Montreal & Quebec logistics

I might be able to help if you tell us what your interests are, and if you are young or not so young. In the meantime, check out Montreal Tourism for ideas.

Edit: Lonely Planet has a Montreal/Quebe guidebook.

We did exactly that in May 2016. We mistakenly made reservations for Quebec but found the hotel was actually in Montreal (one of those "need to read for meaning" moments). We arrived in Quebec, and found the rail station. We checked our bags, and walked around the old Quebec city for a time (we had been there in 1980 or so). We had a charming lunch. We took the train, and it was about 2 hours (memory is not exact). We arrived in the basement of our hotel in Montreal. The return trip to Quebec was equally painless. The train is nice, modern, with a concessionaire cart. A thoroughly enjoyable double city visit, although a little embarrassing.

Hi,

In mid-July 2017 we did almost likewise, flew from SFO to Montreal, connected to Quebec City , (went to see the train station in Quebec City anyway), spent a week there at a nice hotel near the old town, did a ton of walking, ...just great, then flew back via Montreal...all on Air Canada, It was all right if you don't being one hour late on the return flight to SFO.

Quebec City was great. I heartily recommend it if one cannot go to France. The next best thing is Quebec if you're into French language, the French presence in North America, culture, etc. I would go back to Quebec any time as long it is not in the snow. My suggestion is to spend more time in Quebec City than Montreal.

There was another Montreal post recently. I posted about our Montreal/Quebec trip.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/montreal

We had a great trip.

Quebec City does have an international airport but the number of airlines it accommodates is much lower than Trudeau Montreal. Still, it is worth checking if you can use a multi-city destination search function to fly into Montreal and home from QC (or reverse), saving time and perhaps money.
One poster mentioned arriving by train in the "basement" of his/her Montreal hotel. That would be the Queen Elizabeth II, a huge establishment from the mid-20th Century, recently renovated at great cost. It connects to the Bonaventure Metro station. It's also premium priced.

www.restomontreal.ca and www.restoquebec.ca are useful for finding places to eat. Each searches by location, style of cuisine, etc. including BYOB restos, but with limited evaluation of quality. (BYOB = AVV in French)

Most of the provincial offices of tourism have great free travel guides. I’ve found them to be very helpful with planning.

Awesome....we are all in. Thanks for the tips of advise.