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Montreal’s 375th Anniversary

The Best Guided Tours in Montreal

Posted on September 8, 2017

Montreal, a city full of history

Montreal, this beautiful island filled with history. But how do we get to know her in only a few days? By living here, we get to know her little by little. In the winter, she is cold and calm. In the spring, she flowers and in the summer, she is festive and animated. Without forgetting fall when she exposes her prettiest colours before she goes back to sleep for the winter. Montreal, this city that just celebrated its 375^th anniversary is rich in history, gastronomy, culture and art. But how do we get to know her when you are just passing by? Guided tours are simple and fun ways to discover the city the fastest way possible.

Only a few steps away from Le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel, located in the heart of Old Montreal’s history, we can find many ways to discover this charming city: By foot for the curious, by bus for those in a hurry, at night for the night owls, by bike for the adventurers, or through gastronomy for the foodies. No matter how you wish to discover Montreal, all ways are possible. We list a few of the best guided tours in Montreal here.

Historic Tours

Montreal Ghosts

If you are looking for a guided tour that will make you go through all sorts of emotions at nightfall, all while telling you sordid stories, legends and criminal intrigues, Montreal Ghosts is the ideal tour for you. Located a few steps away from Le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel, this tour offered by Guidatour will make you live a unique and memorable experience.

Cité Mémoire

Since the beginning of the year, Montréal en Histoires was able to created a unique and interactive walking tour, all for free. By downloading the free app, discover Old Montreal through more than 20 outdoor displays in the form of images, lyrics and music. These projections tell the stories of different characters who witnessed the evolution of the city through time. Cité Mémoire, is, also, only a few steps away from the hotel and is available every evening from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Cité Mémoire, Montréal en Histoires

https://https://vimeo.com/166947522

Montréal à la loupe

No matter how old we are, riddles and puzzles have always known to wake the child in us. Montréal à la loupe is a track game which will awaken the detective in you and help you discover the city through 3 different games: Robbery in Old Montreal, Mystery at the Casino (Plateau Mont-Royal), or threat in the underground. In a team, you will need to solve a puzzle where the hints can be found in the different pieces of public art of the city. Our team recently tried it, and we highly recommend it!

Underground City and Downtown

Our guests are always intrigued to find out “What is this underground city that everybody talks about?” They hear about it so often back home that it becomes a must on their list during their stay at Le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel. Underground City by Guidatour is an urban excursion that will guide you through the streets of downtown and through the RÉSO (underground pedestrian network). You will be able to admire the artworks of Dorchester Square, pass by the big Ville-Marie tower or go shopping on the commercial street of Sainte-Catherine.

Bike Tours

What’s great about Montreal is its bike lane network that goes through the whole city, to Sainte-Hélène Island and beyond. In Montreal, it is possible to go from the North of the city and get to the South Shore, all on a bike lane. For adventurers and nature lovers, Montreal offers you two companies with which you will be able to discover Montreal all while riding a bike.

Montreal On Wheels

First of all, Montreal on Wheels, which is located less than a minute away from Le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel Montréal, offers many guided bike tours, bike rentals and even bike lessons. Isn’t that great? They specialize mostly in tours around Old Montreal, the Lachine Canal and Sainte-Hélène Island/Jean-Drapeau Park.

Fitz & Follwell

Comparatively, Fitz & Follwell offer itineraries in the North of Montreal, in the South, or from North to South, allowing you to see the entire city. This family company that started in a home garage in 2008, concentrates on fun, informative and social tours.

Ça Roule Montréal On Wheels

Fitz and Follwell Tour à velo, Bike Tour

Foodie Tours

Spade & Palacio

Spade & Palacio were really able to build their brand by offering “non-touristy tours” that will give you the impression of leaving as a true Montrealer. In this foodie tour, you will discover 6 restaurants and bars, passing by the famous Jean-Talon Market and the Mile-Ex, this rapidly expanding gastronomic neighborhood. You will even have the chance to taste the best little Salvadorian restaurant in Montreal, this city that shines by its multicultural flavors. At the end of the tour, you will be able to sit down with the people you met during the day and chat around a nice craft beer. Then, continue your gourmet discovery on your own thanks to the list of suggestions offered by Spade & Palacio.

Spade & Palacio

Local Montreal Tours

What’s great with Local Montreal Tours is that they offer tours in the three most foodie neighborhoods of the city: Old Montreal, Mile-End and the Plateau Mont-Royal & “The Main” (St-Laurent Street, where is located the famous Schwartz Deli). They also offer evening tours of Mile-End, for those who like to marry the tastes of food with local craft beers from this vibrant neighborhood.

