For first-timers driving in Montreal tends to be a pretty stressful experience, so the best advice is keep your driving to a minimum and find accommodation with parking if you can.

Challenges

In addition to whatever the weather might be throwing at you there's a constant cycle of construction and detours on city streets; strange and often illogical road layouts (there are roads where traffic switches sides and highways where the fast lane exits); foreign-language signs; a carpet of potholes on many streets (there's been a lot of corruption and misuse of road maintenance funds); and then there's the threat of extraordinary rush hour jams which can slow you to a crawl pretty much anywhere in the city.

On top of all that, once you do get to your destination there's complexities of parking to worry about.

Sat navs

Sat Navs struggle in Montreal thanks largely to restrictions on left turns off main roads at certain times of day. Many Sat Navs don't take this into account so may well suggest routes that hinge on at least one illegal manoeuvre.