5 Daily Getaway Trips For Montreal Families
Montreal is the city of many attractions. It hosts some of the best restaurants and bars in Canada, and it is blessed with beautiful nature all around.
However, when you live in the city, you get tired of all the noise and what the downtown offers. Luckily for Montrealer, the metropolitan area is close to Quebec, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. This fact allows you to go on family day trips (or overnight stays) not far away from home.
Here is a list of five places you can visit within a three-hour drive from Montreal.
- Adirondack Park, NY
Get your family ready for a day trip to Adirondack Park in New York State. The Adirondack Park is the largest publicly protected area in the US. It has over dozen lakes and a couple of pictorial towns that offer lake swimming, hiking trails, and camping areas.
There, you can enjoy the unique lakeside cabins and boutique shopping in the towns of Saranac Lake or Lake Placid.
Travel time from Montreal: 2+ hours by car
- Burlington, VT
Burlington is one of the most populated cities in Vermont, United States.
The home of Ben and Jerry ice cream is famous for its rich traditional architecture and active art scene.
In Burlington, you can go to the Church Street Marketplace mall, the four-block pedestrian mall built in the city center. You can visit the numerous art galleries around the city and dine in open-air restaurants.
Travel time from Montreal: 2+ hours by car or bus
- Oka, QC
Oka is located in the province of Quebec, in the north of the Lake of Two Mountains. Its long sandy beaches are a favorite hotspot for Montrealers to cool down during the hot summer days.
It is an ideal getaway for cheese lovers as Oka is known for the best artisanal cheese in Quebec.
You can enjoy the day in the village staying in any picnicking, camping, and boating facilities the park has.
Travel time from Montreal: 40+ minutes by car
Québec City, QC
The second-largest city in the Quebec region, Quebec City, is a tourist hotspot. Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America, recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. The city’s architecture is influenced by the French settlements with the walled city overlooking the Saint Lawerence River.
The city offers various attractions, including tours with horse-drawn carriages, art galleries, museums, and multiple historic sites. You can eat delicious food in any of the French restaurants in the city center.
Travel time from Montreal: 3+ hours by car, bus, or train
Stanstead, QC and Derby Line, VT
How about visiting two cities connected by a public library and an opera house?
The cities of Stanstead, Quebec, and Deby Line in Vermont sit on the Canadian US border. In 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House were deliberately built there, connecting the two cities. In the library, you can see the black line across that marks the border between two states.
You can also take a walk in Canusa Street, which is a neighborhood street lining as a border between two states.
Travel time from Montreal: 2+ hours by car
Final thoughts
Montreal is a city of numerous attractions, public places, and good restaurants. Moreover, the city holds an advantageous location that makes it easy to have family getaways. In less than three hours’ drive, you can visit mesmerizing nature and pictorial towns neighboring Montreal.