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App provides excellent locals’ travel tips on Montreal

by Laura Byrne Paquet
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Disclosure: I received a free review copy of the app but do not receive any sort of commission on sales.

A few years ago, on my first (and so far only) trip to Barcelona, I downloaded a Spotted by Locals guide to the Spanish city. The concept behind the user-friendly app is simple: Residents of a place recommend their favourite off-the-beaten-path destinations to visitors. (Tourists can chime in with their own picks, too.) It’s like Wikitravel crossed with Trip Advisor, with a dash of your coolest friend thrown in.

The Barcelona app pointed me to a number of wonderful spots, including a courtyard restaurant behind a stone archway that I still remember fondly and would have walked right by on my own. So when I found out there was a Spotted by Locals guide to Montreal, a city I do know relatively well, I was curious to see how the recommendations stacked up against the picks for Barcelona, a city I didn’t know at all. Would I really discover something I’d never at least heard about before?

In a word: Yes. I used it to do a bit of research from here in Ottawa, which I plan to use the next time I head east on Highway 417.

Downtown Montreal from Mount Royal Park © Tourism Montreal.

Shopping is one of my beats, and I’ve scoured Montreal’s huge retail scene for years. But Spotted by Locals pointed me to new-to-me Le Sino, a shop/gallery where mural artists buy their supplies and exhibit their (smaller) works. I also discovered Milano, an Italian grocery that first opened its doors in 1954. And then there was La Boutique du Collectionneur, a vintage shop selling everything from Zippo lighters to Roman coins.

App features restaurants

What about restaurants? Any Montreal app worth its salt has to deal with the city’s fabulous food scene. Here again, the app pointed me in some new directions, as well as highlighting some better-known spots. I’d been to La Banquise, a late-night spot famous for its poutine, on my most recent Montreal trip in May. But Padoca Patisserie, a Brazilian bakery and restaurant, was tasty-sounding news to me, as was Boxermans, a wine bar/cafe in Outremont.

The app’s categories include art and culture, music, and theatres, and it is packed with more information than you could use in a dozen trips. The recommendations range far beyond the usual tourist haunts, although there are some quirky tips for much-visited ‘hoods such as the Plateau, too. It doesn’t have separate categories for each neighbourhood, but when you’re in Montreal, you can open a category and click the “Near” button to find recommendations close to where you’re standing (the app will tell you how far away they are). You can also save likely-looking places to a list of favourites, and ask the app to find the newest listings.

Montreal skyline from the Clock Tower in the Old Port of Montreal.
© Tourisme Montréal, Stéphan Poulin.

Since there are so many tips in the app, I’d advise using it to focus on one neighbourhood or one category, then a weekend around that. Otherwise, you might be a bit overwhelmed.

The writing, submitted by a variety of authors, can be a bit rocky in spots; I suspect English is a second or even third language for many. But honestly, their posts are much better than anything I could produce in either French or Spanish, the only two languages I’ve studied in any depth. And the enthusiasm of the writers for the places they’re recommending overcomes the odd grammar or phrasing glitch.

You don’t have to be online to use the guides, and the tips are updated regularly for free (download those updates when you are online, as they can be large). Guides are available to 71 cities in North America and Europe, and cost $5.49 Canadian each (US$3.99). For details on downloading the app and guides for iPhone or Android phones, see the Spotted by Locals website.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of the app but do not receive any sort of commission on sales.

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As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.

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