Local Montreal Tours, Mile-End

Montreal Craft Beer Tours

For those who love craft beers, you will be happy to know that Montreal Craft Beer Tours offers two itineraries either in Rosemont or the Quartier des spectacles (Festival Quarter). Discover not less than 6 tastings with pairings, including a delicious poutine!

Bus Tours

Gray Line Bus Tours

For rainy days, short vacations or simply for those who like the admire the scenery, the “Double-Decker” bus tours from Gray Line will be ideal for you. For as low as 55$ per person and valid for two days, discover all the major attractions of the city, passing by Old Montreal, Chinatown, the Quartier des spectacles, the Village, the St-Joseph Oratory, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Mont-Royal Park, among others. What is great with this tour is the “hop-on, hop-off” concept, where you will be able to get off and back on at whichever destination you prefer visiting.

Gray Line Tours, Oratoire St-Joseph

On behalf of our entire team at Le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel Montréal, we wish you a pleasant discovery of this beautiful city that is Montreal.

Jennifer Bédard
Marketing Manager

Montreal destination

Montreal, City of Festivals

Posted on June 15, 2017

A Summer of Festivities in Montreal

Montreal, during the summer, is the city of festivals. There are major events happening almost every week throughout the summer, attracting a great number of visitors. This year being the 375^th anniversary of the city, there are even more sights to visit and grand events to attend.

Festivals of Art, Music and Culture

Of course, Montreal is famous for its Formula 1 Grand Prix, the event that launches the high season for tourism and that provides a crazy week of celebrations, but also for the Jazz Festival, the largest in the world, which brings together hundreds of indoor concerts and free concerts in the streets of Montreal and for the Just For Laughs Festival. Also, Les Francofolies is the largest celebration of French language music and its artists.

Among the many major festivals that were added in the recent years, the more notable ones include Montreal Complètement Cirque (Circus), which benefits from the presence in the city of the Cirque du Soleil, of the TOHU, of the Cirque Eloize and of the 7 Doigts de la Main circus company.

© MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CIRQUE, Tim Hussin

Osheaga has grown over the years to become one the largest gatherings of pop music outdoor concerts, bringing together dozens of world class bands and tens of thousands of music fans coming from all parts to attend the three days of wild concerts.

As for sporting events, besides the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Rogers Cup of Tennis brings us, each year, one of the most competitive tournaments in the world, with most of the best players in the world. The Men and Women players alternate from year to year; in 2017 we are welcoming the men from the ATP! Furthermore, for the first time in Montreal, the electric race cars will be speeding through the streets during the brand new Formula E serie.

© Susan Moss Photography, Grand Prix F1 Crescent

© Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, Benoit Rousseau

© Agnieszka S. Semaine de la Mode Montréal

Your Festival Guide

To help you find your way through all those festivals and to better plan your touristic and cultural schedule this summer, here is a list of the numerous major festivals and events in Montreal in 2017 :

Volta – Cirque Du Soleil – May 25 to July 23 / Jacques Cartier Pier – Vieux-Port

Avudo – May 18 to September 2 / Jacques-Cartier Pier – Vieux-Port

Grand Prix Formula 1 – June 9, 10, 11 / Notre-Dame Island

Mondial de la Bière (Beerfest) – June 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 2017 / Palais des Congrès

Francofolies – June 8 to 18 / Place Des Arts

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal – June 28 to July 8 / Place Des Arts

L’international des Feux Loto-Québec – July 1, 8, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29 and August 5 / La Ronde

Montréal Complètement Cirque – July 6 to 16 / Montreal

Comic Con Montréal – July 7, 8, 9 / Palais des Congrès

Just for Laughs Festival– July 14 to 30 / Place Des Arts

Formula E Race – July 29 and 30 / Downtown

Rogers Cup of Tennis – August 4 to 13 / Uniprix Stadium

Osheaga – August 4, 5, 6 / Jean-Drapeau Park

ÎleSoniq – August 10, 11, 12 / Jean-Drapeau Park

OSM, Classical Spree – August 10, 11, 12, 14 / Maison Symphonique

Nomad Fest – Urban Rodeo – August 24, 25, 26, 27 / Jacques-Cartier Pier

Festival Yul Eat – September 2, 3, 4 / Old-Montreal

For further information, for help to purchase tickets or to make reservations, contact our concierge desk at 514-350-1152 or at [email protected] . Our concierge team will be pleased to help you make the best out of this amazing festival season in Montreal.

