September long weekend my HB and I, plus two of our friends, went on a trip to Montreal, and finally, several weeks later, I’ve gone through our expenses to see how much it cost us. Usually when we travel, we have a specific budget that we keep in mind.
It’s usually lost and never too strict, but always a number we’re comfortable with. For this trip, we really didn’t want to spend too much money but at the same time not feel constricted in our choices of food or entertainment. Luckily food was also the entertainment on our trip and looking at the final numbers, we actually did pretty okay on having fun while still being frugal. Here’s what we spent on our 3-day trip to Montreal.
Since there was so much to see in Montreal, we spent most of our trip walking around and exploring different neighborhoods. That and of course eating our faces off. Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten so much good food! To be fair, we did research the best places to eat in town, but seriously, the smoked meat sandwiches at Schwatz’s were amazing! We did have to wait in line for about 20 minutes, it was well worth it.
The hotdogs we had for lunch (or steamies if you will) at the Montreal Pool Room were my least Favorite meal of the whole trip, but they were still pretty good. I guess I couldn’t get over the idea of steamed hot dog buns. It just seems wrong. That and the place was in a pretty sketchy neighborhood and the whole time I was praying our car wasn’t being broken into.
It was definitely cool to see Montreal for a second time, this visit as an adult. Last time I was about 14 and stayed with family the whole time. Although there were a lot of landmarks that I remembered seeing on my first trip, the city sure has changed since I saw it last.
It may have just been the areas we explored (we stayed at a hotel in the downtown core and walked almost everywhere we went), but there sure were a lot of pockets that seemed a bit rundown, at least compared to Toronto’s downtown. There were also a lot of homeless people walking the streets, which made me realized how few I see at home.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this on the blog, but Montreal was actually one of the city’s my HB and I were considering moving to. A few friends from university moved there and loved it, and there’s a huge arts and music scene there. After visiting there for just a weekend, it sure did reaffirm our choice of moving to Toronto.
Not only would the language barrier be a big issue (I speak French, but my HB doesn’t), the economy in Montreal isn’t as booming as Toronto. Honestly, I feel like if we’d moved there, we probably would have moved back home within 6 months.
Any who, my next trip is to be exciting New Orleans! I leave this Wednesday and will be there for 4 nights. The last trip I did completely solo was about 4 years ago to attend the Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan.
I know there will be a ton of familiar faces at the conference, but it is a bit nerve-wracking traveling alone to a foreign place. Since I will be away all week, I won’t have any other posts for this week. But I can’t wait to come back with a wealth of knowledge to share with all of you!
