Where to stay near Montreal?
 

My sister, her kids, my kid and myself will be driving from Riviere du Loup through Quebec, then Montreal on the 285/185/20 Transcanada continuing through Cornwall then near Kingston then driving down the 81 back to Ithaca NY.

We are going to take two days driving and want to stay somewhere for the night about halfway between our departure and destination. We are also looking for a cool place or two to visit or to stop to eat at.

Any recs. Thanks. I've visited Montreal about once every eight years, but my knowledge of the other areas and surrounding areas is rather spotty.

Well, I grew up in suburbs around the west of Montreal (Ile-Perrot, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Pointe-Claire, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue), but there's not much to do there! :(

In Montreal proper, if you want something to do in the daytime with kids, there's always La Ronde, the city's theme park on Ile-Sainte-Helene. Also, you could walk the path up to the Observatory on Mont-Royal, for a spectacular view of the city. Walking on St-Laurent and St-Denis streets is also fun in the summertime. Throughout July and August, there's a whole crapload of festivals to see, such as the Jazz Festival, the Just For Laughs Festival and a few movie festivals. Montreal rocks during summer!

As for places to stay, since I actually lived there, I can't really help you... sorry!

Don't even slow down as you go past Cornwall! Kingston has a few good restaurants but I can't remember the name of a single one. No time for Ottawa? It's one of my favourite Canadian cities.

What exactly makes Ottawa worth the side trip? I can barely remember it- I think I was 8 when we stopped there one time and all I can remember are some large black cannons and a building that reminded me of England.

What's your budget? I live in the West Island, and that'd give me a better idea of what to recommend to you

To stay at a place I don't think we'd go over 100$ a night per room unless it was worth the extra 25-50$. my sister realllly likes to save money. She's also into letter boxing. The kids range from 5 to 11. I like anything wierd, quirky or interesting.

Visiting places or eating it doesn't matter although we won't take the kids to a fancy place cause I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's romantic evening.

I dunno about places to stay (when you live in a place you have no idea about hotels) but if it is still there, Decarie Hot Dogs made the best steamies. And their fries - I don't think they'd changed the grease in 20 years! Damn it was good! On the east side of Decarie south of Cote Vertu.