We wish you a wonderful summer in Montreal and we hope to have the opportunity to share our most amazing season with you.

Alain Ethier
Chef-Concierge

Montreal destination

Montreal’s 375th Anniversary celebrations

Posted on November 28, 2016

An overlook about Montreal’s 375th Anniversary celebrations

Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary celebrations

In 2017 Montreal will celebrate its 375^th Anniversary. It will be one year full of events not to miss that will start with the launch party on December 11^th, 2016!

Le Saint-Sulpice Hotel Montreal ideally located in Old Montreal will be the right place to stay as we are in the heart of all major activities and events organized to celebrate Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary!

Let’s have a look on some highlights:

Les Hivernales:

From January to mid March– will take place in three key locations in the city: in Parc Jean-Drapeau, in Old Montreal and in the Quartier des spectacles. Programming for this grandiose winter celebration will include a wide variety of sports and participative activities to suit all tastes. Among others, there will be a one-of-a-kind interactive and technological obstacle course that will challenge participants while entertaining spectators, a first run of some truly zany curling, winter cycling and an outdoor hockey game. Fans of extreme sports will also have their fill with an impressive skiing and snowboarding demonstration. An array of activities and events has been planned to encourage young and old alike to get outside and have fun…

In the heart of winter, here some of the not to miss events:

Igloofest:

The biggest winter techno party will take place every week-end from Friday to Sunday between January 12^thand February 18^th, 2017. Dear Techno addicts, don’t’ forget your ‘tuques’ and snowsuits, because it’s never too early to get ready to dance under the stars to the sound of the best worlwide DJ’s music.
Igloofest in the Old Port – 2 min walking distance from the St-Sulpice Hotel.

Montréal en Lumière: from February 23 to March 11 2017

This festival belongs to the largest winter festivals in the world! It combines performing arts, gastronomy, free outdoor family activities, and a full night of exquisitely original discoveries during la Nuit Blanche de Montréal.

Lyon in France, reknown as a city of light and fine gastronomic destination, will be honored this year. Add the dates to your agenda today. We recommend you book your table as soon as the participating restaurants and Chefs will be unveiled, as it will definitely be very popular!

Concerts and show will be announced later in the year too.

Not to miss this year Illuminart experience: a new free event solidifying Montreal’s position as a “Smart and Digital City”–will establish itself as an international annual crossroads for illuminated, interactive and immersive avant-garde creativity! Its array of technological works will further confirm the status of MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE as a creative laboratory and showcase, a key component in an international circuit of creative events dedicated to the theme of light!

https://youtu.be/8ttb0qK0QDA

Another Brick in the Wall at The Opéra de Montréal : from March 11 to 24, 2017

375th Anniversary – Another brick in the wall

For the Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary, The Opéra de Montréal announced a special great event: Another Brick in the wall. Based on the masterpiece The Wall by Pink Floyd,, the opera, written by Rogers Waters and directed by Dominic Champagne, will be the blockbuster production of the Opéra de Montréal in 2017 and will make its world debut here.
The show will highlight the mythical dimension of the work through original music, performed by contemporary opera singers accompanied by classical instruments. Book today your tickets for Another Brick in the wall at the Opéra Montréal.

The Giants : May 19 to 21 (A 24h/24 event)

After appearing in France, Sweden, Chili, Iceland, England, Australia, Germany and China, the impressive giants will stop in Montreal in May 2017 for a special and unique show to celebrate Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary. These giants will tell you about Montreal’s history on their own way with a touch of poetry and emotion. You will be able to follow their facts and gestures 24h/24…

Cité mémoire : Every evening at dusk

Since May 18^th, 2016, you already can walk along Old Montreal’s streets and discover the 20 tableaux projected throughout the area. Cité Mémoire invites you to meet a host of characters who’ve witnessed the city’s evolution first-hand. Poetic, dreamlike and occasionally playful, the tableaux come alive with images, words and music. The work appears on the very walls that surround us, the ground on which we walk, the trees that frame our present.
Every evening at dusk, around le Saint-Sulpice Hôtel Montréal!

