The Best Day Trips from Montreal, With the Transport Actually Checked

The 10 best day trips, ranked

Ordered by how well they repay a full day - factoring travel time, what you can actually see, and how easy they are without a car.

1. 
   1

   Quebec City

   The one unmissable trip

   270 km northeast · ~3 h 15 min by train or coach

   The only walled city north of Mexico: Petit-Champlain's funicular lanes, the Chateau Frontenac above the St Lawrence, the Plains of Abraham and street performers all summer. It is a long day - the first train out and a 20:00 return give you seven-plus hours in the old town, which is enough to fall for it and start planning the overnight.

   Getting there: VIA Rail runs about five trains a day from Central Station to Quebec City's Gare du Palais, averaging 3 h 19 min - book online early, since fares are dynamic and the good buckets go first. Orleans Express coaches match the time downtown-to-downtown with 15 departures a day from 6:00 to 22:00, from CAD 25 booked about a week out. Driving takes 2 h 45 min to 3 h on the A-20 or A-40.

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2. 
   2

   Ottawa

   Museums & Parliament

   200 km west · ~2 h by train

   Canada's capital compresses well: Parliament Hill's gothic Centre Block, the free national galleries and museums along Sussex Drive, ByWard Market for lunch, and the Rideau Canal - a skateway in deep winter, a boat channel in summer. Free-museum Thursdays and the tulip festival in May are the calendar bonuses.

   Getting there: VIA Rail's Montreal-Ottawa run averages 2 h 04 min with roughly five departures a day each way - the most comfortable and most bookable rail day trip from the city. Driving takes about two hours on the A-40 and Ontario's 417.

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3. 
   3

   Mont-Tremblant

   Mountain resort day

   130 km north · ~1 h 45 min-2 h by car or bus

   The pedestrian resort village is a pastel-coloured pleasure machine at the foot of the Laurentians' highest peak. Summer brings the panoramic gondola (adult CAD 33, child CAD 22, mid-May to mid-October), the lake beach and the luge; winter is the ski hill itself with the village lit like a snow globe. Either season, the village costs nothing to wander.

   Getting there: Driving the A-15 then QC-117 takes a bit under two hours. Without a car it is workable but wants planning: Autobus Galland runs the year-round intercity coach from the Gare d'autocars, and the Skyport shuttle serves Tremblant seasonally - its published winter season runs limited days, so check the current timetable before promising anyone a ski day.

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4. 
   4

   Magog and the Eastern Townships

   Lakes, wineries & fall colour

   120 km southeast · ~1 h 15 min-1 h 30 min by car or coach

   Quebec's lake district with a New England accent: Magog's waterfront on Lake Memphremagog, Mont-Orford's Sepaq trails above it, Bromont's old village, and the Brome-Missisquoi wine route threading between them. In late September and early October this is the fall-colour drive within reach of the city.

   Getting there: Limocar coaches link Montreal with Magog, Bromont, Granby and Sherbrooke - around 30 departures a day on the Sherbrooke corridor - with fares in the booking engine rather than published. Driving the A-10 east is the flexible option, and the only way to string the wineries together.

5. 
   5

   Oka and its beach

   The beach day

   60 km west · ~1 h-1 h 30 min by car or transit

   Parc national d'Oka's long sandy beach on the Lac des Deux Montagnes is Montreal's swimming hole, backed by pine woods, a calvary trail and paddleboard rentals. Sepaq's day fee is about CAD 10 for adults with children 17 and under free, which makes it one of the cheapest full family days in this list.

   Getting there: By car it is under an hour via the A-13 and A-640. Transit genuinely works in summer: the REM to Deux-Montagnes then exo's bus 604 corridor toward Oka - check exo's seasonal beach-service page for the summer routing before you set out, because the last leg changes by season.

6. 
   6

   Saint-Sauveur

   Closest mountain fix

   60 km north · ~45 min by car

   A steepled village of restaurants and outlet boutiques underneath Sommet Saint-Sauveur, which flips with the seasons: night skiing and snow tubing in winter, and in summer Quebec's largest mountain water park plus the Viking alpine coaster. The cheat-code Laurentians day when Tremblant feels too far.

   Getting there: Forty-five minutes up the A-15 into the lower Laurentians, by the operator's own reckoning - close enough that leaving after breakfast still buys a full day. The Galland Laurentians coach corridor serves the valley for the carless.

7. 
   7

   Fort Chambly

   History half-day

   35 km southeast · ~40 min by car

   A squat stone French fort from 1711 glowering over the Chambly rapids, with Parks Canada interiors on the fur-trade frontier - adults CAD 10, youth 17 and under free. The town wraps the visit with the Chambly Canal towpath and two of Quebec's best-known microbreweries. An honest half-day that pairs with an afternoon on the river.

   Getting there: A forty-minute drive across the Champlain Bridge and down the A-10 and A-35 to the Richelieu River. Parking at the national historic site is CAD 6 for the day, card only.

8. 
   8

   Mont Saint-Hilaire

   The hiking fix

   40 km east · ~35-45 min by car

   The Monteregian hill with the best summit-to-effort ratio near Montreal: an hour's climb through sugar-maple forest to the Pain de Sucre lookout over Lac Hertel and the plain, at its absurd best in the first half of October. The reserve's trails are the closest serious leaf-peeping to the city.

   Getting there: An easy drive out the A-20 to the Gault Nature Reserve entrance - McGill University's mountain, not a Sepaq park, with its own entry fee at the gate. Arrive before mid-morning on fall weekends or the car park will decide your plans for you.

9. 
   9

   A sugar shack in season

   March & April only

   30-60 km, various · ~45 min-1 h by car

   The most Quebec day that exists: all-you-can-eat tourtiere, oreilles de crisse, eggs in maple syrup, then taffy rolled on snow outside. The celebrity end is Au Pied de Cochon; the traditional family shacks deliver the same ritual for less. If your trip lands in maple season, this outranks everything else on the page.

   Getting there: The cabanes a sucre cluster in the maple belt around the city - Rigaud, Mirabel, the Monteregie - and run roughly March to late April while the sap flows. A car is essentially required, and the famous rooms book out: Au Pied de Cochon's sugar shack in Mirabel releases its spring tables months ahead through its own reservation system.

10. 
    10

    Burlington, Vermont

    Two-country day

    150 km south · ~2 h by car plus the border

    A college-town Saturday in another country: the Church Street pedestrian marketplace, craft breweries that take beer more seriously than is strictly sensible, and the Lake Champlain waterfront with the Adirondacks across the water. The novelty of lunch in the United States is the point - and the reason to check everyone in the car has their documents.

    Getting there: Two hours down the A-15 and Interstate 89 through the Champlain border crossing - bring passports, because this is an international trip and US entry rules apply in full. Weekend afternoon queues at the border can add anything from minutes to an hour, so cross early both ways.

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Day trips from other cities