Toronto to Montreal by chauffeur: the 401 to Old Montreal, door to door

The 401, all of it

Toronto to Montreal is the busiest intercity route in Canada and the whole length of the 401 to the Quebec border, then Autoroute 20 into the island: five hundred and forty kilometres, five and a half hours off-peak, six and a half on a Friday. It is a drive people fly instead of making, and the case for making it in a chauffeured car is the case for every long drive on this site: two or three people working in the back of an S-Class from Yorkville to a hotel door in Old Montreal, no airports, no security, luggage in the boot, a delayed flight not a lost meeting, and a snowstorm that cancels every flight at Pearson and merely slows the car. A Toronto-to-Montreal booking is a one-way flat fare fixed by route and class, or an overnight with the chauffeur staying; the city-to-city page explains when each is the better number, and the Montreal city page covers the bilingual local chauffeur for the hourly day in the city on the same account.

The drive

The 401 east through Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall to the Quebec line, then the 20 through Vaudreuil, over the Île-Perrot and Galipeault bridges onto the island of Montreal, and the 20 or the 720 into the centre. Five and a half hours off-peak; Kingston at two hours fifty for lunch; Cornwall at four for coffee; the Décarie and the Turcot interchange at 5 pm the reason to arrive after 6:30 or before 3. No tolls on the 401 or the 20; the 407 across the top of Toronto is optional and worth it from Vaughan or Markham; the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge and the 30 around the south shore are the chauffeur's alternatives when the 20 is closed for construction, which in Montreal is a season. Ontario 511 and Québec 511 are what the dispatcher watches; a Toronto-Montreal-Toronto same-day run is not one chauffeur's day under Ontario's hours-of-service rules and is not booked as one.

The drive versus the flight, priced in hours

Pearson to Trudeau is an hour and fifteen minutes; Billy Bishop to Trudeau on Porter is the same. Door to door from Yorkville: forty minutes to Pearson (fifteen to Billy Bishop), an hour for check-in and security, the flight, thirty minutes from Trudeau to Old Montreal - three and a half hours on a good day from Pearson and three from the island airport, with a car at each end and the whole thing hostage to a delay. The chauffeured drive is five and a half hours door to door, working, with the same car at the hotel. For one traveller the flight wins by two hours. For two or three with luggage and a working day the drive is close on time, better on everything else, and the meeting is prepared by Cornwall. For a family or a team of six to twelve in a Sprinter the drive is cheaper as well - twelve Porter fares against one Sprinter fare is not a comparison. And on the days Pearson is a snowstorm, the drive is the only thing that moves.

Montreal's calendar, from Toronto

The Grand Prix in June: the busiest weekend of the year, every hotel full, the island's roads closed around Île Notre-Dame; a Sprinter of clients from Toronto on Thursday and home on Monday, with a local chauffeur for the circuit shuttles, booked in March. Osheaga and the Jazz Festival in July and August: a Sprinter of friends, the Parc Jean-Drapeau drop, home on Monday. Formula E, the Comedy Festival, Igloofest in January on the Old Port ice. The Canadiens at the Bell Centre and the CF Montréal at Saputo Stadium. McGill, Concordia, UdeM and HEC for move-in, convocation and open houses, the SUV with the student's things as a one-way. The Tourisme Montréal calendar sets the dates and the desk holds cars for the Grand Prix from the spring.

Business in Montreal

The Toronto firm with a Montreal office, the bank's roadshow's second day, the pharma company's Laval campus, the aerospace suppliers around Trudeau, the Palais des congrès conference, the Place Ville Marie and the Bay Street-to-René-Lévesque commute of the professional classes: a one-way flat fare on Monday evening, a bilingual local chauffeur for the Tuesday hourly day, a one-way home on Tuesday evening or a Porter flight from Trudeau if the traveller is alone, on the corporate account. The roadshow page plans the Montreal leg; the Montreal city page has the local detail - the Décarie, the Ville-Marie, the Old Port's one-way streets, the hotels' car entrances on Sherbrooke and de la Gauchetière, and the winter that arrives in November and leaves in April.

