I'll be getting into Montreal airport late at night. So I need a hotel that's nearby and provides me a shuttle to the hotel. By then I should be exhausted and I don't really have time to figure out the public transportation although they do have an express bus from airport to downtown.
I found Holiday Inn Montreal Aeroport that provides free shuttle to/from the airport. They told me that the 24 hour shuttle goes around the airport every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour at door 7. They share it with the Crowne Plaza so both logos will be on the shuttle. This hotel costs me 15,000 points with IHG Rewards that I obtained from their credit card's sign up bonus 70,000 points. I think it's fair enough and for the convenience, I reserved it!
Airport to Downtown Transportation:
Next morning, the shuttle will take me back to the airport so that I can purchase the ticket for the express bus 747 into downtown where my hotel is.
Montreal Public Transportation:
Montreal's public transportation is operated by STM. The cool thing about purchasing the ticket for express bus 747 above is that the ticket costs $10 CAD and it's unlimited travel throughout STM buses and métro networks during 24 consecutive hours. You can read more info here. That means, for $10 CAD, I can go to all the attractions without a lot of walking in 24 hours. Therefore, I plan on doing attractions that are not within walking distance from my hotel that day to take advantage of this 24 hours ticket.
Accommodation:
I'll be staying in Montreal downtown area. First it's convenient, and second it's close to Montreal Central Station where I'll take my train to Quebec City. I booked my hotel through Hotels.com and it costs me $64.51 USD per night. I have a one night reward of $64.18 to redeem this. My total cost comes to $12.58.
Things to Do:
You may want to read this up on your own to see what interests you. If you have more days than I do in Montreal, you should consider splitting these into couple days. Through my research, here's my planned itinerary.
Day 1:
As I mentioned earlier, to take advantage of the 24 hour ticket, I planned on going to places that are not within walking distance from my hotel in downtown.
- Mount Royal - I have to take public transportation there. To avoid hiking up to the viewing area, the only bus #11 will take me all the way to the top where I can take in the view of Montreal city. My 24 hour ticket will take care of that.
- St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal
- Jean-Talon Market
- Biosphere - $12 entrance fee as of today.
- Montreal Biodome (Optional) - $19.25 entrance fee as of today.
- Olympic Stadium (Optional) - 7 mins walk from Biodome
In the evening, I'll be checking out these close by attractions to downtown:
- Old Montreal
- Rue St-Paul - 6 mins walk from Old Montreal.
- Old Port of Montreal - 1 min walk from Rue St-Paul.
Day 2:
- Notre-Dame Basilica
- Underground City Shopping - before catching the train to Quebec City. This shopping center is conveniently located right in the train station.
I might have more time than I expected on day 2 to re-visit places on my Day 1 if I really like the place(s) or if I didn't get a chance to do it.
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