-Denis. Late at night there is always the option of getting a cab.

Thanks to hotels.com, I was able to stay at this luxurious hotel for less than $100/night. From my past experiences with Omni hotels, I knew the stay would be worth far more than that. Indeed, this gorgeous hotel has a wonderful location, a great health club, shopping, and restaurants! The staff here is incredibly friendly, and although we arrived at 10pm, we were given directions to a nearby romantic bistro.

The rooms were a pleasant surprise. The room was easily four times the size of any hotel room I've had in New York City. The king-sized bed was comfortable, although the pillows, as at all Omnis, are filled with a strange, crunchy material. I do not need to mention that the room was spotless. The large bathroom had some great free amenities like Ginseng moisturizer, and the tub was big enough for two of us to enjoy a bubble bath.

Overall, I will definitely stay here again!

I only stayed here for one night, so my impressions are brief. However, I was compelled to write this review because my impressions were very positive. The Hilton Garden Inn is under new ownership, and I understand that they are making it a goal to please their guests. We certainly felt welcomed upon arriving. When we arrived to our clean and pretty king-bed room, we found a place of heart-shaped chocolates and a personal welcome message written in chocolate. On the bed, there was a little bedtime poem.

The room we got felt small, only because they had outfitted it with not only a king-sized bed but also a couch, coffee table, and desk. The room also had its own kitchenette. It would be a great stop-over for a business traveler! Regrettably, we were only staying for a single night.

The Hilton Garden Inn is not to be confused with the other Hilton at the airport. As one traveler described it, it is the one with the Chinese decorations. Their free shuttle comes by the airport every half-hour.

The Radisson at Laval is a good option for travellers with a car. It doesn't take long to drive into Montreal proper on Autoroute 15, where the hotel is located. It's definitely in the burbs, but it seems to be near a number of large businesses.

The Radisson at Laval is an older structure located within walking distance of one of the larger malls in this province. I chose to stay here because I was visiting a friend in a nearby hospital. I was able to procure a room for the low price of C$109. The hotel is a little dark and has a touch of ‘80s decor, with gold-trimmed mirrors in the hallways and what some might call "eye-catching" carpet/wallpaper. However, it is clean and the staff is pleasant.

My room has a bit of an unusual smell, so I suspect it was a smoking room in the not-too-distant past. However, the bed is soft, the pillows are generous, the heat works, and the Radisson provides outstanding bath products. In addition, the Internet is free (using it presently).

Sight unseen, I booked this hotel because it was a category four Marriott hotel, using my Marriott Rewards points. When we drove up to it the next night, the towering concrete building looked more like a housing project than a mid-range Marriott, but we gave it a chance. The price was C$155, expensive for Montreal, so it must be good, right?

Praise first. The hotel staff was very pleasant, and I felt thoroughly welcomed. In fact, after checking in – on the way up to our room – I commented to my partner that you can’t go wrong with Marriott. This, despite the aging ‘70s decor evidenced throughout the hotel’s public areas.

Wrong. Apparently you can. Let me describe some of the amenities of the room: washcloths that scratch your face when you use them, beds so hard that your body goes numb, and pillows that were overstuffed with something crunchy. I mean, I know down is expensive, but what happened to good old cotton fill. After three sleepless hours, we decided we would get a new hotel the next day.

Have I mentioned how awesome the Omni Montreal is?

The Best Western Hotel Europa has a unique charm, great location, but also some major flaws that make it difficult to choose again. It is located on a sidestreet, just off of St. Cats, a popular street for strolling, shopping and nightlife. It is a very central location for visiting Montreal, in the thick of the action.

The hotel's lobby has a beautiful and strange fountain, containing a man's head spitting out water and surrounded by stone carp. You have to see it to believe it. It's quite a beautiful hotel, with several restaurants and nice if small conference rooms.

For a business hotel, it did not have very good internet service. In fact, we weren't sure if it had internet service at all - it may have been a nearby hotel whose wifi we picked up. It also does not have complimentary continental breakfast, having ended that on the weekend we arrived. Oh, and parking is across the street at an open lot, which might not be so nice in a Montreal winter. It was about $20 CAN per day to park.

On the upside, the staff is wonderful. We felt very welcomed by the front desk. The staff that worked our event were very pleasant. The food for our event was also very good.

Our room seemed spacious, although it doesn't have a safe or a refridgerator. It did have a television and an ironing board. The beds had soft linens and three pillows per double bed. The temperature was well-regulated and we could not hear any street noise. Our bathroom had some little shampoos and body lotions and a deep bathtub. Unfortunately, our non-smoking room reeked of cigarettes. It was to the point where my clothing stunk. Across the hall, some guests were smoking in their rooms. When the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night due to their smoking, we all had to get up and lose sleep. The hotel did not enforce their non-smoking policies on the non-smoking floors and this is the major reason I will probably not return to the Best Western Hotel Europa.

www.europahotelmtl.com

Located on trendy St. Denis, Fondue-Mentale is a highly cool restaurant. It is located in what looks like an old Victorian townhouse, with two floors of seating. We were placed in the back, at a cozy table among many other couples. It definitely seems to be a hot date spot, in fact, I think I saw a couple get engaged during our dinner! Check out their website for a hint of their style.

At any rate, the decor and service are the icing on the cake. The real treat is the amazing food. You can order by the dish, or you can do as we did—try the prix-fixe menu. These dishes mostly come with a cheese fondue with bread to start, followed by a meat fondue, and finishing with a chocolate or maple-syrup dessert fondue. Let me promise you that you will be stuffed, but happy after one of these.

