Flying to Montreal to drive to upstate NY, is Montreal English friendly?

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cdhl_nethockey

I have lived in Montreal for 30 years. When I was younger, I spoke very little French. I can almost guarantee you that you will have absolutely no problem with language whatsoever. You will certainly get served in English at the airport, at the car rental place, and pretty much everyone else you interact with in Montreal.

It's possible if you get lost on your way to New York (very difficult to do since it's just a matter of driving straight down a single highway), there's a small (say, 25%) chance the person you ask directions won't be able to answer you in English, but almost certainly the second or third person you ask will be able to.

Your real concern should be what the rental car company is going to charge you for driving their car across an international border.

freeside49

the signage is pretty much "international" so you wont have any issues beyond those crazy montreal drivers!!
Just remember, in Montreal its not automatic you can turn right on a red light and pedestrians dont give an inch for vehicle traffic. Just be sure you mapquest your route and review it beforehand to be sure you are in the proper lanes for turning etc.. (like driving in any strange sity)

hironymus

The last time I was there I found a lot of people who pretended not to speak a word of English, or perhaps they really did not. Still you should have no problems in hotels or restaurants or car rentals. It is after all a large city with lots of tourists.

Goddess of Grammar

At the airport, pretty much everyone, including the rental car people speak French.
If you're just driving to New York, it's pretty straightforward. In that case I'd look into flying into Burlington VT and driving from there though, especially if you're starting from the States. Probably cheaper and quite possibly faster, even with that big lake in the way.

kitty

I went through Quebec a few times and found ALOT of people that didn't know a word of English. In Montreal you may find less of that, but I went through alot of smaller towns and had problems finding someone who could help me with the map. However, having said that, I found that most people thought it was fun to try out their English and tried their best to be helpful. In fact with the map incident I mentioned above, I had 3 people trying to help me in their broken English... they were having fun and so was I, lol. If all else fails, the tourism places speak both very well.

snowpatrol321

Montreal is about 50% French. If you stick to the downtown core and the western end, you will be fine.

Annie

If you stick to the island and downtown, you will find no problem getting information in english. I'm french and I sometimes have trouble getting served in french in Montreal!

However, if you get out of the island (south or north shore), you might find there are a lot less english speaking people.

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