# The 12 Best Neighborhoods in Montreal > A tour through 12 Montreal neighborhoods, from Old Montreal to the Quartier des Spectacles. Discover where to find the city's atmosphere, history and character. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/12-luchshykh-raionov-monrealia/ - Language: en - Published: 2024-12-26 - Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Theaters, Tours, Canada, Food & Drinks --- Montreal is home to more than 200 ethnic groups, each of which has woven its own threads into the city's fabric, and the place is packed with distinctive neighborhoods, some created hundreds of years ago and others born in the 21st century. Many of them are hosting special events this year as the city celebrates its 375th birthday. But in any given year, Montreal's diverse districts offer visitors plenty to explore. "It's definitely a city of neighborhoods and quarters," said Danny Pavlopoulos, who runs food tours of Montreal for Spade & Palacio. "There are so many of them. And they're so close to one another. And they're all so different." To prove his point, Pavlopoulos led me on a tasting tour that took in Salvadoran pupusas and horchata in La Petite-Patrie, fine cheeses, mushrooms and gelato in Little Italy, and hipster cafes and craft beer spots in Mile-Ex, three completely different neighborhoods within a 20-minute walk of one another. Even lifelong locals are struck by the astonishing variety you run into moving from one Montreal neighborhood to the next. "It's a pleasure to be able to reckon with, conquer and stumble upon the mystery that has unfolded in Montreal's neighborhoods, villages and back lanes," wrote Monique LaRue in her award-winning 2009 novel "The Eye of the Marquise." And it remains true. "Literally the other day I was exploring a neighborhood I thought I knew well, and turning a corner I stumbled onto a Buddhist temple right in the middle of Little Italy!" said Tyler Wood of the Montreal History Centre. "What makes Montreal special is that it managed to preserve a good number of inner-city neighborhoods from the ravages of urban renewal," Wood added. "That's not to say the city hasn't seen its share of expropriations, demolitions and car-oriented projects. But you can still find parts of the city that are very human in scale. The street grid, reliable public transit and a growing number of bike paths make them easy to explore." The bicycle is how I discovered half a dozen other neighborhoods, on a tour with Michel Theriault of Ca Roule Montreal, who guided us from Old Montreal to the Gay Village, through Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and the historic Jewish quarter, before circling back to the shore of the St. Lawrence River. On foot, by bike or by public transit, the city is ripe for exploring. Here are a dozen neighborhoods to start with: ## Old Montreal ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-43-1-2024.jpg) Today the city's oldest district, founded as a fur-trading post in 1605 by Samuel de Champlain, is a blend of shops, bars and sidewalk cafes that draw visitors and locals in equal measure. It has also become a fashionable place to stay while in Montreal, with hotels such as Le Petit Hotel and the new Hotel William Gray creatively converting old buildings into cool places to bed down. Thirty years ago it was a different story. Many of the structures in Vieux-Montreal stood empty, and most residents had fled to other neighborhoods, draining the area of life. But because listed historic buildings cannot be demolished, in recent years people have begun rebuilding them into modern business, entertainment and residential spaces. Among the district's landmarks are the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of history and archaeology, and the Old Port (Vieux-Port), where former docks, warehouses and grain silos have been transformed into venues for summer swimming, winter skating, food festivals and IMAX films. ## Le Plateau-Mont-Royal ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-43-2-2024.jpg) Life in the trendy Plateau neighborhood revolves around the area's bars and cafes and the leafy Parc La Fontaine, with its winding lakes and white squirrels. The district borders the northern side of Mont-Royal and McGill University. Gentrification has turned the Plateau into an artsy, upscale neighborhood where residents commute to work and school by bike, "renaturalize" their alleyways with murals and gardens, and restore the wrought-iron staircases and colorful facades of their Victorian townhouses. An East Coast take on Berkeley, the Plateau is also known for the combative attitude of its mayor and many of its residents, especially when it comes to cars. Plentiful bike lanes, widened sidewalks and more park land have significantly reduced traffic in the area and created one of Canada's most livable urban environments. "Rents have doubled in recent years," Theriault explained as we cycled along one of the Plateau's many bike paths. "But so have the cafes and the number of patisseries. And you can get food from different regions of France. Finding an apartment in Le Plateau is much harder now, but your chances of finding a good croissant have improved a great deal." ## Mile End/Mile-Ex Montreal's creative cauldron, Mile End is home to artists and writers, musicians and filmmakers, along with galleries, bookstores and entertainment venues packed into an area that barely covers a single square mile. The neighborhood's anchor is the neo-baroque Rialto Theatre, a beautifully restored 1920s movie palace that now hosts a year-round program of cabaret, comedy, burlesque, dance, music and drama. As Mile End climbs the food chain, many of the younger, edgier artists have migrated to neighboring Mile-Ex, a former industrial zone now filled with studios and hipster spots. The world of science fiction owes a debt to Mile End, for this is the neighborhood that shaped a young Captain Kirk: it's where William Shatner was born and raised. ## La Petite-Patrie Rather than having one defined identity, this hip neighborhood north of Le Plateau cultivates two completely different moods. Chic shopping is the main event along Rue Saint-Hubert, home to more than 400 boutiques, many of them one-of-a-kind stores selling unusual or eccentric goods. But the district also has a Latin flavor, a wonderful array of Spanish-speaking spots such as the Salvadoran Resto Los Planes (their pupusas are simply dizzying) or the Peruvian El Jibaro. ## The Gay Village Known simply as "the Village" to locals, this compact neighborhood stretches along Rue Sainte-Catherine between the Plateau and the St. Lawrence River. Once