Guide to the coziest winter experiences in Montréal

Montréal in winter is well worth the rosy cheeks. Here, winter isn’t feared but embraced, with cozy cafés, restaurants and street markets enticing passersby with steaming-hot chocolate or mulled wine, and ample outdoor activities like ice skating and cross-country skiing. 

While Montréal comes alive in summer with street festivals, you won’t truly get the city and its trademark joie de vivre without visiting when it’s winter. So bundle up in a jacket, hat, scarf and boots and make snow angels in this winter wonderland.

The best things to do 

Montréal is Québec’s arts and festivals capital, with a lifetime of activities to experience any time of year. In winter, you can easily spend most of your time indoors, seeing spectacular performances and artwork, and hopping around to cool cafés, bars and restaurants. But to really embrace the season, get outdoors and take in the crisp air.

Wander around historic Old Montréal

Old Montréal, where the city was founded as a French settlement in 1642, glows with an adorable romantic and French/European charm every winter as fairy lights twinkle over cobblestone streets and from historic stone buildings. The most mesmerizing French-Catholic monument is Notre-Dame Basilica – come at night for a cinematically soundtracked light show called AURA. You’ll find plenty of cozy shops and restaurants to step into on Saint-Paul Street, too, like Maison Local and Dinette Marcella. 

Old Montréal’s visitor focal point is Place Jacques-Cartier. There, visit an urban cabane à sucre (sugar shack) serving hot chocolate and maple syrup taffy rolled in snow. Nearby, the giant Ferris wheel, La Grande Roue de Montréal, hosts arguably the best winter sunset in the city.

Get out in the snow at Mount Royal Park

One of Montréal’s best features is its number of public parks, which in winter become beloved meeting places to ice skate, go for a walk, toboggan down a hill or make snowmen. Smack in the center of the city, Mount Royal Park, located within the boundaries of the mountain that’s the city’s namesake, is a great place to start. Walk up the winding pack to Kondiaronk lookout for the best viewpoint over snow-dusted Montréal – see if you can spot the mural of locally-born music legend Leonard Cohen over Crescent St. 

Mount Royal Park is also home to the Beaver Lake ice skating rink. Rent skates from Pavillon du Lac-aux-Castors (Beaver Lake Pavilion) and zip around the refrigerated rink. Or rent cross-country skis and explore Mount Royal Park’s 100km trail network.

Hit the spa

With all that playing outside, you’ll want to soothe those aching muscles. Do so at Bota Bota, spa-sur-l'eau. As the name suggests, this Scandinavian spa is on a boat (a former ferry from the 1950s and 60s) parked at the Old Port. Viewing the snowy city from the hot pool is an unparalleled Montréal experience. Hotel Place D’Armes and Strom Spa on Île-des-Sœurs also have excellent spas. Stop in at Maison Margan and pick up some of the shop's natural skincare products for your chapped lips and rosy cheeks. 

Savor Montréal’s top-notch cuisine 

Various rounds of immigrants throughout the 20th century transformed Montréal’s food scene, gifting the city its own local dishes. Taste Montréal-style bagels hot from the wood oven at St-Viateur or Fairmount – it’s a local pastime to debate which Mile End bagel shop is better. Or stretch your jaw over a giant smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz’s Deli, another institution started by Jewish immigrants. Montréal is also known for charcoal-flamed Portuguese-style chicken and poutine (French fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy) – try them together in one ooey-gooey dish at Ma Poule Mouillée.

And you’ll find tasty, affordable Asian cuisine in Montréal’s small-but-mighty Chinatown. A noodle soup from Nouilles de Lan Zhou is a perfect way to warm up in winter.

Or warm up with a hot cup of coffee from Crew Collective Café, located in a jaw-dropping former bank building. If tea’s more your thing, head to Charyū par Thés Guru.

Lately, Montréal restaurants have been winning award after award. Try one of the city’s new Michelin-starred restaurants – Mastard, Sabayon and Jérome Ferrer Europea all have one. Or check out one of the most buzzworthy new restaurants, Le Violon.

Warm up inside a museum or art gallery 

Montréal is home to nearly 50 museums and galleries with outstanding collections. For history buffs, get an overview of roughly 5000 years of local history at the Pointe-à-Callière museum. Or take a peek into the lifestyle of an upper-class family in the early 20th century at Château Dufresne.

For art-lovers, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts is jam-packed with Canadian, international and Indigenous art over five connected buildings downtown. Or visit non-profit gallery La Guilde for art at the cutting edge.

For another kind of cozy night indoors, try one of the many award-winning cocktail bars of Montréal or hit the Casino de Montréal where you can play at the interactive installation ARCADE, enjoy a show at the Cabaret du Casino or have a nice supper.

My favorite thing to do in Montréal in winter

Montrealers embrace winter by going outside rather than spending the entire season hunkered down inside watching tv. This attitude is epitomized by Igloofest, an electronic music festival held January 15 to February 7 in the Old Port. Bounce around to top international and local DJs outside. And don’t forget your neon snowsuit onesie! 

For a more tranquil experience, walk around Quartier des Spectacles in February and March to play with the interactive light exhibits at LUMINO (November 27 to March 6). MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE is the big show – an annual winter festival (In 2026 it runs from February 27-March 6) celebrating creativity through light installations, live performances and food.