Montreal, Quebec Review

We went to the:
Archeological Museum $13 per adult & Canadian History
Notre Dame Cathedral $5 per adult
Walked through the various neighborhoods

Olympic Stadium and observation tower
+ Biodome => $25.50 per adult for both
Botanical Gardens & Insectarium -> $12 per adult with AAA & $13.50 no discount
Chalet at the Park ($2.50 for parking)

These are the off-season prices for 2008.

We stayed at the Hilton Bonaventure in downtown which was really a lot nicer than I expected it to be. It was actually what I considered a 4 star hotel. I have stayed at other Hiltons (and not the Garden Inn or other offshoots, but a regular Hilton hotel) and decided it was not 4 star at all. It was in a convenient location but we didn't know any better at the time and rented a car which we kind of used but paid a lot to park it - $17 a day -- very pricey but at least we didn't have to worry about parking it on the street and having the wake up early to move it. That was for convenience sake for us. The metro was right there - about $2.75 per ride, but I think they probably have multi-ride savings. But I do recommend the Hilton hotel - it had nice clean rooms and you can access the underground mall, train stations without stepping outside.

For the attractions - I honestly thought the archeological dig was not worth the money. But we have also been to Europe and seen the real deal there - which made Montreal pale in comparison. If you have been to the crypt that's next to the Notre Dame in Paris, then you will be seeing basically the same thing here. The Notre Dame in Montreal was very pretty and the Sacred Heart chapel was very pretty (rebuilt after a fire in 1978). So I thought that was worth the cost. It was snowing on that day so all our outdoor activities were probably less enjoyable than a regular day. The biodome was a lot better than I expected it to be.
They had penguins which were cute and the tropical rain forest section is always really nice. We have been to many aquariums & zoos & botanical gardens in a variety of nations & cities so I didn't feel like I saw anything new but it was still enjoyable. Good/recommended if you have young children. They would enjoy it. I am a garden lover - and in the winter all the outdoor gardens are closed (covered in snow) - but I still wanted to see the greenhouses. They have 10 but 3 were closed for renovation. They had a new butterfly exhibit that opened just 2 days before we visited. That was very nice, I don't say "incredible" because we actually saw a very similar exhibit in another zoo somewhere - so it wasn't brand new. If you haven't ever been to one, you would be wowed. They had a lot of butterflies there. We passed on the museums of science & art just because we have been to so many and recently revisited the Smithsonians (free admission). I really cannot get into modern-modern
art - so we passed all together.

The trip was a little pricier than I had wanted it to be (even with some of the good deals we got). But the exchange was good to us at the moment, and we did end up splurging a little more for comfort in the cold weather than we normally would have.