Spring break is meant for relaxation, rest, and rejuvenation. This spring break, I chose to do this, only a couple hours away in beautiful Montreal, Quebec. My sister had gone to Montreal for her spring break and insisted I also go this year.
Seeing everyone jet off to sunny places like Florida and the Caribbean made me a little jealous, but I was thankful to be able to go anywhere for spring break. I had never been to Canada before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was met with a beautiful city with very friendly people. I didn’t realize that in Montreal people primarily speak French, so in every store we entered, we were greeted with “Bonjour!” My friends and I then proceeded to give them the most confused look ever, and that’s how they immediately knew we were not from Montreal. Everyone spoke English as well, so there was no language barrier whatsoever.
This made the city feel very European. It felt like I was in France, although I was only around four hours away from school which was so cool and convenient. This also made the trip significantly more affordable than a trip requiring a plane would have been. A plane ticket is typically the largest cost when going on a trip, so having that excluded from the mix made planning the trip so easy.
The city itself was so beautiful, and there were a ton of activities to do. There was an outdoor skating rink in the middle of the city for people who like to be active, shops scattered for people who love to shop (including myself), and museums and iconic historical buildings for people who like art. What’s so awesome about this is that there is something for everyone to do. I went with a group of four, and each of these activities fulfilled our to-do list for the trip.
I highly recommend going to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I am that kid who was forced to go to museums by my parents in every city we traveled to, and I can genuinely say this is one of the coolest museums I have ever visited. A notable fact is that this museum is the largest museum in Canada by gallery space. Their art shifted from large to colorful to simple.
The social scene was also a ton of fun. The restaurants were lively, entertaining and so amusing. One night we had a jazz band perform right in front of our table. Every single person we met was also so noticeably friendly. I related Montreal to France because of the abundance of French being spoken, but they were also very different. I have been to France on multiple occasions and the people, while not rude, tend not to go out of their way to be nice to tourists. This identifies the main difference between Montreal and France. One day we went to a store and were casually talking to one of the employees, who turned out to be a McGill student and she ended up giving us a whole list of things to do in Montreal. We ended up going to some of the restaurants she had recommended and they were amazing. Montreal was an affordable, accessible, alternative to flying somewhere for spring break, and I would do spring break there again, no doubt.
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