Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Montreal
The Plateau and Mont Royal in six hours
Bagels in Mile End, the smoked meat counter, the square, the park and the mountain the city is named after.
The three-hour route does Old Montreal. The Plateau is where the city actually lives: three-storey walk-ups with the staircases on the outside, a rule that came from a bylaw about front gardens and defines the look of the whole district. Above it is Mont Royal, 233 metres, laid out by the man who designed Central Park. Walk north to south down the Main and take the bus up the mountain at the end.
The route, stop by stop
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St-Viateur Bagel
Wood-fired, hand-rolled, boiled in honey water, open twenty-four hours since 1957. Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter and denser than New York ones and the argument is not settled.
30 min here Walk here → -
Schwartz's and the Main
Boulevard Saint-Laurent was for a century the dividing line between English and French Montreal, and every immigrant community arrived along it. Schwartz's has been curing brisket on it since 1928; the queue moves.
45 min here Walk here → -
Square Saint-Louis
A Victorian square ringed by the most photographed row of painted houses in the city, with the outdoor staircases on every side street off it.
30 min here Walk here → -
Parc La Fontaine
Thirty-six hectares with two linked ponds, an outdoor theatre and the district's lawn. Skating on the pond in winter.
35 min here Walk here → -
Mont Royal Chalet
Arrive by bus from the previous stop
The 1932 chalet and the Kondiaronk lookout in front of it, with the whole downtown and the river below. Olmsted laid out the park in 1876.
55 min here Walk here → -
Saint Joseph's Oratory
Arrive by bus from the previous stop
The largest church in Canada, on the other flank of the mountain, with a dome visible from most of the island. The crutches left by pilgrims are in the votive chapel.
50 min here Walk here →
More in Montreal
Every walking route in Montreal, or the full Montreal guide for where to stay and what a day costs.