Montreal

Mount Royal (as close to Montreal's core as The Peak is to central Hong Kong) dominates the city's landscape and provides a refuge for locals fed up with urban clatter. (See the view from 'the mountain', as locals refer to it, top left, below.) The pine-forested slopes, which rise more than 200 metres, were first climbed in the 16th century by explorer Jacques Cartier, who claimed the area for France. Today, in winter, the slopes are alive with cross-country skiers and tobogganists, while the small lake near the top is popular with ice-skaters. In warmer weather, runners take to the dirt trails and picnickers to the grass. But the mountain's must-see event is its weekly drum festival; drummers from all over the city and from all cultures come to jam, while hundreds of others dance, laze or play catch to a beat that segues from Latin to African and back. See www.lemontroyal.com/en.

At one time this was a neighbourhood of Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Eastern European immigrant garment-factory workers. Today the quartier maintains its diversity but has become the city's hipster 'hood, the destination for young artists, designers, filmmakers and, especially, musicians. At Cafe Olympico (124 Street Viateur, tel: 1 514 495 0746) and Club Social (bottom left; 180 Street Viateur, tel: 1 514 495 0114), elderly Italian men watch football and drink espresso jowl to jowl with guitarists, tattooed and pierced painters and video-game designers. Every other doorway in the district offers a different kind of snack. Grab a crepe at the take-out window of Une Crepe (221 Street Viateur, tel: 1 514 270 6322), a pierogi at Euro Deli Batory (115 Street Viateur, tel: 1 514 948 2161) or a souvlaki at Arahova (256 Street Viateur, tel: 1 514 274 7828). Shop for one-of-a-kind items at the eccentric S.W. Welch Books (225 Street Viateur; www.welchbooks.com), a treasure house of rare and hard to find tomes or at Poterie Manu Reva (5141 Saint-Laurent Boulevard; www.poteriemanureva.com), where you can see the work of local potters.