What to do in Montreal, besides Strippers?

[Karl-G]

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The gay stripper bars in Montreal offer delights every evening, but they don't really start until later, although they advertise they start much earlier. I was there Wednesday through Sunday last week, and if you went to Campus before 6:00, you sat with the bartender and a dancer. The rest wll be musical interludes. At Taboo, nothing really happens until 9:15. After those times, there are lots of dancers, lots of customers, and continuous dancing, but before then, not much.

 

So you need to do other things earlier in the days. Montreal is a great, cosmopolitan city, and there are lots of things for everyone's tastes. I can give you some information about places and activities I have enjoyed.

 

The Jardins Botaniques / Botanic Garden is one of the largest and best in the world, and it is particularly colorful at this time of the year. easily and quickly accessible on Green Line Metro at Pie IX Station. Five minute. They have 75 acres and 22,000 different species of plants growing in 30 thematic gardens, plus 10 greenhouses and the Insectarium. If you take your cell phone and camera and give yourself the goal of learning the names of perhaps 10 or 15 flowers, you will enjoy the garden more. Every plant has a name tag, so you can shoot a close-up of the tag and then another of the flower, and you will be able to check the names later. Currently, late summer, the main standouts with many examples are the roses in the Rose Garden; the daylilies in the English Meadow / River Garden; the Rose Mallows (12" across) in the Display / Perennial Garden; and the incredible dahlias at the opposite end of that garden, right next to the cafe. They have a very nice cafe with lots of outdoor seating under umbrellas and trees. The metro will cost $6.00 US round-trip and takes 5 minutes from Ste. Catherine / The Gay Village. One could easily spend a day here, but a couple of hours is also very nice.

 

Another day could easily be spent at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. (Metro is Guy / Concordia and a five minute walk up to Sherbrooke Street). The museum consist of three separate building. The neo-Classical older building is on the north side of the street; the very recent new building is on the south side of the street; and they bought an old church across the street which has been turned into a museum of Canadian art. All are connected by underground walkways and galleries. The permanent collection is good for a city this size, and their traveling shows are usually very good. Currently there are two very good special exhibits. "Pompei" brings together hundreds of artifacts from the museum in Naples, documenting the life of the city before Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and buried it under 20 feet of volcanic ash for 1700 years. The city was perfectly preserved. When it was rediscovered, an archeologist devised a technique for preserving some special things. When people (or dogs) were buried by the incredibly hot ash, the material formed a mold around the body. The flesh and bones gradually disintegrated, but the mold remained. If you pour plaster carefully into the mold, you get a perfect reproduction of the person or animal. The exhibit has almost a dozen of these incredibly lifelike molds of men, women, children, and dogs as they tried to flee the city, but were caught. Animated films in two rooms bring Pompei to life again, and in one terrifying room you can experience what it felt like to be inundated with molten lava. They also have an entire room of the erotic art of Pompei, which is indeed erotic and varied.

 

The second special exhibit is "Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec." You probably have seen a couple of his posters, but there are more than 50 in this wonderful show. Lautrec was a wonderful improviser and observer of the unusual. He spent his life in the nightclubs and brothels of Paris in the late 19th century and gave us views we would never have had otherwise. He made famous the can-can dancers and entertainers of Montmartre, at the Moulin Rouge Club or other nightclubs. You will be amazed at how large some of the posters are and which attributes of the dancers he emphasized. There are photographs of all the major figures, like la Goulue and Jane Avril and May Belfort. There is also wonderful music of the clubs playing in each room. It is an excellent and enjoyable show.

 

The museum has both a cafe and a restaurant. The restaurant is excellent and a little pricey but gives wonderful value. I particularly enjoyed the avocado cheesecake with pineapple topping and whipped cream, served in a brandy snifter.

 

And then, one ought to spend a day in Old Montreal / The Old Port. This is the 18th century city which once was a great shipping center. It was replaced by a newer harbor several miles downstream on the St. Lawrence, and the old city was abandoned as people moved to newer areas of houses and businesses. The old warehouses and docks stood empty and deserted, until a few years ago when gentrification began, and now it is one of the hippest areas in the city. Lofts in the old warehouses are very expensive. But take the metro to Champs de Mars and walk 5 minutes, or take a cab to the Hotel de Ville, at the top of the Place Jacques Cartier. The Place is the center of life here. It is lined on both sides by more than a dozen large restaurants with outdoor decks / terrasses. There are musicians, entertainers, artists, and lots of people walking in the place. You can enjoy it all from one of the restaurants. Specialties offered by most restaurants include "lobster specials" as part of the Lobster Festival this time of summer or "moules et frites" - mussels and fries. They bring you a huge bowl of 48-60 mussels, which are not terribly large, and a large bowl to dump all the shells. Enjoy an ice cold beer with them and watch the scene go by. Great.

