Hi, loves. 🌿

A totally idiosyncratic unofficial non-guide to Montreal with a tween girl

For over a decade, my husband, daughter and I have been coming to Montreal to visit my parents and oldest friends for major chunks of the summer — the luxury of being a writer married to an academic. For much of that time, we very happily did the same old things: pool, playground, long playdates and dinners with friends and family, rinse, repeat. This worked incredibly well until our daughter turned 6, at which point we enrolled her in a local art camp (one I’d gone to a million years earlier!) and did much of the aforementioned stuff when camp was out. We essentially acted like locals for the summer, and it was a total joy. The air! The walking! Grandparent time! The escape from America! All bliss.

Walking to the park with Grandma, summer 2018

But traveling with tweens, as we all know, is different. (See: Exhibit A.)

So this year, in an effort to be Fun! Mom! in Montreal!, I braved ChatGPT for the first time in my entire life and it was — drum roll, SVP — a disappointment! It gave me nothing I didn’t already know (not its fault — I did grow up here), but, more importantly, nothing a 12-year-old girl (or at least, mine) would want to do. If memory serves, I think it offered up: Notre Dame (beautiful, but we’ve seen it), Old Montreal (same, ditto), La Ronde (OMG, no), Biodome (done), Insectarium and Botanical Gardens (done, and also really for younger more insect-curious kids?!). This was all Major Tourist Stuff; not exactly what I was hoping for (I was going for groan-free activities).

This is where I admit that not knowing what to do with my kid in the city I grew up in is sort of embarrassing, but things have changed a lot from when I was 12, so I asked friends and went on old reliable Google and pieced some days together — and many were shockingly successful!

As a caveat, this is a totally random assortment of finds that combine local and touristy things that pleased my particular kid. Take it all with a grain of salt, please; I offer it in the hope that it’s of use to you.

Biggest Surprise Hit: Musée Imaginarium: you take selfies or photos in themed rooms with fantastic backgrounds. This is BUILT for tweens. She was agog. The place is really small (maybe 10 rooms total?) but we went through twice and it was massively successful. Added bonus: there’s a La Buvette du Dep above, where we had a delicious smoothie and matcha after.

Great Mellow Activity: We loved the Céramic Café where we drank lemonade and matcha (I’m in my matcha era) and painted ceramics for a couple of hours on the Plateau. Talk about soothing our nervous systems. A great thing to do on a low-energy or mega-hot day. Only caveat is that the pots need a week to be glazed, so thanks, Dad, ahead of time for picking them up!

Best Rainy Day Local Activity: my best friend’s partner took the kids climbing at Allez-Up. Lots of them around town. We know absolutely nothing about climbing and we went with an expert and the kid loved it (I was a very good observer), but I do think you can go and get help? It was $20 for the whole day.

Biggest Indulgence: We did go to the Cirque du Soleil (thanks again, Dad) and this year’s show was totally worth it (last year’s was sort of meh). I have a really soft spot for these because the Cirque was a fixture of my childhood (I still remember that first show in 1987 or whatever vividly) and they’ve gotten sort of extra extra, but it still felt worth it to see my own daughter light up at the magic of it all. We had totally passable crepes for dinner in the Old Port beforehand.

Best Family Activity: Bagel Class! We’ve now done this twice and loved it beyond. You do everything, from measuring the ingredients to shaping the bagels to eating them fresh out of the oven to taking a few home. Major win. Someone in our class said they were better than Fairmount. Probably true?! I’d guess a kid of 7 or 8 could manage it.

Worth it but, let’s be honest, no kid’s favorite: One of my dearest friend’s and I forced our tweens to walk on Mount Royal, which is super lush and green and offers a gorgeous view of Montreal and good exercise for all. One of them actually said, “whose idea was this?” but I stand by the fact that it’s a great thing to do whether you’re local or not. We parked at Smith House and walked from there. Then we got them pizza and ice cream so win-win.

Maybe Worth It? The Oasis Immersion. This one sort of made me want to vomit and the kids went through super fast (the website says you need 60-90 min; we were done in 25), but it was actually a really beautiful immersive video installation about nature.

Fun for lunch: We visited the Atwater Market weekly during my childhood summers, but it’s grown from fruit and vegetable stands to lots of delicious restaurants (as well as butchers, patisseries, fishmongers, etc). Our family loves the Satay Brothers and Falafel Yoni. Ca Lem ice cream is also delicious (the kid loves taro). You can then wander over to the Canal and rent a kayak or boat (which we have, of course, never done). Weekends are sort of nuts, but in a fun way (minus the crazy parking).

A few other things: The kid and I miraculously got a spot at Arthur’s Nosh Bar for lunch and it was insanely delicious, but usually there’s an hour wait. Worth going during the week and getting there very early to get in. My old friend Emma opened up Elena a few years ago, which is also delicious (and blessedly takes reservations). My kid is obsessed with Mandy’s (it’s a local chain) and while it’s not the best place, I include it here because it’s her fave and we went more than once. Thanks to Wendy (below!) for reminding me about Voiles en Voiles! A massive hit with little and big kids.

We also spent an inordinate amount of time at Lululemon, our local pool, Melk and Myriade (both great coffee). And, of course, I’ve not included all the park and splashpad time with God-siblings. That and the delicious homemade meals with my parents were why we came in the first place.

I hope this helps! Please let me know what else here you’ve loved.

Sending love,

Abs xo