Montreal from the Cabins

Downtown Montreal is 75 to 101 road miles from the cabins, depending on the border crossing, and about two hours each way before the wait at the booth. An early start leaves a full day for Old Montreal, a market lunch, the lookout on Mount Royal and dinner, with the hot tub waiting at the end of it. In 2026 the planning starts at the border, because the Trout River crossing only works northbound until about 2028.

Choosing the crossings

Start with the border hours, because they shape the whole day. Going north, four crossings make sense. Trout River, on NY 30, is the old direct road, about 78 road miles from the cabins to downtown, and the 2026 closure only stops traffic heading south; the Canadian office there opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. Chateaugay, the shortest route at about 75 miles, keeps the same hours on both sides. Fort Covington, about 93 miles, and Champlain on I-87, about 101, are open all night.

Coming home, Trout River is out. Chateaugay takes you until 6 p.m. and Churubusco until 4 p.m.; after that, it is Fort Covington, Champlain or Mooers. Churubusco has no Canadian port, so it is only ever a way home, never a way up.

Everything about the line itself, from passports and papers for the children to dogs, food and the duty-free limits, is in the crossing the border guide. Read it once before the first trip. The Trout River closure post explains why the old straight road south is shut.

The drive in

The western routes and the Mercier Bridge

Three of the routes end on the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, which carries Route 138 over the St. Lawrence Seaway from the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake on the south shore to the LaSalle borough of Montreal. From Trout River, NY 30 becomes Route 138 at the line and runs north to Châteauguay and on to the bridge. From Chateaugay, Montée Herdman runs north from the Canadian office to Route 202, and local roads lead on to Route 201 and Route 138. From Fort Covington, Route 132 follows the St. Lawrence east to Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, where Autoroute 530 and Autoroute 30 lead east toward Châteauguay and the same bridge. On the island, Autoroute 20 and the Ville-Marie expressway take you downtown.

The province has maintenance work on the Mercier in 2026, including intensive weekend work periods with one lane kept open in each direction. Check the bridge's status before a Saturday or Sunday trip, and if it is down to one lane, take the Champlain route instead.

Autoroute 15 and the Champlain Bridge

From the Champlain crossing, Autoroute 15 runs straight north toward Montreal. You cross the St. Lawrence on the Samuel De Champlain Bridge, which opened in 2019. It is 3.4 kilometers long, with three lanes each way, a center corridor for the REM train and a path for cyclists and walkers, and it is toll-free. On the island side, Autoroute 10, the Bonaventure, brings you into downtown.

Tolls, speed limits and the red-light rule

The A30 Express toll bridge, between the Soulanges tunnel and the Serge-Marcil bridge west of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, is not on any of these routes. If you go around that way, it has charged C$4.40 for a car since February 28, 2026, and it takes cards or a transponder, not cash. Quebec's limits are in kilometers per hour: 100 km/h, about 62 mph, on the autoroutes, with a 60 km/h minimum, and 50 km/h in towns where no other limit is posted. Stop signs read Arrêt. On the island of Montreal you may not turn right on a red light anywhere, though the rest of Quebec allows it unless a sign says otherwise.

Parking and the metro

Leave the car at Brossard and ride the REM

If you come up Autoroute 15, the calmest plan is to stop short of the bridge. The REM's Brossard station, at 8200 boulevard de Rome in Brossard, has a park-and-ride lot with free spaces and paid ones. Paid spaces cost C$10.29 a day through Indigo, booked on the spot the same day, and the REM converted some paid spaces at Brossard to free ones on September 1, 2026. Brossard is the first of five stations on the line to Gare Centrale downtown, at 895 De La Gauchetière Street West, which connects with the orange metro line at Bonaventure station.

Brossard is in fare zone B and downtown is in zone A, so buy a ticket good for both: C$5.00 for one trip or C$13.75 for 24 hours on every mode in zones A and B, at the July 1, 2026 fares. The 24-hour ticket also covers the metro and buses once you are downtown, which makes it the right ticket for a day of moving around.

