Auberge Alternative Du Vieux-Montréal

Auberge Alternative du Vieux-Montréal is a colourful youth hostel in the heart of Montreal’s beautiful, bustling Old Port. While it is enormous, with 58 beds on three floors of dorms and private rooms, it retains a cozy, homey vibe. The sunny kitchen is stocked with staples and is spacious enough to accommodate a number of cooks, and the lounge area manages to be both airy and intimate, perfect for bonding with fellow travellers over a game of cards or simply reading quietly. There is even a small stage where the more musically inclined can perform.

Owner Meggie Laplante started at the hostel as a receptionist in 2008, and it was the artsy, folky energy of the place that drew her in. “When I got here, it was like, wow, this is my kind of place,” she says. “It resonated with me, the values of the business. I’m a creative person, too, so creativity, ecology, art, it was really something that spoke to me.”