It is the largest city in Quebec and the second largest in Canada, with a metropolitan population of 3,359,000. Montreal is one of two large islands in this part of the St. Lawrence River.

Montreal is the cultural capital of Quebec and the main entry point to the province. The second largest city in Canada, it is a city rich in culture and history, has an inordinate number of attractive, fashionably dressed people, and a well-deserved reputation as one of the liveliest cities in North America. Montreal is home to the second-largest population of native French speakers in the world, behind Paris.

Old Montréal: contains the vast majority of historical buildings, most dating from the 17th - 19th century, and many museums. At night several of the buildings are beautifully lit up. A Tourist Office brochure lays out a walking map. Consider following it once during the day, and again at night.

Downtown: Skyscrapers, McGill campus, churches, and museums. Several blocks are connected by 30 Km of underground arcades and malls, allowing comfortable walking and shopping when the weather is foul.

Parc Jean Drapeau: site of the 1967 World's Fair, now devoted to green spaces and a large outdoor concert venue. The Gilles Villeneuve racing circuit, home of the Montreal Formula 1 Grand Prix. An artificial beach, a huge outdoor pool complex, and the Montreal Casino are also located on or around the park.

A few kilometres Metro ride to the north, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve offers the Olympic Stadium, Insectarium, Jardin Botanique, and Biodôme. Allow four hours to see all four.

Montreal is a culinary mecca and has a huge variety of food options, from diners and fast food to low-cost ethnic restaurants to haute cuisine. The city was recently ranked 2nd best dining city in North America after San Francisco and ahead of New York. The large local Jewish population has contributed local specialties including huge smoked meat sandwiches and small, crusty bagels.

Many Montreal restaurants are apportez votre vin (bring your own wine). This may sound like a hassle, but you end up paying much less for wine with dinner if you bring it yourself.

With delis and bakeries and dinners galore, Montreal offers great budget dining. Venues are scattered all over the city, but the largest concentration of restaurants is along St. Laurent, St. Denis and Mont Royal in the Plateau. Tasty and cheap ethnic food — lots of India buffets — can be found around the Jean-Talon market.

Festivals: Montreal has a bewildering variety of festivals, ranging from one-day ethnic fairs to huge international productions running two weeks or more. They are generally held in the summer and autumn, though increasingly they can be found throughout the year.

The architecture of Montreal, Quebec, Canada is characterized by the juxtaposition of the old and the new and a wide variety of architectural styles, the legacy of two successive colonizations by the French, the British, and the close presence of the architecture of the United States to the south. Much like Quebec City, the city of Montreal had fortifications, but they were destroyed between 1804 and 1817.

For over a century and a half, Montreal was the industrial and financial centre of Canada. The variety of buildings included factories, elevators, warehouses, mills, and refineries which today provide a legacy of historic and architectural interest, especially in the downtown area and in Old Montreal. Many historical buildings in Old Montreal still in their original form, notably the impressive 19th century headquarters of all major Canadian banks on Saint Jacques Street (formerly known as Saint James Street).

From the Art Deco period, Montreal offers a handful of notable examples. Ernest Cormier's Université de Montréal main building located on the northern side of Mount Royal and the Aldred Building at Place d'Armes, an historic square in Old Montreal.

In fact, Place d'Armes, shown in panorama above, is surrounded by buildings representing several major periods in Montreal architecture: the Gothic Revival Notre-Dame Basilica; New York Life Building, Montréal's first high-rise; the Pantheon-like Bank of Montreal head office, Canada's first bank; the aforementioned Aldred Building.^[1] (1931) and the International style 500 Place D'Armes.

Montreal has an awesome area of the city called "Le Village)",. Montreal is renowned worldwide for being a gay-friendly place. The Village now stretches along St.-Catherine from Berri to de Lorimier, and on the north-south axis, from René-Lévesque to Sherbrooke. It’s a thriving part of town, replete with restaurants, bars, boutiques and cafés. The Village contains a wide variety of nightlife: bars and discotheques catering to all tastes (Montréal has more gay bars and discotheques than Paris, and as many as San Francisco or New York), including three very large entertainment complexes, one of which is the largest of its kind in the world. There are also a wide range of boutiques, restaurants, cafés, bed-and-breakfasts, and major chain-style hotels.

Residents are a pleasant mix of the LGBT community, gay and straight families, young professionals and university students, gay and straight. Students may appreciate the neighborhood's proximity to Université du Québec à Montréal, about ten to 15 minutes away by foot. As for language, one can get by with English, as most of downtown districts are comfortably bilingual.

Nightlife in the Montreal Le Village is really fun. Particularly when it comes to big multi-floor dance clubs, there's often an anything-goes-dance-however-you-wish feel to them that can lack at some of the Plateau's larger nightclubs.

So if your gay, straight or bi stop by Le Village - Le Village it is really worth checking out.