Montreal

[_JohnnyD_]

Spontaneously heading there next week. E30 has ultra summer tires on it. Will I die? Or are the roads plowed pretty often?

This is a stupid idea. Driving within 300 miles of Montreal in December or January with summer tires is just asking for trouble.

If you have any troubles and you don't speak French, the locals will screw you every chance they get. A RWD car with summer tires in the winter in Quebec screams "I'm a moron, please take all of money!"

BTW, you should always make sure your car is as ready as possible for the driving you are doing, for your safety and others.
Do you show up for track days with 4 spare tires on and a dry rad?

[Mr. Burns]

I live close to Montreal.

I've travelled a lot and it is my *absolute* favourite city in Canada.
Beats out Toronto, Vancouver in terms of people, nightlife, style etc...

you don't NEED to know french, mostly everyone speaks english.

as for taking your E30 on summers?

freggin FORGET IT. don't do it.
just recently we've been walloped with about 4 feet of snow in the past month, and like TSI said, the plowing budget in the MTL area is often lacklustre as they try to "spread it out" over the entire season.

expect traffic everywhere.
The "Pont Champlain" (Champlain Bridge) will be gridlocked traffic typically.

Drivers in MTL are downright dangerous. no signalling, ever, speeding like mad and just basic poor skill.
Their cars only need to pass a "safety check" once throughout the time of ownership, and it can pass throughout MANY owners...so many of the cars on the road there are plainly unsafe.

Descare Blvd is notorious for traffic jams, and there is no shoulder to pull over on if a car breaks down.

as mentioned before, the city of Montreal is built on an island, and you can travel the entire city with the Metro System. It's cheap, always on time, warm, and underground.

if you can get to Montreal safely, park your car and Metro everywhere...

Many of the hotels run directly on the metro line.

for nightlife, stick to BLVD St-Laurent, Crescent Street, BLVD St-Catherine, and St-Denis (in the Quartier Latin)
These areas are all close to each other.

drinking age is only 18. go nuts.
Beer is stupid cheap and can be bought at gas stations for pre-drinking.

make sure you eat POUTINE...Montreal is essentially the hub of the best poutine in the world.

and the girls.
holy FAWK. Just go there and it will be self explanatory.

enjoy your visit!

oh ya, dress warm.

Edit: if you go during the summer, on Sundays head to Mont-Royal Hill.
They have thousands of people that head over to the hill, and form various drum circles all day.
It's an experience worth checking it, it's $0.
In the back of the park they have people doing Live Action Role Play (Larping), some people tightrope walking between trees, and various other weird activities.

not to mention the sensationally liberal blind eye the police turn to open alcohol and MJ smoking on the hill.

that, or simply go for people watching...nothing else like I've ever scene.

I have some videos I'll post up later.

(sorry for ranting on, I simply love this city and can talk about it for days :-P)

[Mr. Burns]

This is a stupid idea. Driving within 300 miles of Montreal in December or January with summer tires is just asking for trouble.

If you have any troubles and you don't speak French, the locals will screw you every chance they get. A RWD car with summer tires in the winter in Quebec screams "I'm a moron, please take all of money!"

this is mental and simply NOT true.

you'll find that at any place regardless of language spoken or culture, there will always be someone looking to screw you over.

have you ever been to Montreal?

head to Northern Quebec and experience ignorance, but NOT in Montreal.
it's an extremely culturally diverse area...LOTS of Italian, Greek, Latin in the area, and I would safely say that over 70% (my estimation) speak english.

[_JohnnyD_]

I agree with everything you said about Montreal. It is a great city, diverse, majority English speaking, blah blah blah. (I would also recommend Quebec City as a place to visit)

Unless your coming from Laval to Montreal you need to drive through rural Quebec. If you don't speak French and have US plates trying to get a tow or jump start. It gets very expensive. This kind of stuff happens everywhere (even Ontario my home) but in Quebec they use the language barrier to their advantage.

I drive to various locations in Quebec monthly with my work truck that has Michigan plates. I have plenty of examples.

My point to the OP is be prepared for where you are going. If your car is not equipped for the conditions, rent a car and enjoy your time in Montreal.

[lolcantturn]

You guys are the best. I opted in taking my friend's dreadfully boring Scion TC on all seasons. Thanks for the advice

[lolcantturn]

Who's familiar with the NY state thruway? Supposed to be some inches of snow rolling through, not sure how on top of the roads they are.

[Northern]

this is mental and simply NOT true.

you'll find that at any place regardless of language spoken or culture, there will always be someone looking to screw you over.

have you ever been to Montreal?

head to Northern Quebec and experience ignorance, but NOT in Montreal.
it's an extremely culturally diverse area...LOTS of Italian, Greek, Latin in the area, and I would safely say that over 70% (my estimation) speak english.

I speak very little french, because nobody here really does unless they are put in a french immersion school or are from a french background, and my woman is very fluent, although in acadian french.

We were in quebec city for a week last spring, while most people are pleasant and are fine speaking english, or encouraging if you try to embarrass yourself and speak french, there were a few times I was ignored or faced rolling eyes. Worse than this is at one starbucks near our hotel, my woman was talking to the cashier when he stopped her and corrected her grammar.

I understand that acadian french isn't the most proper, but neither is quebec french. It just rubbed me the wrong way. (And yes, Quebec city is not montreal, but it's not northern qc either)

[nando]

yeah, most people I encountered were very nice.

you'll find rude people pretty much anywhere..

[cheapthrills]

Who's familiar with the NY state thruway? Supposed to be some inches of snow rolling through, not sure how on top of the roads they are.

In my experience, they're very good. I've driven across NY state during several bad snowstorms (4+ inches/hour), even on all-seasons, the roads aren't bad.

[Sea Aych]

Wise choice on the scion.
Roads are horrendous in the city itself, especially in the winter - some dude on youtube made a video of cooking chicken in a "barbeque" made out of a pothole a while back, if that's an indication...
In any case, enjoy the city! It's fantastic.

[Roysneon]

I understand that acadian french isn't the most proper, but neither is quebec french. It just rubbed me the wrong way. (And yes, Quebec city is not montreal, but it's not northern qc either)

That would piss me off, too. I know that anyone from Quebec would understand the phrase "Fuck off". That's why I'm so hesitant to ever try to speak french to anyone ever. If you try and fuck up something stupid it's taken as an insult.

[SubDad]

That's why I'm so hesitant to ever try to speak french to anyone ever. If you try and fuck up something stupid it's taken as an insult.

Sorry Roysneon, but that's just not true. In all my travels and with all my badly conjugated verbs no-one has ever taken it as an insult that I tried and failed to speak their language. (OK, three exceptions - two in Mexico, one in France but never, ever in Quebec.)
Go ahead and give it your best shot. If you say something unintentionally hilarious you may be laughed at in a non-hostile way but somebody cute will explain it to you.

OP, I hope you like(d) Montreal. It's a great city. I married a girl from there.

[Peterkaczynski]

hey how was your trip?
i went to montreal on a spontaneous nye trip with a few friends, beautiful city super hot girls
we went to la boom one night and new city gas on nye it was incredible
i made a video of the trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGG0mDs25gw

[Mr. Burns]

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun filming each other in hot tubs and half naked.

No judgements here, but....











Pfffffftt hehehehe

You're pretty much in my backyard and all of you fit the reputation/profile perfectly.

[Mr. Burns]

I DJ at most major clubs in Mtl/t.o. (Guest DJ/opener to headliners mostly)

Glad u kids stayed safe n had fun:-)