Parking in Old Montreal and downtown

If you drive in, the easiest place to leave the car for the day is one of the Old Port's two lots on de la Commune Street: the King-Edward Pier lot at Saint-Laurent Boulevard and the Clock Tower Pier lot near Berri Street. Both are open 24 hours, every day of the year. You pay a fixed rate on the way out, taxes included and by card only: C$20 for under two hours, C$25 under three, C$30 under four, C$35 under five, C$40 under six and C$45 for six to twelve hours. Street parking downtown, in the Plateau and in the Sud-Ouest costs C$4.25 an hour in 2026, paid at the meter or through the Mobicité app.

In winter, read the street signs twice. When the city clears snow, temporary no-parking signs go up: for daytime work, which runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., they go up the evening before, and for overnight work, before 3 p.m. the same day. Cars left in the way are towed, and the city keeps an online page for finding a towed car. A garage or the Old Port lots avoid the question.

The metro

The metro has four lines and runs from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., until 1:30 a.m. on Saturdays, with a train about every eight minutes and every three at rush hour. Fares for zone A, the island of Montreal, from July 1, 2026: C$3.75 for one trip, C$7.00 for two, C$11.25 for 24 hours, C$21.75 for three days, and C$6.75 for unlimited rides from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. The rechargeable OPUS card costs C$6, and the Chrono app can load fares onto it. Children 11 and under ride free with a paying rider aged 14 or older, up to five children aged 6 to 11 per adult.

Old Montreal and the Old Port

Pointe-à-Callière, the city's archaeology and history museum at 350 Place Royale, marks the spot where Montreal was founded in 1642. It is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m., and closed on Mondays except some holidays, with tickets sold until an hour before closing. Adults aged 31 to 64 pay C$30, seniors C$27, young adults 18 to 30 C$20, teenagers C$15 and children 5 to 12 C$10, taxes included; children under 5 are free.

Notre-Dame Basilica, at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, is open to visitors Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 12:30 to 4 p.m. A daytime visit costs C$16 for adults, C$15 for seniors, C$14 for students aged 17 to 22 and C$10 for children 6 to 16, plus tax; children 5 and under are free, and a family of two adults and two children pays C$40. In the evening the basilica puts on AURA, a light and sound show, with tickets sold online. The basilica is partway through a restoration that began in 2020 and is expected to run until about 2040, and its restored facade was scheduled to be unveiled on October 25, 2026, after about ten years of work.

Between the two, walk the cobblestone streets. Place Jacques-Cartier fills with artists, portrait painters and musicians; the Nelson Monument, a 35-meter column, went up there in 1809, and black paving marks the outline of the Château de Vaudreuil, an 18th-century governor's mansion of New France. Bonsecours Market and its dome are in the same old quarter, and the Grande Roue, an observation wheel, turns at the Old Port. River shuttles run from the Old Port to Longueuil, Île Sainte-Hélène and other points across the water. The Champ-de-Mars metro station is about an eight-minute walk from the Old Port.

Mount Royal

Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York, was hired by the city in 1874 to lay out Mount Royal Park, and it was inaugurated on May 24, 1876, so the park turned 150 in 2026. The short way to the view is to drive to the Smith House lot, where parking is metered, and walk about 600 meters, roughly five minutes, along the gravel Olmsted Path to the Mount Royal Chalet, which has paintings on the history of Montreal. The Kondiaronk lookout there looks over downtown and the St. Lawrence River. Beaver Lake, the other parking area, is the place to skate in winter, and you can rent skates, cross-country skis and snowshoes at the pavilion.

The 30-meter cross on the mountain went up in 1924. It recalls Maisonneuve's promise in 1643 to carry a wooden cross to the summit if the young colony survived a flood. Dogs must be on a leash everywhere in the park, under penalty of a fine. Buses 11 and 80 serve the park if you leave the car below. On Sundays from about May to September, the free, unofficial drum gathering called the tam-tams meets by the George-Étienne Cartier monument on Avenue du Parc.

Jean-Talon Market

Jean-Talon Market, at 7070 Henri-Julien Avenue, opened in May 1933 as the Marché du Nord and took its present name in 1983, after the first intendant of New France. It is open Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with butchers, bakers, fishmongers, florists and fruit and vegetable growers. From June to October the aisles close to cars from Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Jean-Talon and De Castelnau metro stations are close by, and the market has underground and outdoor parking for 410 cars, free for the first five minutes and C$25 for four hours or more.

