Montreal Mount Royal Walking Tour: A Self-Guided Route Up the City Mountain

Montreal takes its name from the green mountain at its heart, Mount Royal, a beloved forested park rising above the downtown towers to a lookout with the finest view of the whole city and the river beyond. If you are planning a walking tour in Canada that climbs from the city into nature, this Montreal self guided walking tour rises from the downtown squares through the grand old university and elegant avenues into the woods of the mountain, ending at the famous chalet lookout and the great illuminated cross at the summit. It is a walk that trades skyscrapers for forest trails, rewarding the gentle climb with one of the great urban panoramas of North America.

Before you set off, prepare for a climb. This walk covers about six kilometers and takes around two and a half hours, flat through the city but with a steady uphill pull through the park to the lookout, so wear proper walking shoes and bring water on a warm day. The reward is the best view in Montreal, so it is worth the effort. Late afternoon into early evening is a lovely time to climb, reaching the lookout for the golden light and the city lights coming on. If you are following along by audio, take the hill at your own pace, keep your eyes up as the views open, watch for cyclists on the shared park roads, and pause as often as you like on the way up to catch your breath and the scenery.

Place du Canada

You begin at Place du Canada, a large green square on the edge of downtown, part of a grand open space of lawns and monuments framed by soaring office towers, a fine place to start before you turn your steps toward the mountain. Stand among the trees and monuments and take in the contrast, the calm green square with its war memorial and statues set against the gleaming glass and stone towers of the modern city rising all around. Nearby stands a great domed cathedral modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, a surprising sight among the skyscrapers. This is the bustling heart of the modern city, your starting point at its feet. Take in the square, the monuments and the towers. Then head north and uphill, walking up through the downtown streets toward the historic campus of one of the country's great universities, its grounds climbing the lower slopes of the mountain.

McGill University

McGill University spreads across the lower slopes of the mountain, a historic campus of grey stone buildings and green lawns that feels like a peaceful enclave within the busy downtown, its grand old college halls framed by mature trees. Walk in through the main gates and up the tree-lined avenue toward the original college building at the top, passing students crossing the lawns, and take in the dignified old architecture, ivy-clad and venerable, one of the oldest and most respected universities in the country. The campus climbs the hillside, so that as you walk up through it you begin to gain height and glimpse the towers of downtown behind you. It is a green and scholarly threshold to the mountain. Take in the old college buildings and the leafy grounds. Then leave the campus and head west along a grand avenue lined with mansions and museums, skirting the base of the mountain.

Rue Sherbrooke

Rue Sherbrooke is one of the grandest avenues in Montreal, a long, elegant street running along the foot of the mountain, lined in this stretch with fine mansions, luxury shops, art galleries and the city's major fine arts museum, a district that was once home to the wealthy elite. Stroll along the handsome avenue and take in the grand old greystone and brick mansions, some now serving as consulates, clubs and museums, recalling the era when this was the address of the city's richest families. The fine arts museum spreads across several elegant buildings here, its collections free to browse in part. The avenue has a stately, cultured air. Take in the mansions and the grand museum facades. Then turn uphill toward the mountain itself, heading for one of the main gateways into the great park that crowns it, where the city streets give way to forest paths.

Mount Royal Park Entrance

The Mount Royal Park Entrance marks the threshold where the city ends and the mountain park begins, a gateway into the large forested park designed by the same landscape architect who created New York's Central Park. Pass through the entrance and feel the change at once, the traffic and pavement giving way to winding paths, tall trees and birdsong, the temperature dropping a little in the shade of the woods. Before you, paths climb into the forest, some gently switchbacking, others rising more directly toward the summit. The park was deliberately designed to feel like wild nature close to the city, a green refuge for all. Take in the leafy gateway and the paths climbing ahead. Then begin the climb in earnest, choosing the more direct set of stairs and paths that lead most steeply and quickly up toward the lookout, a path well known to generations of Montrealers.

Peel Path

The Peel Path is one of the classic routes up the mountain, a steep trail and set of long staircases that climbs directly through the forest toward the summit lookout, the quickest and most rewarding way to gain the height. Begin the ascent, and as you climb the wooden and stone steps through the trees, the city sounds fade and the forest closes around you, the effort warming your legs. There are landings and benches along the way where you can pause, catch your breath, and glimpse the towers of downtown appearing between the trees below. Joggers and hikers share the path, treating it as the city's favorite outdoor staircase. It is a genuine climb, but a satisfying one. Take the steps at your own pace, pausing at the landings for the growing views. Near the top, the path emerges from the woods before a grand stone building set on a wide terrace, the mountain's famous lookout pavilion.

Mount Royal Chalet

The Mount Royal Chalet is a grand stone pavilion near the summit, a handsome building with a great hall used for gatherings, standing at the edge of the mountain's most famous terrace, and reaching it means the hardest of the climb is behind you. Walk up to the chalet and, if it is open, step inside to see the large rustic hall with its high ceiling, decorated with paintings of scenes from the city's history and supported by squirrels carved into the beams. But the real draw lies just in front of the building, on the wide stone terrace that opens onto the great view. The chalet is a welcome place to rest at the top of the climb. Take in the grand hall and step out toward the terrace. Then walk to the edge of that terrace, the celebrated lookout that gives the whole climb its purpose, and prepare for the view.

Kondiaronk Belvedere

The Kondiaronk Belvedere is the great lookout of Mount Royal, a wide stone terrace before the chalet that offers the single finest view in Montreal, the whole city spread out far below, the downtown towers, the grid of streets, and the great river curving away beyond. Walk to the stone balustrade and take in the panorama, the skyscrapers of downtown rising directly beneath you, the river gleaming past the city and its islands, and on a clear day the distant hills and even the mountains far across the plain. This is the classic view of Montreal, the one on every postcard, and the terrace is always full of people gazing out, taking photographs, and simply drinking in the sight they climbed for. Give yourself time here to trace your whole route far below. Then follow the path a short way through the woods to the summit, where a great steel cross stands over the mountain and the city.

Mount Royal Cross

You finish at the Mount Royal Cross, a great steel cross standing high on the summit of the mountain, illuminated at night so that it glows over the whole city, marking the spot where the city's founder is said to have planted a wooden cross in gratitude nearly four centuries ago. Walk up to the base of the towering cross among the trees at the top of the mountain and take in its scale and its meaning, a landmark visible for miles that has watched over Montreal for generations, glowing white above the city each night. The summit is quiet and wooded, a peaceful and contemplative place after the effort of the climb and the crowds at the lookout. The cross links the modern city to its earliest days. Stand beneath it and take in the calm of the summit. Standing here at the top of the mountain that gives the city its name is a fitting and quietly triumphant place to end.

Why Mount Royal Is Worth the Climb

Reaching the cross, you have climbed from the downtown squares through the historic university and the grand avenues into the forest of Mount Royal, up to its famous lookout and its illuminated summit cross. Walking it is the only way to experience the mountain as Montrealers do, because the reward of the great view only means something once you have earned it with the climb through the woods, feeling the city fall away beneath you step by step. On foot you sense how close the wild and the urban sit in this city, forest trails a short climb from glass towers, and you notice the pleasures that reward the effort, birdsong replacing traffic, the towers glimpsed between the trees, the whole city and river laid out from a stone terrace. If you would like company for the next walk, open the Walk With Me map to find other walkers out exploring the city right now.