Jun – Aug
Summer
The longest daylight for the hop-on hop-off pass and the busiest season for the Quebec day trip, which is worth booking ahead of the date you actually want.
By bus
Montreal bus tour: guided, hop-on hop-off, or the day trip to Quebec City
Three different products share the word “bus” on this site, and mixing them up is the easiest way to book the wrong day out. The guided Montreal bus tour runs 3.5 h and covers over 200 sites for $51; the hop-on hop-off pass runs 48 h for $48; and a separate day-long bus trip covers Quebec City and Montmorency Falls for $70. This page is the three, sorted out.
Quick answer
The short answer. A Montreal bus tour means one of three things here. The guided bus tour is $51 for 3.5 h with a fixed route and narration, rated 4.4 across 3,462 reviews. The hop-on hop-off pass is $48 for 48 h of unlimited stops, rated 4.1. And the Quebec day trip is a different product entirely: a full-day coach trip out of the city for $70, rated 4.4 across 3,068 reviews. All three are buses; only one of them leaves Montreal.
Montreal bus tours at a glance
- Guided bus tour
- $514.4 · 3,462 reviews
- Length
- 3.5 hfrom the listing
- Hop-on hop-off
- $484.1 · 3,529 reviews
- Length
- 48 hdouble-decker, unlimited stops
- Quebec City day trip
- $704.4 · 3,068 reviews
- Length
- 12 hout of the city and back
- Fixed route or flexible
- Both availableguided is fixed, hop-on hop-off is flexible
- Cancellation
- Free cancellationall three listings
- Notice needed
- 1h guided · 2h Quebec tripfrom the listings
- Landmark stop
- World's tallest inclined buildingcalled out on the guided tour
- Quebec highlight
- Cliffside funicularUpper and Lower Town
Sorting the three out
Guided, hop-on hop-off, or out of town — not the same trip
Guided covers downtown on a fixed route; hop-on hop-off is flexible; the day trip leaves the city entirely.
“Montreal bus tour” covers three genuinely different products on this site, and it is worth being precise about which one a search actually wants. A Montreal city tour bus in the narrow sense — a guide narrating a fixed route through downtown, Mont Royal Park and Old Montreal — is the guided bus tour at $51. A double-decker you can get on and off at will, on your own schedule, is the separate hop-on hop-off pass at $48. And a bus tour from Montreal to somewhere else entirely — Quebec City and Montmorency Falls, in this case — is the day trip at $70, a full day rather than a few hours in the city.
Searches for a tour bus to Montreal, meaning transport arriving from another city, are not what any of the three listings on this page cover — every option below starts and ends downtown. Anyone typing it in French usually writes tour de Montreal bus, or the fuller tour de Montreal en bus; the listings themselves are in English, but the routes are the same three described above.
None of the three is a specialty route: there is no dessert bus, no brewery bus, no photography-only departure among the fourteen listings on this site. What is on offer is one guided city loop, one flexible double-decker pass, and one full day out to Quebec City — a short, honest list rather than a long one padded with near-duplicates.
The three, compared
Which bus tour of Montreal actually fits your day
Same word, three different products — book a bus tour in Montreal and you could mean any of them. Here is what each one is built for.
- The guided bus tour — a fixed route through downtown
The classic Montreal guided bus tour: over 200 sites narrated on a set route through Mont Royal Park, Place Ville Marie and Old Montreal, $51 for 3.5 h, rated 4.4 across 3,462 reviews. The listing calls out one stop specifically — the world’s tallest inclined building, at Olympic Park — and it is a bestseller among the fourteen listings on this site. This is the Montreal sightseeing bus tour most first-time visitors book.
- The Montreal double-decker bus tour — hop on, hop off
A different way to use a bus entirely: $48 buys unlimited stops on an open-top double-decker for 48 h, rated 4.1 across 3,529 reviews. This is the Montreal hop on hop off bus tour, and the point of it is setting your own pace rather than following a guide.
- The Quebec day trip — a Montreal Quebec bus tour, properly
The one listing here that actually leaves the city: a full-day coach trip to Quebec City and Montmorency Falls for $70, rated 4.4 across 3,068 reviews. It is also a bestseller, includes pickup, and the listing highlights a ride on the cliffside funicular between the Upper and Lower Town. Book this one expecting a whole day, not an afternoon.
- If you searched for a Montreal night bus tour
None of the three listings on this page is sold as an evening-only route — all three run in daylight, and the exact start times are shown at checkout rather than fixed here.
Picking one
Best bus tour Montreal has for your day, in one paragraph
City guide, flexible double-decker, or a full day to Quebec — pick by distance, not by price.
If the plan is one afternoon in the city and you want a guide filling in the history as you go, book the guided Montreal bus tour at $51. If the plan is more than one day and you would rather stop wherever looks interesting, the hop-on hop-off pass at $48 covers unlimited stops across its window. If the plan is a full day out of the city entirely, the Quebec day trip at $70 is the only one of the three that actually leaves.
All three are a Montreal bus tour in the plain sense — a seat on a bus you book in advance — and all three carry free cancellation, so choosing between them is a question of pace and distance, not risk.
Before you book
Five things that decide which bus tour to pick
Practical differences between the three, not scenery.
- Fixed route or your own pace
The guided bus tour follows one set route with a narrator; the hop-on hop-off pass lets you choose your own stops across its window. That single difference decides more bookings on this page than price does.
- The Quebec trip is a different kind of day
At $70 for 12 h, the Quebec City day trip is a full day away from Montreal, not a city tour. Book it expecting to be gone from morning to evening.