Buy lunch here, and think about the border before you buy food to take home. Everything you carry into the United States has to be declared at the booth, and some of it cannot come in at all, from citrus to tomatoes and peppers; the crossing guide has the list. The safest souvenirs from a market are the ones you eat before you leave the city.

The Botanical Garden

Montreal's Botanical Garden, at 4101 Sherbrooke Street East near the Pie-IX metro station, was founded in 1931 and covers 75 hectares, about 185 acres. It holds 22,000 plant species and cultivars, 10 exhibition greenhouses and about 30 themed gardens, among them a Chinese garden, a Japanese garden and the Indigenous Peoples Garden. The Arboretum covers more than half the grounds, with some 7,000 trees and shrubs. Tickets are sold for timed entry, and children up to age four get in free. The Biodôme, the Insectarium and the Olympic Park are its neighbors in the Olympic district.

Each fall the garden holds Gardens of Light, usually from early September to the start of November; the 2026 season is its 14th edition. After dark, the Chinese, Japanese and Indigenous Peoples gardens are lit, with light and sound installations. Entry is by timed ticket, booked ahead, and the ticket also covers the garden in the daytime. The visit runs after dark, so plan to cross home at Champlain or Fort Covington.

Museums

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, at 1380 Sherbrooke Street West near the Peel and Guy-Concordia metro stations, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, and closed on Mondays. Admission is free for visitors 25 and under. For those 26 and older it is C$32, or C$16 on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 9 p.m., when only part of the museum is open. The museum has no parking of its own.

Pointe-à-Callière also closes on most Mondays. If your day in the city falls on a Monday, build it around the basilica, the market and the mountain instead.

Where to eat

• Schwartz's, 3895 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, has served Montreal smoked meat since 1928.
• Fairmount Bagel, 74 Fairmount Avenue West, traces its bakery to 1919 and bakes its bagels in a wood-fired oven.
• St-Viateur Bagel, 263 Saint-Viateur Street West, keeps its flagship shop open every day from 6 a.m. to midnight.
• La Banquise, 994 Rachel Street East, opened as a small ice-cream shop in May 1968, became a 24-hour snack bar that fall, and now serves more than 28 kinds of poutine around the clock.
• Jean-Talon Market, for a lunch put together from the stalls.

The custom is to tip restaurant servers and taxi drivers 15 percent of the bill, figured before taxes.

Montreal through the year

Most of the city's big events keep to the same part of the calendar each year. The months below are the usual timing; check each organizer's own dates for the year before you plan around one.

• January and February. Igloofest, an outdoor electronic music festival on the Old Port's Jacques-Cartier Quay, usually runs from mid-January into early February. In the cold, the underground pedestrian network downtown has 33 kilometers of walkways with about 2,000 shops, restaurants and services.
• February. MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, the city's largest winter festival, usually fills the second half of February and sometimes runs into the first days of March.
• May. The Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, long a June race, is now held in late May.
• June and early July. The Francos de Montréal usually fill the middle of June, and the Festival International de Jazz usually runs from the last week of June into the first days of July, with much of its program free on the outdoor stages.
• July and August. The fireworks competition at La Ronde usually runs on Thursday and some Sunday nights from early July into early August, starting at 10 p.m. Just for Laughs usually takes the second half of July, and Osheaga usually falls at the turn of July and August at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
• September to November. Gardens of Light at the Botanical Garden, usually from early September to the start of November.
• November to January. The Great Christmas Market in the Quartier des Spectacles usually runs from mid-November to the first days of January.

For what is on near the cabins through the year, see the events calendar.

Language, money and taxes

French is the official language of Quebec, made so by the Charter of the French Language in 1977, and the charter required commercial signs in French from the start. Montreal is a French-speaking city, and you will still be able to speak English in restaurants, hotels and at all the major attractions. A bonjour on the way in costs nothing.

The currency is the Canadian dollar, and bank and credit cards, including tap-to-pay, are accepted almost everywhere. Two sales taxes apply in Quebec: the 5 percent federal GST and the 9.975 percent Quebec sales tax. Before you go, find out whether your card charges a fee on purchases in Canadian dollars and whether your phone plan charges for roaming in Canada.