 

In addition, the street at the bottom of the place, Rue St. Paul Ouest / West, is the center of the art galleries in the city. Ten excellent galleries are located in a two block stretch. The gallery owners are knowledgeable, and they like to talk about their artists and the works; you can learn a great deal and enjoy seeing the best of contemporary art here.

 

Then continue down to the harbor itself. This once bustling, then deserted area, is now designated a "Recreational Area of the City / the Old Port." Thousands of people are here everyday. You can have a picnic, rent a bicycle, cycle out to the islands or along the Lachine Canal; there are dozens of tents selling food and all sorts of things. There is a huge life-sized pirate ship with three tall masts, and you can climb up and then zipline from one mast to another climbing through and over various things. Then you continue and climb to the top of a six story tower and you get on a zip-line and ride perhaps half a kilometer to the other end of the park on a cable for a very exciting ride. Or you can take a sailboat or speedboat out on the harbor and the St. Lawrence. Live music is presented on a couple of stages. It's a great place to spend the day and have some fun.

 

If you head to Campus at 6:00 and enjoy strippers for two and a half hours, you can then go out on Ste. Catherine Street / Pedestrian Zone and have dinner on one of the terraces. There are many different restaurants with different cuisines, but all offer unparalleled ambiance. On a pleasant evening with no traffic on the pedestrian mall, you can sit and enjoy a good meal and watch all the world walk by. The "pink balls" strung across the street provide an intimacy and also an openness, which has been a great success. This year there are several outdoor pianos along the street, and anyone can play. The most popular is down by the Club Sandwich building. An older man plays for three or four hours each night and a crowd of 30-50 people sit on benches and sing along to what I assume are Canadian or Quebecois folk songs and popular tunes. Everyone seems to be having a great deal of fun. Then head to Stock or Taboo, depending on your taste, for another few hours of strippers and lap dances. What more could one ask for?

 

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[joselowe]

No offense but you do know that there's a non stripper section on m4m for this type of discussion

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxrictSdCj1qeq7xto1_400.gif

[Jake]

Point made but I think it's useful for this section too. I'm one of those who visits this section of the board and really that's about it. It's all part of the Montreal strip club trip experience.

[+ BOZO T CLOWN]

No offense but you do know that there's a non stripper section on m4m for this type of discussion

 

From the administrator: Male Strip Clubs - "A Forum For Reviews and Discussion about Male strip clubs around the world."

 

When reading the obituary section of the paper, it would be highly inappropriate to find baseball scores and sports coverage. When perusing the classified section, one shouldn't see theatre reviews. Jose Lowe is right on target. This thread needs to be moved or deleted.

 

Bozo

[Txpaytoplay]

Point made but I think it's useful for this section too. I'm one of those who visits this section of the board and really that's about it. It's all part of the Montreal strip club trip experience.

I concur with Jake here.....I wouldn't go looking for this information elsewhere, and technically he does talk about strip clubs in his piece. Well done and well written in my opinion. I will also add that if you make the right connection in one of the clubs, Campus, Stock, Lux or Taboo they can prove to be excellent company as a tour guide. Underground Mall is fun, Cathedral of Notre Dame is a nice place to visit in Montreal and then there is always the Casino to go to on the island. Just my 2 cents worth.

[joselowe]

I concur with Jake here.....I wouldn't go looking for this information elsewhere, and technically he does talk about strip clubs in his piece. Well done and well written in my opinion. I will also add that if you make the right connection in one of the clubs, Campus, Stock, Lux or Taboo they can prove to be excellent company as a tour guide. Underground Mall is fun, Cathedral of Notre Dame is a nice place to visit in Montreal and then there is always the Casino to go to on the island. Just my 2 cents worth.

So everyone should just make posts about local sites and artifacts in the cities of every strip club we discuss here?

 

Nah I think this section should be about the clubs and dancers of these clubs. There are tons of sections on this site for other topics and a travel section. If you can't find your information there manually there is always a search functionality on here and also google maps exists and provides an option to look up other landmarks/hotels in the area.

