EveryThing: Montreal city guide: what to see plus the best bars restaurants and music

Montreal doubled for Brooklyn in John Crowley’s eponymous 2015 film, has been dubbed the next Seattle, and last year became the new “city that never sleeps” when Mayor Denis Coderre extended retail opening hours in the downtown district to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Not that high living is anything new for the city on an island in the St Lawrence river. During prohibition, Montreal (a convenient train ride from New York) was known as the place where the drink flows and anything goes, and it has been living up to that reputation ever since. It has more than 100 festivals through the summer – many of them free – and chic new hotels such as the ALT Hotel (doubles from £100 room only) and downtown Renaissance (doubles from £155 room only). Add in two new low-cost flights from London Gatwick – WestJet launched two weeks ago (from £145 one-way) and Wow Air launches this week (from £99 one-way) – and Montreal may soon become the latest North American city break.

I didn’t have to look far to discover Montreal’s party spirit. Old Montreal, the city’s historic district, is where most tourists end up. It has good museums, the cobblestoned, 17th-century Rue St-Paul and the impressive 200-year-old Notre Dame basilica (see fitzandfollwell.co for guided tours of Old Montreal from £41pp). Across the harbour, the Biodome (£10.50 adult, £5.40 child) houses an excellent recreation of the four major ecosystems of the Americas: from the rainforest of the south to the polar tips of the north.

The Latin Quarter has good restaurants and fun bars, such as the 1920s-style speakeasy En Cachette. Venues such as La Sala Rossa and the Fairmount Theatrehost live music every night of the week. And for outdoor fun, there are 217 miles of cycle paths, hundreds of parks (including Mount Royal, with views across the city), the nine-mile Lachine Canal for kayaking and canoeing, and one of the world’s best standing river waves – surfers can ride this continuous wave on the St Lawrence river all day, without moving an inch.

All of which is great, but it’s not where the real action is. The new spirit of Montreal lies on the periphery, in former industrial districts such as Mile End, Saint-Henri and Little Burgundy, where vibrant artist communities are shooting up like flowers from the pavement.