10 Things that Make Montréal Shine

We’ve been telling you for years: Montréal is an amazing place to visit. With world-class dining, accommodations, festivals, museums and heritage sites, enhanced with four distinct seasons and sexy French charm, our city consistently ranks among the world’s best.

Naming all our successes could take a while, so we’ve narrowed down the list to a cool round-up of 10 media nominations that rank Montréal among the world’s hottest travel destinations. Since we’ve come out on top in such a diverse range of categories—including some that will surprise you (check out #7!)—we know that Montréal offers something for everyone. See which features will tickle your fancy, then go ahead and book your ticket.

Here are just 10 things that put Montréal in the limelight:

1.  Best Winter Destinations

National Geographic, December 2014

“Montréal is at its most magical blanketed in snow. Bundle up, get outside, and celebrate winter at the 16th MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, the city’s biggest winter arts, music, and food festival. Save some energy for the final night’s Nuit Blanche à Montréal, a dusk-to-dawn party packed with more than 200 indoor and outdoor activities. Most events are free, and some are held under the stars or, if you’re lucky, the lightly falling snow.”

2. Best Music Festivals – Osheaga

Montréal Blog, December 2014

“Festivals are pretty much what Montréal is all about, and the city knows how to throw a solid festival. One of Montréal’s most well-known annual celebrations has proven that latter fact, with Osheaga named the second best festival in all of the world by Fest300.

3. Best Underground Walks – Underground City
National Geographic – November 2014

“Take one of the 120 entrances into the largest man-made underground network in the world. About 500,000 people a day use its 20 miles (32 kilometers) of shopping malls, hotels, banks, offices, museums, and universities; there are also metro and train stations, a bus terminal, and an ice-hockey arena.”

4. Coolest Film Fest – Fantasia
MovieMaker, November 2014

“At a whopping 22 days (just shy of Seattle’s 25) Fantasia is one of the bigger fests on this list, regularly attracting more than 100,000 attendees. The North American ground zero of the Asian genre film scene, the fest launched director Takashi Miike to the world stage back in 1997, and he’s been a godfather-like presence ever since. Also, genre fans are nice: As one panelist tells it, ‘the programmers are lovely and passionate and slather you with hospitality, and the audiences are insane. They are huge and inquisitive and super-interactive.’”

5. Best Cycling City
Copenhagnize, October 2014

“By long tradition one of the few North American cities in these sorts of lists, Montréal began constructing bike paths in the 1980s and now has almost 400 miles of them. The addition of its popular and pioneering Bixi municipal bike-share plan, the model for those later rolled out in Paris and London, has meant a remarkable amount of cycle use, especially for a place where daytime winter temperature above 10 C (50 F) is viewed as dangerously tropical.”

6. Best Nightlife

CNN, October 2014

“Montréal is the undiscovered party gem of North America. Beautiful, friendly people, all night dancing to a wide variety of music. And, of course, the summer festivals.”

7. Best Cemetery – Mount Royal

Travel and Leisure, October 2014

“Founded in 1852, Mount Royal Cemetery is one of the oldest rural cemeteries in North America. Its 165 acres are meticulously maintained, with gardens, more than 100 species of trees, and plenty of trails to explore. You can sign up for an organized tour of the ornate Victorian and Gothic tombs, or enlist an audio guide.”