YUL Plane Spotting Montreal – Giant steel bird observatory

relaxing
Relaxing
"There are bird spotters, trainspotters... and plane spotters - and this is where they meet in Montreal! Ready for some plane spotting in YUL?"

There are bird spotters, trainspotters, airplane spotters, spot spotters…. Here I want to mention the third kind of spotter I listed: airplane spotters, and more specifically a location from which to spot airplanes landing in or taking off from Montreal. Conveniently, it’s located at the beginning of the Montreal airport landing runway.

It’s by the occasion of my many city exploration sessions on my bike that I ended at that roundabout. I was planning to cycle around the airport, which I did, and I realised that one place had way too many people parked for a Sunday afternoon, especially in that industrial area that's mostly dead at the end of the week.

Funny thing - going to that spot makes you approach it as if you were landing: you need to slow down, because that street is a dead end with a roundabout, and then you need to speed up again as if you were taking off when leaving it by the same path.

I also like the advertising structure, almost fixed to the ground and only visible from the ground… But having it higher would be problematic for the planes landing.

About this spot

1599 Boulevard Pitfield

C$

no-price

There’s so much more to discover

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juliegauthier

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Artistic Shortcut – Open-air exhibition

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HoneyBooks – BIPOC books and brands

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Wilensky – A simple tradition

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Campanelli – Coffee source

"Campanelli" in Montreal has nothing inherently special about it - it's just the coffee place I visit on my way to work! I do like the crowd here, though.

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Munchiz Exotique – Snack attack

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Tri Express – Special secret sauce

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The Tree of Life – Tree of many faces

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Arcade MTL – Video Game Heaven

Finish him! Me-style kick! Hadouken! Shoryuken! If you’re familiar with these phrases, odds are that you're a gamer, or at least played a video game or two in your life.

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Atomic Cafe – Retro futuristic cafe

"Atomic Cafe" Montreal seems to be inspired by the 1967 world expo. It's a retro-future world filled with round furniture. Just order an 'atomicano'...

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Kouign Amann – Did you say 'butter'?

"Kouign Amann" Montreal Chocolate is a charming little outdated and colorful decor bakery, and we don't want it to change! Try their raspberry Danish.

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