Le Square Phillips Hotel & Suites Family Activities

A 15-minute walk from Square Phillips, Old Montreal is a mix of everything French, from creperies to patisseries to stores selling French country wares like Provencal tablecloths and baguette cutting boards. It's a great place to start your tour of the city, then head to the waterfront past families riding surreys to check out the Labyrinthe. Housed in a in a former airplane hangar, the Labyrinthe is a playful maze where you walk through plastic mesh, over bridges, and slide through tubes as you try to find your way to the sortie (exit). Along the way, you piece together clues to figure out who stole the family jewels.

Afterwards, you can rent bikes at Ca roule Montreal (27 rue de la Commune Est) and bike along the Lachaine Canal past the old mills, warehouses, and grain elevators that line the waterway. Along the route, you'll spot boats stuck in the locks, waiting for the water to rise so they can move onward. About 25 minutes into the ride, you cross a bridge, lock up the bikes, and head into the Marche Atwater. One of two public markets in the city, the kids will no doubt be running from stall to stall as they drool over the selection of baguettes, cheeses, pain au chocolates, pastries, and fresh blackberries, cherries, and raspberries. We grabbed a baguette, two types of cheeses from Quebec, and had a picnic overlooking the water before getting on our bikes and doing the return trip.

The next day we headed to the vast Botanical Garden. We started in the greenhouses, where the kids were excited to see Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants, where flies slide down the waxy leaves into a bag of water and perish. They also liked starting at the tall saguaro and round golden barrel cacti, and spotting intriguing flowers like the spiral begonias. The highlight was the Courtyard of the Senses, where children get to smell the fruity citronella and pleasant English lavender, touch the velvety glory bush, and rub their hands along the sticky gum cistus.

The Botanical Garden is also home to the popular family getaway, the Insectarium, which is opening a new Discovery Zone in the spring of 2009. My daughter got on a scale and weighed the equivalent of 2 million ants, watched the bees work the hive, and saw the vast selection of live scorpions, tarantulas, and scarabs. Melanie was particularly disgusted with the large winged cockroaches. Make sure to stop by the gift shop, which has samples of barbecued mealworms to try. The man in front of us said, "It tastes like pretzels, but I wouldn't want to eat the whole bag."

Near the Botanical Garden in a former biking track used at the 1976 Summer Olympics is the Biodome. A short walk through four different temperature zones brings you to the birds, fish, and animals found in that climate. The tropical zone, for example, is like a Costa Rican rainforest with scarlet macaws, golden tamarinds and a large anaconda living in the humidity. Porcupines, beaver, and otters are found in the Canadian forest.

Head back to Square Phillips to swim in the small pool or relax outdoors on the roof deck. Then it's off to dinner at some fabulous joint. Save some energy afterwards to go on the Ghost Walk. Meet at 8:30 at the Place d'Armes, grab a lantern, map, and French flag, and get ready to wander along the back alleys of Old Montreal the next 90 minutes to find four ghosts. This is no group tour. You're on your own meeting up with ghosts who tell their stories of being burned, tortured, and ostracized in the 1700's. The acting is so good that kids should be at least 10 years old or they might run away terrified. Yet, my children found it to be one of the favorite parts of our trip.