For a complete Cité Mémoire experience, download Montréal en Histoires free application. Soundtrack and historical contexts are available in 4 languages.
For Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary, Cité Mémoire expands the number of tableaux and will cover downtown … Starting in May 2017

La grande tournée du 375^ème From May 12 to September 17

La Grande Tournée du 375e celebrates each of Montréal’s 19 boroughs over 19 weekends.
A way for you to discover how Montrealers live and the specificities of the 19 boroughs.
Next summer, La Grande Tournée du 375e will make its way across Montréal, showcasing the many different people, residents and merchants that make up our neighbourhoods. Each of the 19 boroughs will have a chance to strut its stuff during this giant neighbourhood block party, which highlights what makes it unique. It will also give people who love Montréal the chance to explore the many vibrant boroughs of the city.

Each weekend, a neighbourhood park will be host to an array of activities that invite people to explore, dream, feel, have fun, eat, dance, play and revel in the moment. The fun will also spill out onto a neighbouring street or back alley and feature even more art, history and family-oriented happenings. La Grande Tournée du 375e will be presented by Cirque Éloize, which will unveil a line-up of fun and entertaining activities throughout the day.

Living connections – a work of illumination for the Jacques-Cartier bridge: 17 Mai 2017

For years, the Jacques Cartier Bridge has been an icon for the Montreal area. It spans our St. Lawrence River and connects us to the South Shore. From 2017, the bridge will become an attraction for visitors, and above all, a powerful symbol of Montréal’s creativity.

Starting May 17^th, 2017 the Jacques Cartier Bridge will be a kaleidoscope reflecting the season and Montrealers’ energy, through numerous datas collected in real time that will determine the color and pattern of the lightings. It will be one of the major attractions for Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary, and will stay after the celebrations for 10 years.

Montreal AVUDO Old Port: from May 17 to September 2, 2017

A spectacular multimedia show that pays tribute to the St-Lawrence River all summer long in the Old Port. Taking place on the water, Montréal AVUDO will be a poetic tribute to the St. Lawrence River throughout the years and seasons. The water, omnipresent, will be given a voice through grandiose installations. Thanks to spectacular projections on the water, audiences will be immersed in the memories of those whose livelihood depended on it, who built, innovated and set off to link Montréal to the rest of the world.

Montréal AVUDO will tell a non-linear story of the emotional ties between the St. Lawrence River, Montréal, its neighbourhoods, its stakeholders and its people. The everyday stories of the river will evoke the roots of our city, from its very beginnings to the Montréal of today.

100 free performances – close to the St-Sulpice Hôtel Montréal

Les Francofolies de Montréal : from June 8 to 18, 2017

Since 1989, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal has been the true reflection of a thriving French-speaking music world!

Nearly 70 indoor shows and 180 free outdoor concerts attest to the effervescent quality, diversity and energy of a music-rich, fun-filled program! Les FrancoFolies de Montréal features a wide array of musical trends, showcased through 250 concerts. Held on a pedestrian-friendly site in the downtown core of America’s biggest French-speaking city, it offers all possible amenities and non-stop entertainment! More than just a festival, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal are a unique way to celebrate music… and life!

More to come about the programming that will be surely impressive for the Montreal’s 375^thAnniversary.

The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal : from June 28 to July 8, 2017

Ranked as the world’s largest jazz festival by Guinness World Records, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal has been synonymous with a passion for music for over three decades. Every year, North America’s French-speaking metropolis welcomes global music fans to 10 days of jazzcentric celebration, where fans of all types of jazz-related music rub shoulders with aficionados of the genre in its purest form. The Festival hosts some 30 countries, 3,000 musicians and public entertainers, 1,000 concerts and activities—two-thirds of them free – in 15 concert halls and on 8 outdoor stages, welcoming more than 2 million visitors to the city, from noon to midnight! And it all happens on a unique site designed to meet festivalgoers’ every need, in the heart of Montreal’s downtown core, in an area off-limits to car traffic! There’s no doubt – Montreal is the heartbeat of Planet Jazz!

More to come about the programming that will be surely impressive for the Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary.

Street theatre troups: July 2017

For Montreal’s 375^th Anniversary celebrations, over 60 street theatre troupes from six countries (France, Spain, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Canada) will take over the streets of Montreal, during July 2017, performing some 800 shows. Hundreds of artists—including close to 20 troupes from Quebec—will be taking part in this spectacular street theatre event, the largest of its kind ever held in North America!

Fierté Canada Montréal : August 11 to 17

Canada Pride Montréal 2017 is a national festival that aims to shed light on the Canadian LGBT movement Hosted by Montréal Pride from August 11 to 17, 2017, festivalgoers will be offered 10 days of celebrations including a weekend of sporting events, an international conference on LGBT human rights, free outdoor concerts every night and a parade of an unprecedented scale!

That’s all for now… but more to come!!

Karin Janssen, marketing manager