An Accessible 48 Hours in Montreal

I’ve been a huge hockey fan my whole life, and because I live in Florida, people often stare at me quizzically when they see me wearing a Montreal Canadiens shirt. They couldn’t know I grew up visiting Canada with my family and came to love Montreal, thanks to exploring it as a child.

I hadn’t visited Montreal since I was a teenager, long before I used a wheelchair. So when I had the opportunity to explore the city’s accessibility as a panel judge for the Good Housekeeping Family Travel Awards, I jumped at the chance. However, I was a bit anxious about the trip, as I remember plenty of cobblestones in the city’s Old Montreal area. Canada also doesn’t have a federal accessibility law like we do here in the U.S., so I was curious about how much I would be able to see and experience as a wheelchair user. Fortunately, it was quite a bit.

I have spent a lot of time in other major Canadian cities, but Montreal is quite different. I’m lucky that I speak decent French, as it is the primary language here. I would recommend brushing up on your French, as you’re not going to find much English in the signage, and you’re better off saying “hello,” “thank you” and “excuse me” in French to a stranger rather than English. However, everyone at hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions speaks perfect English, so you’ll be fine if you can’t spend some time on Duolingo before your trip.

There are a lot of amazing accessible things to see and do in Montreal, but if your time is limited, here’s my suggestion for how to spend 48 hours in the city.

Day 1

For easy access to Montreal’s bustling downtown and its beautiful historic district, the ultramodern Hotel Monville is a great lodging choice. Robot room service and sweeping panoramic views go with an abundance of accessible rooms to make for a comfy stay with plenty of attractions within rolling distance.

Begin your 48-hour adventure in the city with a professionally guided or self-guided tour of beautiful Old Montreal, just a 15-minute roll from Hotel Monville. Don’t be deterred by the historic nature of this part of town. Yes, there are some cobblestones to deal with, but there are plenty of paved areas to help you get around them as smoothly as possible.

Picturesque squares like Place Vauquelin and Place Jacques-Cartier are surrounded by enough classic architecture to satisfy even the most ambitious sightseer. Don’t miss Montreal’s City Hall, the historic residence Château Ramezay and the Bonsecours Market. Most of the restaurants in the area have a step to enter, but during good weather, many of the outdoor eating areas are accessible and make for a scenic lunch.

The Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History, also known as the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, will take you back to the origins of Montreal, and to the lives of the First Nations people who lived in the area before the founding of the city almost four centuries ago. The museum complex stands above several historic and archaeological sites of national significance, showcasing major periods in the history of Montreal.

Some of the archaeological remains are exposed underneath clear floors that are easy to roll across, and you can roll down the length of an old sewer tunnel underneath the street, lit up with ambient music and lighting effects. There are a few rougher surface areas in the main exhibit, but most are still easily rollable and well worth the small trouble to explore this amazing, award-winning museum.

The stunning Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal is just a short roll from the museum. Completed in 1865, it is regarded as a masterpiece of Gothic revival architecture. Its dramatic interior and stained glass depicting the religious history of Montreal are well worth the visit. Montreal’s Notre Dame receives 11 million visitors every year, only 1 million fewer than Notre Dame in Paris, and after your visit, you’ll understand why it’s so popular. There is a ramp from street level to the basilica level, then flat entry into the basilica itself.

After dinner, return to the Notre-Dame Basilica for a breathtaking sound and light show. The AURA Experience was created by the internationally renowned, immersive multimedia studio Moment Factory, and uses incredible LED projections and music to highlight the basilica interior’s architectural beauty and works of art. The show lasts about half an hour, but you have 15 to 20 minutes before the start of the show to explore the aisles and the illuminated stations. Wheelchair users are admitted roughly five minutes before the general public, and you can take a spot next to the pews anywhere along the main aisle.

Day 2

Kick off Day 2’s adventures about 5 miles north of Hotel Monville at the Montreal Insectarium and Botanical Gardens. It’s less than 30 minutes by car, or you can hop on one of Montreal’s fully wheelchair accessible buses. Also, about half of Montreal’s metro stations are accessible with elevators.

The Insectarium is considered one of the largest insect museums in North America. It houses both live insects — some free-living — and preserved insects that died naturally in their environments, plus a butterfly house, an ant hill and several other engaging enclosures. To say that I am not a fan of insects is an understatement, but this honestly was one of my favorite experiences in Montreal! During a demonstration, I even got to hold an enormous katydid. It was also incredible to see thousands of leaf cutter ants going about their business and staying contained to their branch area. All the exhibits were very easy to roll around in, although there were a few spots in the ant hill area that were a bit dark.

It’s an easy roll next door from the Insectarium to the Montreal Botanical Garden. This urban oasis has more than 22,000 species of plants from every part of the globe, 10 exhibition greenhouses and 20 thematic gardens across 190 acres. It’s considered one of the most important botanical gardens in the world thanks to its extensive collections and facilities. Hit up the Jardín Botanique restaurant for a variety of delicious lunch offerings and snacks to fuel your exploration. If you use a power wheelchair, make sure your battery is fully charged, as you’ll cover a lot of ground through a combination of paved and hard-packed dirt/gravel pathways.

Across the road from the botanical garden and inside the Olympic Park complex is Montreal’s Biodôme. The complex houses five ecosystems of the Americas under one roof, and it truly is like a roll through nature. The name means “house of life,” and it’s one of the few places in the world to reproduce so faithfully the complexity of the national natural environment and the interactions between animal and plant species. You can see penguins, monkeys, fish, frogs and every bird imaginable. The accessibility is fantastic, and there are ramps everywhere so you can thoroughly explore all of the environments.

For a fun final meal within rolling distance of the hotel, Time Out Market is sure to have something you’ll find interesting. The market brings together the best of Montreal’s food scene under one 40,000-square-foot roof. Located inside the Montreal Eaton Centre shopping mall, Time Out Market is a cultural and culinary destination that packs together 15 eateries, seven bars, a cooking school, and cultural spaces for art, installations, music and more. From Spanish to Mediterranean to Asian and more, your taste buds will be very happy here, and it will give you some fuel for last-minute shopping before departing Montreal.

If you’d like more information about accessibility in Montreal and more broadly in the province of Quebec, I strongly recommend reaching out to Kéroul, a nonprofit accessibility consultant for Quebec’s tourism authority. Kéroul works with the city and province to make tourism more accessible for wheelchair users and people with disabilities, and they were incredibly helpful with designing the itinerary for my visit.