A step-by-step guide to the easiest and fastest hike up Mount Royal

So, my main agenda for the Montreal trip was MAJOR FOOD TRIP. But to eat more, I had to burn some calories (without wasting a lot of time doing so LOL). Enter Mount Royal hike.

Today, I am going to teach you the easiest and fastest way (but also quite gruelling as it’s endless stairs going up) to get up to the BEST Mount Royal viewing point – the Kondiaronk Belvedere.

First up, commute to Rue Peel Steps. This is accessible via bus, but we opted to just grab an Uber as we were trying to catch the sunset BEFORE it set.

Once you get to this starting point, take a deep breath, look up, and it’s time to climb up those steps! I read it’s around 300 steps in total, but my mom counted them as we were climbing up the stairs and she announced that it’s definitely more than 300 because she had already reached that count and we were still not yet there.

Haha, here’s a photo of my parents and sister huffing and puffing up the steps. I was huffing and puffing too – but had the good sense to not include myself in the photo! Mwahahaha!

Thankfully, after 15 minutes of continuous climb (yes I timed it!), WE MADE IT to Kondiaronk Belvedere.

The view really is beautiful – a bird’s eye view of Montreal. Stunning.

After soaking in the view, there’s also a bathroom inside the building, as well as a water fountain outside the girl’s bathroom.

From here, we made our way to the Mount Royal Cross, which is not so impressive since you can’t really get a good angle of the cross from where you are. But it was nice to see it all lit up (which happens once it’s sun down).

We walked a bit more to reach the Sunset Lookout, for a different view of the city.

Afterwards, we walked down to Camilien-Houde Belvedere, a nice hilltop viewpoint with picnic tables, which has the best view reachable via car.

More importantly, this was where we hopped on the bus to head back to the city! While waiting for the bus though, we had the pleasure (?) of seeing GIANT raccoons rooting around the garbage for food. They were both equally cute and a bit scary. I’ve never seen raccoons this huge before, and they didn’t seem scared of humans at all! They kind of reminded me of monkeys who would snatch away your phone or your food right from your hands if they so wished.

Anyway, that’s a wrap! From here, the foodie adventure continued – you can check that out here: A 1-day Montreal Foodie Adventure – where to eat and what to order – Goldie Goes Global