[Txpaytoplay]

Well.......I guess we can agree that we disagree.

[joselowe]

Well.......I guess we can agree that we disagree.

We sure can and in the meantime visit this http://www.companyofmen.org/forums/traveling-members.44/

[Penn7]

I also like hiking up Mont-Royal - great view from the "chalet" terrace and also saw several hot guys hiking up & down.

[Cooper]

Frequently asked questions by those traveling to Montreal for the strip clubs have dealt with: accommodations, restaurants, transportation, currency exchanges, weather, and other things to do. Some of the old time Montreal travelers have been very helpful in contributing answers to those questions. I'm sure 1st timers heading to Montreal & spending a few days there have found those discussions very useful. I know I did.

 

Thanks Karl-G for the fine report. It's most interesting & informative. Well done!

 

Coop

[n2guysnatl]

I agree with Cooper. Many topics have been discussed here. In a recent thread discussion lead to installing your own shower head in a Montreal hotel? And Karl-G's title plainly describes that the subject is about Montreal attractions and not strippers. Anyone can skip the post if they're not interested.

[joselowe]

I agree with Cooper. Many topics have been discussed here. In a recent thread discussion lead to installing your own shower head in a Montreal hotel? And Karl-G's title plainly describes that the subject is about Montreal attractions and not strippers. Anyone can skip the post if they're not interested.

Then why post in the stripper section?

 

And a subject veering off is expected in every thread but there are supposed to be specific rules on what threads to create in the stripper section as stated earlier. If that's not the case (which it appears not to be) then cooper or another mod should consider changing it....

[+ BOZO T CLOWN]

Then why post in the stripper section?

 

And a subject veering off is expected in every thread but there are supposed to be specific rules on what threads to create in the stripper section as stated earlier. If that's not the case (which it appears not to be) then cooper or another mod should consider changing it....

 

Ditto. And if that is the case, the guidelines need to be changed/amended to include travel tips (even though there is a SEPARATE forum for that).

 

Current:

"A Forum For Reviews and Discussion about Male strip clubs around the world"

 

New:

A Forum For Reviews and Discussion about Male strip clubs around the world plus Travel Tips."

 

 

Bozo

[+ SundayZip]

Using the Male Stripper Section to post tourist info about the city of Montreal is more or less saying that everything in the city is secondary to its male strip clubs. You don't post info about the Guggenheim museum and Broadway Theater in the male stripper section as supplemental info for those checking out the Adonis and Fairytale Lounge in NYC. It's no wonder that many Canadians view Americans as ignorant about the rest of the world.

[Txpaytoplay]

I agree with Cooper. Many topics have been discussed here. In a recent thread discussion lead to installing your own shower head in a Montreal hotel? And Karl-G's title plainly describes that the subject is about Montreal attractions and not strippers. Anyone can skip the post if they're not interested.

 

I second that. Thank you both for your input.

[Jake]

Bingo n2. People love to complain. Let 'em. If this thread really ruined your day, gain some perspective in life.

[Txpaytoplay]

I have some friends going up to Montreal this weekend. They are taking one of the double decker bus tours around town. On Sunday they are taking a train to Quebec City to spend the day. Just a couple more ideas on how to spend your time during the day.

[DonaldTramp]

Love & light!

[LouieD]

I have some friends going up to Montreal this weekend. They are taking one of the double decker bus tours around town. On Sunday they are taking a train to Quebec City to spend the day. Just a couple more ideas on how to spend your time during the day.

Quebec City is way too far away for a meaningful day trip.

[Penn7]

I like Quebec City a lot but it's about 3 hours away by train, car or bus.

[JayNY]

Quebec City is too far for a day trip mate. Plenty to do in Montreal, no need to go all the way to Quebec City (3 hours drive). Last year, I stayed in Montreal for one month, there were plenty of things to do. I only went to the strip clubs a few times.

[Txpaytoplay]

Eh.....they have been to Montreal more times than I can count and really more years than I can count on 2 hands. It is something different. I will wait to see how it goes.

[gallahadesquire]

Last month, we hit YELP to find amazing restaurants. One was a "Mediterranean" Greek place, that had my all time favourite pinot. The other was a well-reviewed Thai restaurant with killer frog's legs.

 

Other things I wanted to do got cut short, as my knee gave out at one point, and I could barely walk to the car.

 

"Down time", on the other hand, with my traveling companion was .... stellar. Ask him.