a rundown spot, the area has transformed into a lively hub of restaurants, bars and entertainment, where more than 80 bars and restaurants serve the city's large LGBT community and anyone looking for an alternative night out. "The Gay Village is a great example of how Montreal's neighborhoods keep evolving," Theriault said. "A couple of decades ago it was the roughest part of the city, the one place where there was street crime. People were using drugs, prostitutes stood on the street corners, people got mugged." The gay residents who began moving in transformed the neighborhood, he said. The area is synonymous with Boules Roses, a canopy of pink balls by landscape architect Claude Cormier that hangs over a kilometer-long stretch of the Sainte-Catherine pedestrian zone. The Village also hosts an annual summer event called Aires Libres, which brings new, original and often striking public art to the neighborhood. ## Little Italy ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-43-3-2024.jpg) Italians have been in Montreal almost as long as the French, thanks to a 16th-century regiment recruited from northern Italy and sent to reinforce the royal army in New France. By the 1950s the neighborhood around the Jean-Talon Market was largely Italian and soon earned the nickname Little Italy. While the community revolves around the red-brick Madonna della Difesa Church (a national historic site), visitors flock to the bustling market to sample all sorts of gourmet foods and drinks. Italian establishments are also plentiful. But Little Italy's most unique culinary landmark may well be the Southern-style fried chicken at Dinette Triple Crown, which offers fully loaded baskets for anyone wanting to picnic across the street in Parc de la Petite-Italie. ## The Historic Jewish Quarter Although it was never a ghetto in the Eastern European sense of the word, the area along Boulevard Saint-Laurent between McGill University and Mile End long had a strong Jewish flavor. The Museum of Jewish Montreal preserves the neighborhood's heritage, as well as the memory of famous residents such as the writer Mordecai Richler, who set "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" and other bestsellers in the area. That heritage also lives on in the food, at historic institutions such as Schwartz's Deli and top-notch bakeries like the St. Viateur Bagel Shop, where the real Richler (and the fictional Duddy Kravitz) dined. ## Hochelaga-Maisonneuve One of the few neighborhoods named after the Indigenous people who once lived there, Hochelaga was the name of an Iroquois village that Jacques Cartier visited in the 1530s during his first journey up the St. Lawrence River. Today it is known as home to Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Maisonneuve Park, with its botanical garden, insectarium and planetarium. But perhaps its best-loved institution is the sprawling, chaotic and fragrant Marche Maisonneuve, a public market housed inside a historic early-20th-century stone pavilion. Dozens of stalls fan out Quebec fruits, vegetables, meat and fish, along with artisanal cheeses and breads. ## Cote-des-Neiges A microcosm of modern Montreal, Cote-des-Neiges shelters residents from more than a hundred different ethnic groups from nearly every corner of the planet. A short stroll along Chemin de la Cote-des-Neiges, the neighborhood's main street, reveals a wealth of ethnic restaurants: Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian and Japanese, Middle Eastern, American, British, Italian, French and Haitian. Towering over the area is the massive Saint Joseph's Oratory, the largest church in Canada. Cote-des-Neiges is also the gateway to a maze of trails that meander through the dense forests and cemeteries on the northern side of Mont-Royal. ## Little Burgundy Set beside the Lachine Canal on the southern side of downtown, Little Burgundy is one of Canada's most famous Black neighborhoods, and also the cradle of Canadian jazz. Although gentrification has changed the neighborhood's demographics in recent years, the population originally consisted of a mix of Caribbean immigrants and Black people drawn from other parts of Canada by railway jobs, including descendants of former slaves who fled the United States for Canada via the Underground Railroad. The Rockhead's Paradise jazz club is long gone. But other Little Burgundy landmarks are still going strong, such as the Atwater Market and Union United Church, the nation's oldest Black congregation. Rue Notre-Dame, the main street through Little Burgundy, has become a haven for trendy little cafes and antique shops. ## The Islands/Cite du Havre Some might argue that the islands in the St. Lawrence River and the neighboring finger-shaped peninsula are not really neighborhoods, since they aren't typical business or residential districts. But people do live there, in the famous Habitat 67 housing complex designed by architect Moshe Safdie for the Expo 67 world's fair. This urban archipelago is made up of two main islands: Ile Sainte-Helene, a natural island named by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain after his wife, and Ile Notre-Dame, an artificial island created in the 1960s out of all the dirt and rock excavated during the construction of the Montreal Metro. Both were little known and little used before Expo 67, when 50 million visitors passed through the islands. Many of the fair's futuristic buildings were later adapted for other purposes: the former U.S. pavilion is now the Biosphere environmental museum, while the French and Quebec pavilions became the Montreal Casino. For the record: The average purchase price of a "cube" at Habitat 67 is around C$600,000. ## Quartier des Spectacles ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-43-4-2024.jpg) As the name suggests, "spectacles" of one kind or another are the whole reason for being of this vibrant district between the Old City and McGill University. Although the area was conceived in the early 2000s as part of a concerted effort to boost Montreal's cultural life, it is now a genuine inner-city neighborhood that draws locals and visitors alike. The quarter revolves around the Place des Arts cultural complex, home to the Montreal Opera and Symphony Orchestra as well as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. It is also the site of the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Just For Laughs comedy festival. Among its many other cultural institutions are Montreal's central library, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Theatre School of Canada, the historic Club Soda music venue and the Cinematheque Quebecoise.