The Underground City

Montreal's Underground City, officially called RESO, is less a single attraction than a way of moving through downtown, and visitors who learn to use it gain a real advantage, especially in winter. It is a network of about 33 kilometres of indoor pedestrian passages, linking more than 250 access points, ten metro stations from Atwater in the west to Berri-UQAM in the east, the train and bus terminals, around 2,200 shops and restaurants, ten major hotels, more than sixty office buildings, universities, museums and performance venues. Not all of it is literally underground: much of it runs through the lower levels of buildings, shopping centres and atriums, connected by tunnels. The idea began in 1962, when the Place Ville Marie tower opened with a shopping concourse linked to Central Station, and it spread quickly after the metro opened for Expo 67. Today the key hubs include the Eaton Centre and the shopping centres along Rue Sainte-Catherine, Place Ville Marie, Complexe Desjardins, Place des Arts and the Quartier des Spectacles venues, the Convention Centre and the Bell Centre, home of the Canadiens hockey team. Walking the network is free, warm in winter and cool in summer, and wall maps and signs at junctions help with navigation, although first-timers will still get lost sometimes, which is part of the experience. The best use is practical: on a cold or rainy day, walk from your hotel to the metro, a concert or a museum without a coat, and stop for lunch in one of the food courts or food halls along the way. Shops follow mall hours, and some passages close at night when the buildings they cross are closed.

How it came about: in the early 1960s Montreal's planners and developers faced a downtown where the winter climate made street life difficult for months each year. The solution was to build downward and inward: the new office towers were connected to the railway station and the metro, and each new development was encouraged to link to its neighbours. The result, growing over six decades, is one of the largest underground pedestrian networks in the world. It is not a tourist attraction in the usual sense, which is exactly its charm: you share the corridors with office workers, students and shoppers going about their day.

How to use it: pick a mission rather than wandering aimlessly. A good introductory route starts at Place Ville Marie, under the cruciform tower, crosses to the Eaton Centre and the Sainte-Catherine shopping centres, and continues east toward Place des Arts and Complexe Desjardins, emerging into the Quartier des Spectacles. Follow the RESO signs and the wall maps, and note which metro station or building you are under. Many downtown hotels connect directly to the network, among them the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, so in deep winter you can reach the metro and the shops in indoor comfort. Weekday lunchtimes are busy; evenings and weekends are quieter, and some sections close after business hours.

Who it suits: everyone in winter, shoppers all year, and families with small children on wet days. Do not expect architectural wonders everywhere, as some stretches are plain corridors, but the atriums of Place Ville Marie, Complexe Desjardins and the newer developments are impressive, and the passages around Place des Arts connect to the city's main concert halls and the Museum of Contemporary Art site. Combine the network with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Rue Sainte-Catherine and the Quartier des Spectacles for a full downtown day without ever feeling the cold. Arriving by train or on the 747 airport bus, you can reach several of the large downtown hotels through the network too, which is a real comfort when you are carrying luggage in January.