Montreal during Grand Prix weekend (Montreal)

Member Name: sarajackson

Product:	Montreal
Date:	04/09/02 (399 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique atmosphere, Good value race tickets, Convenient and well organised event

Disadvantages: Difficult to secure hotel room, Nothing else, Nothing else!

We had planned to attend the Montreal Grand Prix in 2002, and this is something I would really recommend. The most difficult thing is securing a room in the City and although lots of tour operators do packages, often these are not ideal due to indirect flights, less than great hotels and more importantly vastly inflated prices. In our experience, perseverance was the key, and we got a really good deal (see review in the hotel section), but I would recommend trying all the hotel websites you can, even if it means booking a room or rooms before you are sure when the Grand Prix will actually be (as long as you can cancel without penalty). A lot of hotels have waiting lists and you may find even their inflated prices work out cheaper than taking a package tour. It is easy to book race tickets direct, by faxing the order form - details are on the grandprix.ca website, and these turn out to be really good value compared to other races. For a three day ticket in a Bronze Grandstand we paid about £70 each, which wouldn't get you much to the British Grand Prix! In hindsight though I might have been tempted by one of the Silver Grandstands.

Once in Montreal over Grand Prix weekend, the city is totally different to any other time of the year. Not an early-to-bed Canadian city usually, Montreal goes mad in the evenings during race weekend. Streets around Crescent are packed with race fans and there are loads of race cars on stands and merchandise for sale. Activity is pronounced around Newtown, Jacques Villeneuve's Restaurant, and I would definitely recommend a visit, to the restaurant if you can get in. Even in the downstairs lounge is brilliant for a cocktail or a beer, and the atmosphere is just great. I was hooked and kept wanting to go back. The service in restaurants and hotels is also very different during race weekend, where usually you will be greeted by a 'Bonjour', at this time it is suddenly assumed you will be an English speak
er. Quite convenient for the English traveller, if just a bit lazy! I certainly wouldn't recommend not reserving a table for dinner while you are in Montreal for the Grand Prix, as from what I saw all the good places were booked up and even the less than good have long waits. Unless you want to waste your whole weekend trawling the streets looking at menus, plan ahead. One good thing though if you visit and don't attend one of the events (we didn't go to Saturday Practice) the city is so quiet and you feel as though everyone is at the race! It would be good to do something really touristy at that time - no queues!

The race itself is really well organised, and it is easy to get to the circuit by subway. From our hotel, the Queen Elizabeth, it took us only 45 minutes before we were sitting in our grandstand (which was a little walk from the subway station). Although there were massive amounts of people attending that weekend, you did not feel penned in and you wouldn't have guessed there were so many spectators. Even when walking from the race on Sunday you did not once feel like you were in danger, or that you would be swept along by the crowd. The Canadian race fans are well behaved and very good humoured.

The race itself in Montreal is usually one of the more interesting ones - albeit this year with a predictable Scumacher victory! We really enjoyed the action at the race track, including qualifying and the build up which includes feature races. The vast majority of the tickets are for grandstands and the access for general admission is practically non-existent - so be warned. The race track is in a lovely location on the Ile Notre Dame, with great views across towards the city, and when there's nothing happenign on the race track you can just admire the view. The Ile Notre Dame is surprisingly wooded, and when you go for a walk around, you are pretty unaware that there is a race track there, and so the surroundi
ngs are just amazing.

On Sunday evening after the race, you are struck that everything is over, and the whole circus has packed up and left - it's a bit of an anticlimax then. I would recommend Montreal as a great place to see a Formula One race, especially if you can combine it with a holiday like we did. I was impressed by the organisation and the city is really shown off in a great light, and it becomes a typical 'Festival City'.

Summary: