On this week’s episode of the RV Atlas podcast we are excited to welcome Gretchen Holcombe from Boxy Colonial on the Road back on the show to talk about her big summer RV trip to Quebec.  Her family stayed at the Montreal South KOA Journey and enjoyed several days in the most European of Canada’s great cities. To listen to Jeremy interview Gretchen please click on the media player above or subscribe to the RV Atlas wherever you get your shows. Or read on below for a guest post from Gretchen.

People often tout Montreal as “the most European of North American cities,” and indeed a walk along the cobblestone in the older parts of the city can make you feel like you’ve been transported both across the ocean and back in time. But Montreal also feels vibrantly modern and distinctly Canadian, and its location means it’s within easy driving distance for people in much of the US and Canada. Our family spent a few days in Montreal this past summer as part of a longer Canadian road trip, and we all left loving Montreal and wishing we could stay longer. We stayed at the Montreal South KOA Journey and it was a very good basecamp for our Canadian adventure.

The Montreal South KOA Journey is 15 miles from the city and bills itself as the closest campground to Montreal. It’s big rig-friendly and easy to access from the highway. As first-time visitors to Quebec (and non-French speakers), we appreciated the friendly and helpful bilingual staff. 

The sites are mostly a grid of standard gravel pull-throughs, but there are a good number of trees for shade and decent separation between the sites. Everything at this KOA is beautifully done and well-maintained: the bathrooms are nicely decorated and sparkling clean, there’s a small but lovely pool at the front of the campground, and the huge patio sites are probably the nicest I’ve ever seen. Sites start at around $70CAD for a basic pull-through and go up to over $100 for those patio sites. 

The biggest thing to think about with urban RVing, though, is always how to actually get into the city to see the sites. The drive into Montreal from the KOA can be less than 30 minutes, depending on when you go. We did make the drive once, but we found both parking and traffic to be big challenges, so we did most of our travel via Montreal’s excellent public transportation system. There are a few different subway and rail stations within easy striking distance of the KOA; we made the 20 minute drive to the REM Brossard Station and took the new light rail from there into the city. There’s plenty of surface parking at this station, the trains are clean and comfortable, and, as a bonus, you get wonderful views of the St. Lawrence River and Montreal’s skyline as you approach the city. 

This impressive neo-gothic cathedral in the heart of Old Montreal dates to 1824 and is a must see for first time visitors to the city. It’s open to visitors for self-guided tours during the day and at night becomes a canvas for “the AURA Experience” light and music show. Our attempt to attend the nighttime show was thwarted by a power outage in the area, but we very much enjoyed gawking at the impressive art and architecture by day. The entire area is worth spending time exploring; Old Montreal is the part of the city that feels the most European, with its old buildings and cobblestone streets. It’s always busy, and there’s always something going on; we found public art and live music everywhere we turned. 

Pointe-a-calliere, Montreal’s museum of archaeology and history, might just be the coolest museum I’ve ever been to. It’s built on the site where the city’s first European settlers lived in the 17th Century, and the museum’s first level allows you to actually walk through the preserved archaeological remnants of the old city and see evidence of how it changed throughout its early history. Another exhibit preserves the remains of Fort Ville-Marie, the actual spot where the city was founded as a Catholic mission, under a glass floor that visitors can walk across. There’s an excellent multi-media show (in French and English) about the history of Montreal. Our eleven year old loved the immersive, hands-on “Pirates or Privateers” exhibit. And make sure to end your visit by going to the top of the museum’s tower for awesome views of the city. 

Montreal has a world-class botanical garden with twenty themed gardens to explore. We especially enjoyed the bonsai collection and koi pond in the Japanese Garden and the highly Instagrammable lake with bridges and a waterfall in the Chinese Garden. 

Montreal’s maze-like art museum sprawls across a few different buildings, some connected via underground hallways. It’s Canada’s largest art museum and a great place to spend a few hours. We definitely didn’t get to all of it, but we saw a special exhibit on Flemish masterworks as well as checking out the extensive collection of Canadian art and a fun pop art gallery. 

One could devote an entire vacation to exploring Montreal’s food scene, and sadly we didn’t get to sample as much as we’d have liked, but we did enjoy brunch one day at Maggie Oakes in the Old Port area. They have a great patio overlooking Place Jacques-Cartier, perfect for people-watching (and the food was good, too!) And then, just around the corner from the Museum of Fine Arts, we stopped in at Burger Bar Crescent, where the menu features some creative burger, poutine, and mac and cheese choices. Not as much people watching here, but it does have a great view of a giant painting of Montreal’s own Leonard Cohen on the side of the nearby building.

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