I took Amtrak from NYC to Montreal last year for the eclipse, I had a great time.
Would have been technically faster to drive, but the flip side is that I didn’t have to drive, and it was a beautiful ride. And once I was there I definitely didn’t miss having a car, I found everything to be very walkable and the subway beat anything I’ve personally used in the US. If the weather is nice I’d probably also consider using their bike share.
Assuming you’re doing the same train, just a heads up that Amtrak WiFi is practically useless. Make sure you have whatever you need downloaded before then because a lot of the way had spotty or no cell service. Bring a pen, you’re gonna have to fill out a form at the border crossing and pens seemed to be in short supply on the train. The Canadian border agents when we went seemed like they were kind of dicks, but I think that’s just kind of a feature of border crossing officials around the world. Coming back the American ones seemed a bit more chill but a lot has changed since last year. The food options on board aren’t amazing so you’ll probably want to pack some snacks, but they’ll hold you over for the ride.
Some other unsolicited advice/highlights from my trip-
If you’ve got the wiggle room in your budget, au pied de cochon was hands-down the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. In general all the food I had there was amazing but I can’t recommend that place enough.
The biodome, planetarium, and insectarium were really cool.
There was a store we stumbled into in the plateau- mycoboutique, that sold all kinds of mushroom stuff. Dried mushrooms, mushroom foods, mushroom growing stuff, various mushroom themed bric-a-brac. My wife and I are big mushroom eaters so we loved that. The stand-out though was an ice cream made from maple milky cap mushrooms. It contained no maple, just the mushrooms and it tasted just like you’d want a maple syrup ice cream to taste.
Take some time to explore the “underground city”/RESO, for the most part it just kind of feels like a shopping mall, but it’s kind of amazing just how far you can get around in the city without setting foot outside.
The art museum seemed pretty cool, but unfortunately the day we tried to go someone had apparently called in a bomb threat so we didn’t get to see that.
Poutine, smoked meat, bagels of course.
Everyone we ran into seemed to speak passable English, and no one seemed to give us any attitude about it. I can stumble my way through some basic French pleasantries with my half-remembered high school French, and people seemed to appreciate my token efforts, but it’s probably not totally necessarily as a tourist.
I’m from Philadelphia, in general Montreal kind of felt a lot like the best parts of Philly if we cleaned up and got our shit together.
There’s not many cities I’ve visited where I’m itching to go back, normally I’m more of a woods and camping kind of guy, but I would definitely go back to Montreal in a heartbeat.
Tight I’ll be doing the same with Amtrak but I’ve ridden with them before so I know what to expect. But thank you for the insight and hello neighbor! (Im in Baltimore).
Taking the train to Montreal next month to visit. Speed run to find a wife lol.
Montréal is a beautiful city, even after traveling around I can assure you it’s worth the trip 😁
I took Amtrak from NYC to Montreal last year for the eclipse, I had a great time.
Would have been technically faster to drive, but the flip side is that I didn’t have to drive, and it was a beautiful ride. And once I was there I definitely didn’t miss having a car, I found everything to be very walkable and the subway beat anything I’ve personally used in the US. If the weather is nice I’d probably also consider using their bike share.
Assuming you’re doing the same train, just a heads up that Amtrak WiFi is practically useless. Make sure you have whatever you need downloaded before then because a lot of the way had spotty or no cell service. Bring a pen, you’re gonna have to fill out a form at the border crossing and pens seemed to be in short supply on the train. The Canadian border agents when we went seemed like they were kind of dicks, but I think that’s just kind of a feature of border crossing officials around the world. Coming back the American ones seemed a bit more chill but a lot has changed since last year. The food options on board aren’t amazing so you’ll probably want to pack some snacks, but they’ll hold you over for the ride.
Some other unsolicited advice/highlights from my trip-
If you’ve got the wiggle room in your budget, au pied de cochon was hands-down the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. In general all the food I had there was amazing but I can’t recommend that place enough.
The biodome, planetarium, and insectarium were really cool.
There was a store we stumbled into in the plateau- mycoboutique, that sold all kinds of mushroom stuff. Dried mushrooms, mushroom foods, mushroom growing stuff, various mushroom themed bric-a-brac. My wife and I are big mushroom eaters so we loved that. The stand-out though was an ice cream made from maple milky cap mushrooms. It contained no maple, just the mushrooms and it tasted just like you’d want a maple syrup ice cream to taste.
Take some time to explore the “underground city”/RESO, for the most part it just kind of feels like a shopping mall, but it’s kind of amazing just how far you can get around in the city without setting foot outside.
The art museum seemed pretty cool, but unfortunately the day we tried to go someone had apparently called in a bomb threat so we didn’t get to see that.
Poutine, smoked meat, bagels of course.
Everyone we ran into seemed to speak passable English, and no one seemed to give us any attitude about it. I can stumble my way through some basic French pleasantries with my half-remembered high school French, and people seemed to appreciate my token efforts, but it’s probably not totally necessarily as a tourist.
I’m from Philadelphia, in general Montreal kind of felt a lot like the best parts of Philly if we cleaned up and got our shit together.
There’s not many cities I’ve visited where I’m itching to go back, normally I’m more of a woods and camping kind of guy, but I would definitely go back to Montreal in a heartbeat.
I second mycoboutique, it is cute as fuck.
Tight I’ll be doing the same with Amtrak but I’ve ridden with them before so I know what to expect. But thank you for the insight and hello neighbor! (Im in Baltimore).
You’re going to the right place. Lots of beauty there.