Montreal Weekend 80th Birthday Celebration
Mom 80th Birthday
Trip Recap
- Day 1: Excited to explore beautiful Montreal and enjoy vibrant dining and nightlife!
- Day 2: Enjoyed Montreal sights despite unexpected tour changes and great breakfast!
- Day 3: Relaxing family day with coffee, spa visits, and delicious birthday dinner.
- Day 4: Stuck in Montreal, enjoyed pizza and boutique shopping with Annie instead.
Highlights
Hotel William Gray - perfect old town location near the port, comfortable rooms / amenities.
Bisou Bisou - basement bar across from hotel, great drinks, very friendly staff and great service.
Notre Dame Basilica - absolutely beautiful. Attended a 5pm Saturday night Mass, even more special!
Mount Royal
Day 1
Travel day to Montreal. What a beautiful city. The ride from the airport to old town Montreal was an easy 30 minutes. Our hotel, the Hotel William Gray, is perfectly located in the historic Montreal near the port, restaurants and shopping. After a quick change and unpack, we were off to dinner at Holder, a short Uber ride away. Drinks at the unique underground bar, Bisou Bisou, steps from the hotel, was a great end to our first day!
Day 2
Sight seeing day. Great breakfast included with our stay at Maggie Oaks, the lobby level restaurant at William Gray. Very nice, excellent service.
Our mid-day van tour was arranged for our family to see the city of Montreal. However two SUV’s arrived due to a problem with the van-and our tour was mainly ChatGPT (we were expecting a more informed guide) as we made our way through the city. Still enjoyed the sites of Montreal-and seeing the beautiful neighborhood of Westmont perched above the city and near Mt Royal. Mt Royal was an interesting stop, learning of Father Andre who was sainted for his works of kindness and healing.
Day 3
Lazy day for the family. Started out with early coffee from Cafe Olympic. The snow came to Montreal making it challenging to walk around the city - especially for my 80 yr old parents. After a delicious and relaxing breakfast at Maggie Oakes (hotel restaurant), there were gym workouts and hotel spa visits to be had before we found our way to the local brewery for a late snack, a couple of beers and Euchre with the guys.
Our final birthday dinner for my mom was at Gaspar in old town and around the corner from the hotel. Amazing food, great wine and excellent service. After a quick drink at The Keg, we could resist to go back to our favorite underground bar, Bisou Bisou! They were probably sick of us but we had a blast and tipped well.
Day 4
Travel day but flights were cancelled due to nasty weather in Chicago. While most of my family sought out alternative flight options, making for a long day, Annie and I decided to stay one more night given that we were rebooked for Monday (oh well!).
We had a delicious pizza lunch at Bevo followed by some last minute and much needed (for Annie) boutique shopping in old town Montreal.
Anything you would add or do differently?
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Next time, we visit in the summer!
