Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Montreal

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used this guidebook while visiting Montreal in summer 2001 and had no problems at all. As to be expected from Lonely Planet, the color maps at the back are great and the three walking tours really give you a feel for the city. The restaurant list was excellent, especially an extended section on Montreal's famous bagels. There was a large chapter on excursions from Montreal, which included Ottawa, Quebec City and the Laurentian mountains among other places. All the standard Lonely Planet bits on history, culture, arts and religion were very informing; best was the little section on Canadian French where I learned to say "y'est quelle heure" instead of "quelle heure est-il."

The only complaint I could have was the lack of a map of the underground shopping city, which we found confusing to navigate, even with the map provided by the tourist authority. Otherwise it's as good a guidebook to Montreal as you're likely to find anywhere.

i picked this book out of the ones at the bookstore b/c i liked the look of it: good number of pictures, good maps (inc. a map of the metro which most other books didn't seem to have), good info. -however-, a huge drawback to this book is its poor organization. if you're looking at one of the street maps in the book, the landmarks, etc. aren't marked by page number, so you have to look up the landmark in the index (which they have separated into food, accomodations, sites instead of all together, which proved to be very annoying), and then flip back to the page in the book. also, the book is organized again according to categories (food, sites, shopping, etc.) instead of by area, so if you're trying to build a list of things to do in one part of the city you have to keep flipping back and forth from the maps to the indices to the book, which is a huge effort that could've been fixed w/ better planning. this is really too bad, b/c o/w it has a lot of good info. next time i'm def. getting a book by a diff. company.

I find Lonely Planet guidebooks the most practically useful of all travel guidebooks. I find the Montreal/Quebec City to be definitely no exception. Just the maps in the book make it extremely worthwhile...no other maps are needed. Interviews with Montreal/Quebec City residents provide informative and real insider information about the cities, as do sections on history, culture and the arts. Information is adequately up-to-date. I highly recommend this book for anyone making a trip to one or both of the cities.

Went to Montreal for the first time in August 2008. This guide does a great job of letting you know about activities off the beaten path. For example, every Sunday in the summer there is a drum jam by the University in a park by the hill (it's called the tam tam jam). It's like Woodstock and totally made the trip for me. No other guide book discussed it, but this one did.

I spent a month in Montreal to study French and used this book to explore the city. It lead me to some cool places that I would not have found otherwise and gave me good insight into the neighborhoods. By going to the recommended bagel shops, I discovered Mile End, my favorite place in the city. I also found the recommended breweries to be worthwhile. Overall this was worth the money.

This book is very poorly organized, the "French dictionary" contained no useful phrases, and the maps were terrible!! I would definitely choose something more comprehensive & buy a separate city map.

I'm impressed by the amount of detail, all the stories and know-hows have matched to what a well traveled friend says of Montreal.
Highlights dinning, lodging, and sites for each section of the city.

This guide proved to be very helpful, informative and insightful for my recent 9 day trip. Nicely organized and up to date material.

We found the basic info fine, but we had problems with maps missing info or even addresses being wrong.

Just returned from MTL and QUEBEC. Excellent book, we used it the entire time. Very helpful maps, interesting thoughts on Politics. Just know that Cafe Esperanza is closer to the Lauriel rather than Rosemont Metro. Also, when you go, be sure to check out the Charlevoix region. Thanks Eilis, great job!!