With children

Several of the day's costs drop for children. On the metro, the REM and the buses, children 11 and under ride free with a paying rider aged 14 or older. At Notre-Dame Basilica, children 5 and under are free and the family rate for two adults and two children is C$40. Pointe-à-Callière has a C$60 family ticket for one adult and three children, two adults and two, or two adults and one, all 17 and under. The Botanical Garden lets children up to four in free, and the Museum of Fine Arts is free for everyone 25 and under.

A sample day

1. 7 a.m. Leave the cabins with documents for everyone in the car. It is 21 road miles to the Trout River crossing, where the Canadian office opens at 6 a.m., and about 57 more to downtown by Route 138 and the Mercier Bridge.
2. About 9:30 a.m. Park at the Old Port. Walk to Notre-Dame Basilica, then Pointe-à-Callière when it opens: 10 a.m. Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. on Saturday. The plan suits a Tuesday to Saturday; on a Sunday the basilica does not open until 12:30 p.m.
3. 12:30 p.m. Take the orange line from Champ-de-Mars to Jean-Talon station for lunch at the market, and come back the same way.
4. 3 p.m. Drive up to the Smith House lot on Mount Royal and walk the Olmsted Path to the chalet and the Kondiaronk lookout.
5. 5 p.m. Dinner: smoked meat, bagels or poutine.
6. 6:30 p.m. Head for the Champlain Bridge and Autoroute 15. The Champlain port, open all night, is about 40 road miles from downtown, and the whole drive back that way is about 100 road miles. Expect to be back by about 9:30 p.m., later if the line is long.

If you would rather not drive in the city at all, go up through Champlain in the morning, leave the car at the REM's Brossard station, and spend the day on the 24-hour zone A and B ticket. The plan works the same way, with the train in place of the parking lot.

Timing the drive home

For the short way home through Chateaugay, leave downtown by about 4 p.m. The Chateaugay port is about 48 road miles from downtown Montreal, across the Mercier Bridge and through afternoon traffic, and it closes at 6 p.m.; Churubusco, at about the same distance, closes at 4 p.m. Miss them and the choices are Fort Covington, about 67 road miles from downtown, or Champlain, about 40 miles down Autoroute 15, both open all night. Champlain is usually the quicker of the two, though from the port it is about 57 road miles to the cabins, against about 26 from Fort Covington. Mooers, reached through Hemmingford on Quebec Route 219, is open all night too and makes about the same trip as Champlain, roughly 99 road miles in all.

Check the wait at Champlain in CBP's free CBP Link app before you leave the city; it is the only crossing on these routes with a live U.S. wait time. A U.S. resident back after less than 48 hours has a $200 duty-free allowance, with small limits on alcohol and tobacco inside it; the details are in the crossing guide. Before you buy Canadian wine, beer or spirits to take home, check CBP's current guidance: a U.S. proclamation barring imports of a long list of Canadian-made beer, wine, cider and spirits took effect September 29, 2026, and its text makes no exception for travelers.

Coming the other way from Montreal

For Montrealers coming to the cabins, the same crossings work in reverse. Leaving after work on a Friday, use Fort Covington or Champlain, both open all night. Chateaugay is the shortest at about 75 road miles, but it closes to southbound traffic at 6 p.m., and Churubusco at 4 p.m. Going home, every route north is open in daylight: Trout River and Herdman from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Dundee and Lacolle around the clock. Trout River, the old straight road north, is about 78 road miles, and Herdman about 75. The Monday of a holiday long weekend tends to be the busiest day for crossing into Canada, and early morning the quietest.

Two habits make the trip easier. Shop for groceries in Malone after the border instead of packing a cooler, since the United States limits food from Canada and Canada will not let homemade food with poultry back in; see groceries and supplies. And fill the tank in Malone, where gas is sold by the U.S. gallon, a little under four liters. The cabins are about ten road miles south of the village on County Route 25.

The Montreal to the cabins post has a weekend plan, the Montreal drive page has the route, and getting to the cabins covers the last miles and the host's directions. Each of the three cabins sleeps four and has its own hot tub. Flying in instead? Montréal–Trudeau is the closest major airport; see airports near the cabins.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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