The weekend in Montreal

Old Montreal's hotels - the Hôtel William Gray, the Nelligan, the St-Paul, the Place d'Armes - and the Ritz-Carlton, the Four Seasons and the Sofitel on Sherbrooke: a one-way flat fare each way from Toronto or Pearson, or the multi-day booking with the chauffeur staying for a weekend that includes the Laurentians, Mont-Tremblant or the Eastern Townships. For most weekends the two flat fares plus a local chauffeur for the Saturday are cheaper, and the desk says so. Tremblant, ninety minutes north of Montreal on the 15, is a winter destination of its own and a Toronto-to-Tremblant one-way is on the engine.

The overnight

An hourly booking with the chauffeur staying - the per-diem and the hotel on the confirmation - gives the same chauffeur and car at the Montreal hotel's door in the morning and the drive home at the end of the day. For a principal who wants that it is the better service; for most trips two flat fares plus a local chauffeur are cheaper. A Toronto chauffeur in Montreal is not bilingual by guarantee; the local chauffeur is, and for a day of meetings in French the local is the right booking.

The car

The Mercedes S-Class for one to three who will work for five and a half hours; the rear seats recline and the cabin is quiet enough for a call across the Cornwall flats. The Executive Sedan for the same drive at the lower rate. The Luxury SUV for a family, luggage, a student's move-in and the 401 from November to April, when it is an SUV road. The Executive Sprinter for seven to twelve - the Grand Prix party, the team, the Osheaga friends - cheaper per seat than the train or the flight and with the meeting held on the way. The fleet page has capacities; every vehicle has winter tyres from November, which Quebec requires by law from December to mid-March.

Stops on the way

A flat fare includes one comfort stop on a drive this long, usually Kingston or Cornwall; an hourly booking stops as you like - the Kingston Pen tour, lunch in Brockville, the Upper Canada Village at Morrisburg, a winery in Prince Edward County on the way home. The chauffeur knows where the good coffee is in Cornwall, which is a small thing that matters at hour four.

Montreal, in a table

Booking the Montreal drive

Choose Route, the class, the Toronto and Montreal addresses, the date and time; confirm the fare; add the return as a second Route or call the desk for the overnight. For the Montreal hourly day, the Montreal city page explains the local booking. Book the Grand Prix, Osheaga and the Christmas market weekends a month or more ahead, and winter drives with a weather eye and the desk's honest advice about the 401 at Cornwall.

Montreal's addresses, for the drop

Old Montreal's hotels on Rue Saint-Paul, Saint-Jacques and de la Commune have valet entrances on one-way streets the chauffeur has driven; the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons on Sherbrooke, the Sofitel on Sherbrooke, the Queen Elizabeth on René-Lévesque, the Marriott Chateau Champlain on de la Gauchetière; Place Ville Marie's car entrance on Cathcart; the Palais des congrès on de Bleury; the Bell Centre on de la Gauchetière at de la Montagne; McGill's Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke; Concordia's Guy-Concordia campus; the Laval pharma campus off the 15 and the aerospace plants around Trudeau on the 20. Montreal's one-way grid and its construction cones are the local chauffeur's knowledge; a Toronto chauffeur on a one-way is briefed by the desk and drops at the door.

Tremblant, the Townships and the north

Mont-Tremblant is ninety minutes north of Montreal on the 15 and the 117, and a Toronto-to-Tremblant one-way - seven hours, the ski gear in the SUV - is on the engine as a flat fare for a ski week; the Eastern Townships (Bromont, Magog, North Hatley) an hour east of the city on the 10 for a wine-and-cheese weekend; Quebec City three hours further on the 20 or the 40, and the Quebec City page covers the local chauffeur there. All are one-way flat fares from Toronto, and the Canada hub explains the network at the far end.

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