With the current pandemic, trying to plan activities and small road trips is getting harder and harder. But, what better way than to take it as an opportunity to explore our beautiful city of Montreal and do activities we've never done before? In this blog post, we are heading to Old Montreal, one of my favorite place to be, and we'll be exploring and trying new things including the amazing Private Dinner for 2 Experience at William Gray.

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Let's start off with our Dinner Experience William Gray x Maggie Oaks. Although restaurants are currently closed in Montreal, many hotels in the Old Montreal have found a way to offer a unique yet safe restaurant like experience including William Gray Hotel, Place d'Armes Hotel & Nelligan Hotel. As we were also staying the night at William Gray, we had the chance to try out Maggie Oaks for dinner. Our reservation being at 6 pm, a staff member came directly to our room to bring us down on the 4th floor where all the rooms have been reimagined for the dinner service. In fact, everyone who has a reservation have their own private room (which includes a patio as well as a private bathroom). This really allows for a safe environment perfect for a Covid safe experience.

This package, which starts at 195$ for 2 (including valet and tip) includes a 4 course meal as well as a welcome glass of sparkling wine or the specialty cocktail. Upon your arrival at your "dinner room", a server will be assigned to you for the whole night. Yes you heard me correctly an actual service is offered throughout the entire meal! Of course, to remain conscious and respectful of the safety measures, the server always wears a mask and will not serve the water or wine (if you choose to add a bottle to your experience). Considering the fact that it has been more than 8 months since we have been allowed in a restaurant, the simple fact of having someone bring you a real plate of food, beautifully presented and not prepared by yourself is the definition of ultimate happiness for me haha! 

As for the food, we had made the choice prior to our arrival. In fact, when you book your experience, they send the menu via email in order for you to choose the dishes as well as the time at which you would like to eat dinner. This allows to limit the contact between the server and your party thus, making for a safer experience. Here are our choices for dinner:

I would truly recommend the dinner experience to anyone who has been missing eating at restaurants. The food, the service, everything was incredible. As well, since we were staying at the hotel the "dinner room" was available to us until midnight (if you only take the dinner experience the room is available for a 3 hour window), so we were able to take our time and fully enjoy the experience.

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The room itself was perfect and we had a lovely view of Old Montreal. When taking the Dinner + Stay for 2 package, breakfast is included so we decided to take advantage of our balcony, He!He! We simply had to call the reception when we wanted our breakfast brought to our room. And of course, Olimpico being right downstairs, we had to go grab our morning coffee there... you guys know me and my coffee! Overall, our stay was an incredible experience and there was never a moment where I felt unsafe. Be sure to check out William Gray's website to book your experience now and keep in mind that they only offer the Dinner Experience on Friday and Saturday!

Now of course, no weekend adventure is complete without exploring around the neighborhood. Living in Griffintown, I am always in the Old Port and bringing you guys to my favorite spots: Olive, Caffe un po di piu, Olimpico, Nelli Cafe, Tommy... but I wanted to show you guys other things that you can do in Old Montreal that are a bit more adventurous. We specifically did two activities I never thought I would do (because I'm terrified of heights):

• La Grande Roue de Montreal
• Zipline (I have no pictures for this one cuz I was TERRIFIED the whole time hahaha)

If you guys are looking for fun and different activities to do in the Old Port other than taking a stroll and eating around, I recommend you guys check out these activities as it's something probably different than to most things you can do in the city at this time. And if thrill is not your thing, you can also check out the Railroad Exhibit at Pointe-À-Callière Museum !

Safe Travels!