Montreal/Downtown

Downtown (Centre-ville) is the central business district (CBD) of Montreal, and home to its largest concentration of museums, art galleries and shopping, and to the Mont-Royal Park and Montreal's Chinatown.

Understand
The downtown sits on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and houses many corporate headquarters and a large majority of the city's skyscrapers. Buildings, by law, cannot be greater in height than Mount Royal in order to preserve the aesthetic predominance and intimidation factor of the mountain. The two tallest are the 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, both of which were built in 1992. The Tour de la Bourse is also a significant high-rise and is home to the Montreal Exchange, which trades in derivatives. The Montreal Exchange was the first stock exchange in Canada. In 1999, all stock trades were transferred to Toronto in exchange for an exclusivity in the derivative trading market.

Place Ville-Marie, is a cruciform office tower designed by I.M. Pei. It was built in 1962, and sits atop an underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, the world's largest. It has indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, businesses, museums and universities, as well as metro stations, train stations, bus terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street, Canada's busiest commercial avenue. The area includes high end retail such as the Holt Renfrew Ogilvy department store as well as Les Cours Mont-Royal shopping centre. Other major streets include Sherbrooke Street, Peel, de la Montagne, de Maisonneuve and Crescent. The skyline may be observed from one of two lookouts on Mount Royal. The lookout at the Belvedere takes in downtown, the river, and the Monteregian Hills. On clear days the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York are visible (the great-circle distance between Mount Royal and the U.S. border along a bee line normal to the border being only ~ 56 km, or ~ 35 miles), as are the Green Mountains of Vermont. The eastern lookout has a view of The Plateau neighbourhood, Olympic Stadium and beyond.

Downtown Montreal is also home to the main campuses of McGill University and UQAM and the Sir George Williams campus of Concordia University

By car
Street parking costs $3/hour from 08:00-21:00 and ticketing is common. There are a number of large, commercial parking structures and by-the-day lots. Driving can be very slow and frustrating along rue Sainte-Catherine, with large numbers of pedestrians and heavy traffic. Sherbrooke often comes to a standstill during rush hour.

By metro
Downtown Montreal is served by the Orange and Green Lines. The Green Line follows boulevard de Maisonneuve, while the Orange line runs parallel five blocks to the south (i.e. towards the river). In many cases, you can use the "Underground City" to walk from one station to another — even between lines — without surfacing (useful in winter or rain!)

Useful stops include:


 * McGill and Peel on the Green Line for McGill University and downtown shopping district.
 * Bonaventure for Gare Centrale (Central Train Station) and AMT Downtown Bus Station.

By bus
Dozens of bus lines run through the downtown area.


 * 24 Sherbrooke runs on rue Sherbrooke, a good way to get out to Westmount or the Plateau.
 * 15 Sainte-Catherine covers rue Sainte-Catherine from rue Atwater to the Village.
 * Routes 11 and 711 run through Parc du Mont-Royal.
 * Route 747 from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport has several stops along René-Lévesque Blvd. in the downtown area.

Get around
Downtown is walkable, weather permitting, but watch for frustrated drivers trying to cut through throngs of pedestrians crossing the street. The new bike lane on Blvd. de Mainsonneuve provides easy and relatively safe bike access in and out of downtown.

Many blocks are connected by 30 km of underground pedestrian tunnels, arcades and malls. You can walk and shop in comfort when the weather above is foul.

See

 * Pont de Victoria (French; translation: Victoria Bridge) is the one of the oldest crossings of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and definitely the oldest bridge in Montreal that is still standing. While there is no pedestrian access on the bridge, it is still a must-see, especially for those interested in architecture.
 * Pont de Victoria (French; translation: Victoria Bridge) is the one of the oldest crossings of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and definitely the oldest bridge in Montreal that is still standing. While there is no pedestrian access on the bridge, it is still a must-see, especially for those interested in architecture.
 * Pont de Victoria (French; translation: Victoria Bridge) is the one of the oldest crossings of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and definitely the oldest bridge in Montreal that is still standing. While there is no pedestrian access on the bridge, it is still a must-see, especially for those interested in architecture.
 * Pont de Victoria (French; translation: Victoria Bridge) is the one of the oldest crossings of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and definitely the oldest bridge in Montreal that is still standing. While there is no pedestrian access on the bridge, it is still a must-see, especially for those interested in architecture.
 * Pont de Victoria (French; translation: Victoria Bridge) is the one of the oldest crossings of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and definitely the oldest bridge in Montreal that is still standing. While there is no pedestrian access on the bridge, it is still a must-see, especially for those interested in architecture.

Chinatown
Montreal's Chinatown (Le quartier chinois) mostly runs along rue de la Gauchetière between rue Jeanne-Mance and rue Saint-Dominique (this section is mostly pedestrianized), and also along rue Saint-Urbain and boulevard Saint-Laurent between rue Viger and boulevard René-Lévesque. It is the third largest Chinatown in Canada, behind those in Vancouver and Toronto, and is known best for its many restaurants and gift shops.



Parc du Mont-Royal
The Parc du Mont-Royal (Mount Royal Park) is a park surrounding Mount Royal, the city's namesake. Most locals refer to it as a mountain even though it just looks like a hill to most visitors; its highest peak is only 233 metres (764 feet) above sea level.



Buy
Rue Sainte-Catherine offers all the brandnames (Gap, Zara, Roots, Payless, etc.) and is packed with shoppers on nice days. Much more shopping happens out of sight in the hundreds of small stores in the "Underground City".



Mid-range

 * Major hotel chains like Holiday Inn (155 boul René-Lévesque ouest), and Delta Hotel (475 ave du Président-Kennedy) have locations in the heart of downtown Montreal.