- Free cancellation covers all three
The guided tour, the hop-on hop-off pass and the Quebec day trip all carry free cancellation, so booking ahead of a trip carries little downside if plans change.
- None of the three run at night
All three operate in daylight. Anyone specifically after a Montreal night bus tour will not find one among these three listings.
- Rating is close across all three
At 4.4, 4.1 and 4.4 respectively, the guided tour, the hop-on hop-off pass and the Quebec day trip are rated closely enough that the choice should come down to route and pace, not quality.
- Book with a little notice
The guided bus tour asks for at least an hour’s notice and the Quebec City day trip at least two hours, according to the listings. Booking the evening before comfortably covers either; same-day is cutting it close for the Quebec trip specifically.
When to go
Montreal bus tours through the year
All three run year-round. What changes is daylight, and how far you want to sit from a window.
Sep – Oct
Autumn
Thinner crowds on the guided tour and good light for photos on the drive to Quebec City, without summer’s peak pricing on accommodation once you arrive.
Nov – Feb
Winter
Shorter daylight windows for the hop-on hop-off pass, but the guided tour and the Quebec day trip both keep running through a Montreal winter unlike the two river cruises.
Mar – May
Spring
A comfortable middle season for all three, with daylight lengthening back towards summer hours by the end of it.
Who each Montreal bus tour suits
Matching the route to the traveller
Three products, three different reasons to book one over the others.
- Budget and short on time
The guided Montreal bus tour at $51 covers over 200 sites in 3.5 h with nothing to plan — a fixed route, a narrator, and one ticket.
- Staying more than a day, wants flexibility
The hop-on hop-off pass at $48 is built for exactly this: get off wherever looks interesting, catch the next bus whenever you are ready to move on.
- Set on seeing Quebec City
The $70 day trip is the only listing on this page that leaves Montreal at all, and it is priced and timed as a full day, not an add-on to a city visit. Pickup is included, so it does not need to start with getting yourself to a terminal.
- Comparing against the flight
The $161 helicopter covers the whole island from above in thirty minutes; any bus tour on this page covers less ground per hour but costs a fraction of the price.
The honest recommendation
Which Montreal bus tour to actually book
Guided for a single afternoon, hop-on hop-off for a longer stay, Quebec City as its own day.
If this is a single afternoon in the city and you would rather not plan a route yourself, the guided Montreal bus tour at $51 is the straightforward choice: one fixed loop, one narrator, one ticket. If the stay runs longer than a day, the hop-on hop-off pass at $48 earns its keep by letting you set your own pace across its full window instead of committing to one sitting.
The Quebec City day trip is not really competing with the other two — it is a different kind of day out entirely, and at $70 it is worth booking only once the rest of the Montreal itinerary is already sorted, since it uses up a full day on its own.
Want the city from above instead of from the road? The helicopter flight is thirty minutes over the island, from $161.
See the helicopter flight→Book direct
Book direct
The guided city tour, the hop-on hop-off double-decker, and the day trip to Quebec City.
3.5 h3,462 reviews
3.5 hMontreal: Guided Bus Tour
★ 4.4 · 3,462 reviews
- Three and a half hours, A guided bus tour of the city
- Departs from Montreal
- Mobile voucher accepted
- Free cancellation
$51$14.57 / hour
Check availability→ 
48 h3,529 reviews
48 hMontreal: Hop-On Hop-Off Double-Decker Bus Tour
★ 4.1 · 3,529 reviews
- Two days, Two days on the double-decker
- Departs from Montreal
- Most booked
- Free cancellation
$48$1.00 / hour
Check availability→ 
12 h3,068 reviews
12 hFrom Montreal: Quebec City and Montmorency Falls Day Trip
★ 4.4 · 3,068 reviews
- 12h, Quebec City and Montmorency Falls
- Departs from Montreal
- Longest tour here
- Free cancellation
$70$5.83 / hour
Check availability→ Common questions
Montreal bus tour, answered
What is the best bus tour Montreal has for a first visit?
The guided bus tour, at $51: a fixed route through downtown, Mont Royal Park and Old Montreal with narration included, rated 4.4 across 3,462 reviews.
What is the difference between the guided and the hop-on hop-off bus?
The guided bus tour follows a fixed route with a narrator and takes 3.5 h start to finish. The hop-on hop-off double-decker lets you get on and off at any stop over its 48 h window, with no guide narrating in real time.
Is the Quebec City trip the same as a Montreal city tour bus?
No — it is a separate, full-day product that actually leaves Montreal, covering Quebec City and Montmorency Falls for $70. The guided and hop-on hop-off buses both stay inside the city.
Is there a Montreal night bus tour?
Not as a separate listing. All three bus products on this page run during the day, with exact start times shown at checkout.
How much does a bus tour of Montreal cost?
The guided tour starts at $51, the hop-on hop-off pass at $48, and the Quebec City day trip at $70.
Is a Montreal double decker bus tour the same as the guided tour?
No. The double-decker is the hop-on hop-off pass, built for stopping wherever you choose. The guided tour uses its own vehicle and a fixed, narrated route.
Go deeper
More on helicopter rides over Montreal
The flights
The flights
Both helicopter flights you can book, side by side.
PricesPrices
What thirty minutes over Montreal costs.
Mont TremblantMont Tremblant
The ten-minute hop, and the drive it needs.
By boat insteadBy boat instead
The St Lawrence cruises, for a tenth of the price.
Old MontrealOld Montreal
The walks through Vieux-Montréal, compared.
Quebec day tripQuebec day trip
The full day to Quebec City and the falls.
