I have done several weekend trips from Montreal over this summer. I truly enjoyed summer in and out of Montreal! Now that it is winter, here is a glimpse of everything I have done:

Weekend Trips from Montreal: New York State to see Ausable Chasm and Plattsburgh and then to Burlington, Vermont

These points of interest are not far weekend trips from Montreal. 2 hours drive maybe. We went to the Chasm first and walked around. It is run by a private organization. There are a few walking trails, but nothing so strenuous, this being said, people with limited mobility will have a difficult time. We did the basic/standard pass, which allowed all normal walking trails (there was an “Adventure one” that had walking on ropes and climbing etc) and a small raft ride down the river. The raft took less than 10 minutes, but it was cute. Bring shoes that can get wet or dry super fast as there is a lot of water in the raft! We took our shoes off so they would remain dry for the rest of the day. We then had lunch at Plattsburgh and from there took a little ferry to Burlington where we saw the sunset.

Weekend Trips from Montreal: Mount Tremblant to see the famous ski slopes in the summer and a resort at Auberge du Lac Morency

Mount Tremblant was really beautiful and they had a blues music festival going on. There’s a ski lift in the middle of the village that you stand on. It is paid to go up, but free to go down so we walked up and then took the lift down. They also offer a toboggan or luge track, but that was super expensive in my opinion. It was very beautiful in this area. Auberge du Lac Morency was peaceful as well, but many Northern Americans.

Weekend Trips from Montreal: Quebec city to see the music festival: FEQ or Festival de l’Ete de Quebec (Summer Festival in Quebec).

I was so looking forward to going to this festival since March when I first heard about it. We got an Airbnb a bit outside of city center (an hour walk, 20 minutes by bus-ish). We got to explore Quebec city as well, walking the streets, eating poutine from Chez Ashton- apparently a must do. I also got to see 2 small waterfalls and a little beach that were really nice. The only sad part was, the major band we were looking forward to seeing (Imagine Dragons) got rained out (a bit ironic since they have 2 songs that are about rain/thunder/storms) so we only heard 2 of their songs out of an hour plus performance. We did get to see Blink 182 and The Offsprings, which was cool.

Weekend Trips from Montreal: Camping in Jericho Mountain State Park in New Hampshire and drove up Mount Washington

This particular weekend trips from Montreal was super hot! We really struggled with the cooler and ice. It just melted so fast. We went to New Hampshire for several reasons:

  • We wanted to drive up Mount Washington
  • New Hampshire was cheaper to camp than Quebec
  • We really like the States and wanted to go again
  • We wanted Dunkin Donuts haha

Mount Washington is the highest mountain on the East coast and is part of the Appalachin Trail. You might recall me mentioning this trail before when I was writing about my first biking trip on the Transamerican Trail. This trail, AT, is a hiking trail usually done from Georgia north due to weather conditions.

We could have hiked up the mountain, but we heard so much about driving that we drove instead. At the top, it is significantly colder than the base so bring a jacket! Apparently it also has the worse weather conditions on average so many outdoor products are tested there. For one car and adult it is $31, each additional adult is $9. This includes an audio CD tour guide, a bumper stick saying your car has survived, and some other fun fact papers. It also includes entrance to the “museum,” which is really a small exhibit on the mountain and observatory. It was nice and informative, but small.

Besides this, we did some smaller hikes that lead up to different waterfalls in the area :)

The campground we stayed at had a little lake beach that was lovely to swim in especially during this hot weekend.

Also, I played tour guide to all the cheap stores the USA has to offer: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Family Dollar to name a few haha.

Weekend Trips from Montreal: Boston and Rhode Island

I actually went twice as weekend trips from Montreal to Boston over the nice weather of Montreal. First time was a friend of mine’s going away party so we drove South again to participate. I got to play tour guide in one of my favorite cities, which was a lot of fun! In Rhode Island, we toured Newport-seeing all the old mansions from the railroad tycoon days and stopped by the beach for a bit. In Boston, we visited the top sights- North End, the Commons, some of the Freedom Trail, Fenway, etc. The second time, I had my host mom and aunt from Argentina come to visit me and again played tour guide, but in Spanish! I also got to see one of my favorite Latino artists in concert- Maluma!

Weekend Trips from Montreal: New York City

Due to how the roads are laid out, it is actually the same distance weekend trips from Montreal as Boston. After my second trip in Boston, I took the bus down to New York- a 4 hour trip without traffic (aka don’t go during rush hour times because it could be over 7 hours). We visited some friends as well as the classic tourist sights: Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, the bull on Wall Street, etc. Then we drove back to Montreal.

Around Montreal, countryside

Throughout the summer we went for weekend trips from Montreal and explored Montreal’s countryside. So about an hour or so drive from the city. Not so far! I got to do some hikes, which was marvelous! We also went camping at the National Park of Mauricie and did a hike and canoe trip. It was very beautiful.

I’m looking forward to more weekend trips from Montreal! This time- winter! Get ready for ski and skating season!

weekend trips from Montreal
Bridge entering Montreal at night