captjohn, were taking the train to CANADA (from Albany-Rensselaer) on Oct 11th, probably staying at the Hilton Bonaventure or the Fairmount Queen Elizabeth. Both hotels are roughly above the Central train station where the Adirondack train arrives, and both are good 4-star full service hotels in the $250-$300 per night range. It used to be that bellmen from the Queen E would meet the train by prior arrangement; don't know if that's still true. The Bonaventure, a unique place atop a low office block (occupies the 5th and 6th floors I think) is a short walk - about 1-2 blocks - through an underground shopping center from the station. Montreal can be very cold in the winter, thus a lot of shopping - very French - can be accessed without going outside to brave the weather.

We'll have friends with us who've never been to Montreal, so we're going up a day early to show them around and enjoy what is a really neat city.

For others who may be interested, my post on taking the train from New York to Montreal is at http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005242;p=1#000000