We ordered the Mental for two. Our dinner started with just the right amount of cheese fondue. We chose the local flavor, the Quebecois. It was mainly Gruyere, with a hint of cider, and a local cheese, Oka. There was a nice intermission where we could sip our wine, waiting for the main dish. When it arrived, we were ready for more. What I'm saying is that the pacing is good. Anyway, our main meal was a Bourguignon—piping hot canola oil that you cook your meat in. We were able to select four meats and chose salmon, caribou, wild boar, and duck. The caribou is something I'm going to dream about forever, even better than venison. The salmon was fresh enough to eat raw but even better seared in the oil. The wild boar and duck were amazing too.

For dessert, there was a choice between a maple-syrup fondue and a chocolate fondue. My partner wanted to try the chocolate, so I'll have to get maple the next time. It was tasty, but it was hard to fit any more in our stomachs. Still, I believe I had my spoon in that pot, getting every last bit of chocolate out.

In summary, I will be back. This restaurant is hot, hot, hot!

This hard-to-find sushi mecca is located on naughty Rue St. Catherine above a loud nightclub. Indeed, even within the calming environs of the restaurant, you can sometimes feel the bass pumping beneath your feet. Still, Zen-Ya doesn't fail to impress with both its decor and its creative sushi. Zen-Ya's reviews can attest to this. When researching it prior to our visit, I was very pleased that our local Montreal friend had chosen this spot for our dinner together.

This dimly lit restaurant has several tatami rooms, a bar, and plenty of table seating. Down-tempo beats play softly in the background. The other people here were young, well-dressed, and mainly Asian.

The menu is extensive, with lots of maki to choose from. Since creativemaki is what I look for in a sushi menu, I was very pleased, and we nearly ordered too much in an effort to try it all. Right away the fish struck me as very fresh and tasty, with an unusual type of salmon that's hard to find on the East Coast being one of the standouts. The maki, sushi, and sashimi were truly oishii.

The restaurant is open late, but the sushi bar does close, so you'll want to order your desserts early to make sure they are created before the chef has cleaned up for the night.

I should also mention that the prices are great. You're getting gourmet sushi for the price of mediocre sushi by my Boston standards.

Website: www.kalalu.ca

For an infusion of Caribbean spice, Kalalu is the restaurant to visit. On a second-level storefront on St. Denis, not long before it intersects with Mont-Royal, the restaurant/bar is located in the heart of the international dining scene in Montreal. Inside, Kalalu offers some comfortable couches as a waiting area for guests, a full bar with a variety of creative cocktails, and candlelit dining.

Caribbean food has several cultural influences--Asian, African, Indian, French, and Spanish–-as a result of all the peoples that came to inhabit these islands. Kalalu’s particular specialty is Haitian food. Like many Americans, I have never had the opportunity to taste Haitian cuisine, although Cuban and Jamaican are quite popular.

To start our meal, we ordered cigares creoles. These resembled the popular Tex-Mex appetizer, the taquito. This concoction of beef and pork was rolled up in a fried egg roll and served with a spicy sauce. I ordered one of their signature Exotic cocktails, the Manguorange–-a juice-filled rum drink served with an umbrella and a cherry.

Our waitress recommended the shango, a salmon fillet with rice, over the vindaloo (more of a pasta dish). My partner ordered the shango, and I asked the waitress what she thought of the lambi. She responded with delight that it was her favorite dish. The lambi is a traditional Haitian dish: stewed conch meat served with red beans and rice and chips of mashed plantain. Conch meat is a shellfish but has a strong, meaty texture. It took the spicy sauce very well. The mashed plantain was delicious, and I even enjoyed the more subtle flavors of the red beans and rice.

For dessert, we shared another signature dish–-a bread pudding made with some very tropical ingredients.

The portion sizes were perfect, as they usually are in Montreal. We were able to try several delicious items on the menu without feeling overly stuffed. The waitstaff was quite attentive, and we received a second bread basket without asking when we finished our first, frequent water refills, and our check as soon as we showed signs of wanting it. We were also seated very quickly, considering we had not made reservations. I would definitely go here again, although, being located next to another favorite restaurant, Fonduementale, it would be a difficult choice to make.

I have discovered a new shopping district in Montreal for myself – St. Laurent Street. Simply get lost on your way to St. Denis and find St. Laurent, running parallel, and for the most part, one-way in the opposite direction. While St. Denis has the international restaurants and popular boutiques, St. Laurent has some young designer’s shops, funky coffee shops (like the Fair Trade coffee shop we visited called Pi), and loads of furniture stores.

Modern furniture is the main trend here on St. Laurent, and there are plenty of stores that cater to this taste. The most beautifully appointed is the Biltmore, but its salespeople may not deign to speak with commoners. At least that’s the impression we got! Nevertheless, we enjoyed viewing their egg chairs evoking that scene from Clockwork Orange.

Next, we stumbled upon a most amazing store displaying a combination of modern sensibilities and ancient Indian artifacts. The owner’s specialty is taking temple doors and windows and transforming them into wardrobes, bookcases, and entertainment centers. She also does custom finishes. We saw one table that had its floral accents painted in turquoise. She also showed us her design for a bathroom using an old Indian table and attaching modern Kohler sink fixtures. The prices were quite reasonable and we ended up buying two end tables with the Kama Sutra painted on the front and a canopy piece for a bed in the Rajasthan style with two carved horse heads.

Next door, another store offered furniture, window vestments, wall decor, and tableware for the Eastern-loving consumer. The store, Turquoise, offered everything from velvet and silk Indian window treatments and Chinese merchant chests to Turkish tea sets and Burmese Bodhisattvas. The store is a delight to explore, but the prices are, as expected, quite a bit higher than they would be in the original countries. I did purchase some lovely curtains in mustard and cinnabar for what will become our Rajasthani guest bedroom!

There is plenty to explore on St. Laurent, especially in the home decor department. There are also plenty of restaurants and much more ample parking than is available on St. Denis.