Hi friends, welcome back to the conclusion of our long weekend in Montreal! I saved the best for last, especially if you are reading this on a drab winter day. The following morning was a Monday, so Jon headed into his office and I grabbed coffee from La Finca and headed to the Montreal Botanical Garden. Montreal has a great public transportation system, so I decided to give it a try. I was a little nervous because I was by myself without WIFI/internet and had never used the metro before, but it was easy to figure out. I screenshotted a picture of the directions (like Mapquest directions back in the day) and hoped for the best.
There was construction outside the metro station I got off at, and I couldn’t use my phone to figure out the way to go, so I ended up going the wrong way and walked through the Olympic Park to get to the gardens. I took a twenty minute detour, but I made it eventually! I laughed walking back from the garden to the metro because it would’ve been only a five minute walk in the opposite direction to get there. It’s hard being directionally challenged in a new place, at least in NYC I have the skyscrapers for an easy reference point.
The Montreal Botanical Garden is one of the largest in the world and showcases over 22,000 species of plants. I started in the green house and I thought it was really pretty! I went at a magical time where I had it mostly to myself for about 75% of the time. Then the field trip kids came in and were running around, touching plants, and filling the green house with giggles.
I loved that the green house had this peaceful waterfall.
This house like building was also a cool feature in the desert room.
I headed outside next, and I was unimpressed with the rose garden. They seemed too far apart from each other.
The Chinese Garden was very cool, the pavilion is under construction, but it didn’t take away from the experience. You can still see gorgeous views from other spots in the area.
The Alpine Garden was next, and I thought this was beautiful and it smelled amazing!
My favorite part of the garden was the Flowery Brook and Lilacs garden filled with gorgeous, blooming peonies. As you can imagine it was extremely difficult for me to limit the amount of pictures I included in this post.
The Shrub garden.
This might be my favorite picture of the day.
I really enjoyed this botanical garden and I highly recommend checking it out! It’s only about a twenty-minute drive, or thirty-minute metro ride from downtown Montreal. I spent about two hours here, but could’ve easily spent longer.
I checked into the new hotel near Jon’s office, the Sheraton, and it was very nice! It seems the popular place to stay for business. If you’re traveling for vacation, I wouldn’t recommend staying here because it’s further away from the Old Town and Port. For dinner we grabbed yummy poke bowls from Le Poke Station and had a chill last night.
I flew back to NYC the following morning and I couldn’t believe how empty the Montreal airport was! There was no line at security and I was from my Uber to the gate in about ten minutes. There was a Starbucks across from my gate, so I grabbed coffee and waited to board. I ended the trip with a free upgrade to first class and a seamless flight. I had a great time visiting Montreal and hope you enjoyed this little series!