Halloween in Montreal (plus general Quebec travel advice)

In My Humble Opinion
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(Yep, another travel advice thread. I’ll stop starting them when you lot stop being stupendously helpful.)

Tired of yet another year of laboring for hours on meticulously crafted costumes only to end up embodying the phrase “all dressed up with no place to go”, my friend and I have decided to venture north this year, and do Halloween French-Canadian style in beautiful Montréal. Then, since we’re going to be there for five days, I decided I’d like to show him around Québec in general.

A bit about us: we’re both 26, nerdy (more of a gaming/computer/science flavor of geekery than the arts/literature/history type), and enjoy going off the beaten path for interesting sights and experiences even if there’s nothing of note to your average tourist there — one of our most memorable trips was a two-day jaunt through the more obscure parts of Delaware. From interesting architecture, to cool holes-in-the-wall, to just-plain-bizarre-shit, we’ll gladly go out of our way to see or do something new.

Now, regarding Halloween itself, we’re just after the standard-issue good time. Booze, costumes, happy people, festive goings-on. Our base of operations will be the Hotel Place Des Arts on Sherbrooke West, right next to downtown. I figure from here, we’ll have a lot more trouble NOT finding what we’re after than otherwise.

I’m familiar with the layout of the city — I grew up in nearby Plattsburgh and spent a good bit of time in Montreal as a child/teenager — but I haven’t been back for any length of time since adulthood, so I don’t know the real “fun spots”. So, that’s my first question. Any can’t-miss party central locations for two enterprising young men? (And, while I can’t imagine how THIS could be relevant, we’re both single heterosexual males. :D)

Next up, there’s…well, that’s my next question; what is there? In Quebec, that is. I’ve been to Old Quebec City a couple of times, and fully intend to head up there for a day or so, but apart from that, I’ve got nothing specific in mind. We both hate set schedules, so I want to make sure we have plenty of options for things to do each day…and we like random wandering/driving about, so location isn’t much of a factor. Cities, districts, specific places; whatever ya got, if it’s in Quebec and you think we should see it, by all means toss it out there! (I speak enough French to get by, so no worries on that front either.)

So, with that, please make with the advice. Any and all suggestions are welcomed. Merci bien!

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Whether or not you’re straight would make a difference - I assume the crowd in the Village will be quite different than the one on the Main or Crescent!

Your hotel is just a couple of blocks (very easy walk…blocks are short in Montreal!) from Boulevard Saint Laurent (aka the Main), one of the main bar streets in the city. It tends to be somewhat trendy and the crowd may be a bit more francophone than on Crescent street, which is walkable from where you are, but I recommend taking the bus instead. Just hop on the 24 (at the bus stop across the street from your hotel, not the one outside the door, $2.75 one way, or you can buy passes for less)) and ask the bus driver to let you off at Crescent. Or just follow the crowd of drunken, costumed people. Crescent tends to be a little more university-crowd and anglophone, IME. If you happen to be interested in the Village, then walk down the hill to St. Catherine and start walking east. You can’t miss it.

I saw a poster for a Rocky Horror show on a post at McGill, but I didn’t retain where it was. There are probably more than one such events happening in Montreal.

I usually do the party-at-a-friends-house thing for Hallowe’en, so I can’t really give you more suggestions than that!

As for the rest of the province, there’s a ton of things to do and it all depends on what you want! If you want to go to Quebec City, I’m sure you know it’s a good 2.5 hour drive from Montreal, so there might be a few things worth doing on the drive up. Bonjour Quebec might be able to give you suggestions. Local tourist attractions are often advertised on blue road signs seen here. Just go to random ones, I guess!

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Good advice, mnemosyne, thanks. I do know there are a ton (and a half, and another couple tons on top of that) of things to do in Quebec — many of them well between Montreal and Quebec City — and that’s what makes the filtration process difficult, hence the request for opinions! Never fear; with nary a response to this thread, I’ll have plenty of items on the list…my goal here is, if anything, to narrow it down!

Basically, I’m looking to a crowd of (relatively) like-minded folks for favorites and memorable places. Living in Montreal, I’m sure you have your preferences…care to toss out a thing or two? :slight_smile:

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Ah, but I’m a boring old married student who doesn’t go out much!

We are fans of beer, though, so if that’s something you like, there are plenty of micro-breweries in and around the city. McAuslan is well known, but there are plenty of others. I like going to Dieu du Ciel on Laurier near St Laurent. 3 Brasseurs makes good beer, and they have a couple of locations right downtown. Furquet Fourchette is a restaurant with Unibroue beer. Brutopia, Benelux…all good stuff (we aren’t picky). For good food and an expansive beer menu both on tap and in bottles, Bieres et Compagine on St Denis is awesome, as is Bistro des Bieres Belges (though it’s unfortunately on the South Shore).

If you’re a sports fan at all (hubby and I are), and if you can score tickets, you might try and catch a Habs game. Even just watching one in a sports bar is a lot of fun. The Alouettes will be playing at home on the 1st of November, if you want to catch a CFL game (and if you can find tickets). QMJHL hockey is fun too.

Most of my favourite places are more date-night things, like cute little restaurants my husband and I enjoy. As I said, I’m a bit of a boring person, and I don’t really do the touristy stuff! I love shopping downtown!

It’s unlikely that there will be enough snow for skiing, but there are a ton of mountains to hike in Quebec if you enjoy that. Or simply go walking around on Mont Royal and enjoy the view of the downtown!

If its still open, doing something like Arbre-en-Arbre (Tree-go) can be fun in the fall. I’ve been to the one in Drummondville in late October and had a blast, though I think the one in Lac Megantic would be better. I don’t know the other ones at all.

Isn’t it odd how I manage to never be all that bored here, and yet I can’t really seem to figure out what’s fun to do in this city?