Montréal offers something for every taste and more than enough attractions to keep even the largest groups busy. For planners, the city offers more than 25,000 rooms that include large convention properties and intimate boutique hotels, many of the latter in the historic Old Montréal district. Some 15,000 hotel rooms are downtown; 4,000 are connected to the city convention center via underground walkways.

The largest meeting facilities include the 330,000-square-foot Montréal Convention Centre, with 200,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 19,712-square-foot ballroom, and 65 breakout rooms; Mount Royal Centre, with more than 50,000 square feet of space and a 730-seat auditorium; and Place Bonaventure, with 300,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space and nine meeting rooms.

Here are a few ideas for off-site group experiences:

• In a city with a reverence for fine dining and the largest number of restaurants per capita (more than 5,000, including two CAA five-diamond restaurants, Toque! and Casino Montréal's Nuances), dine-around evenings are a natural choice.

• The Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montréal forms a dramatic stage for private concerts. It showcases the country's largest set of pipe organs. From there, take a short walk to neighboring historic properties for receptions or banquets.

• Bonsecours Market, a neo-classic structure erected in the mid-19th century, houses art galleries, boutiques, exhibition spaces, and an elegant reception hall.

• About 17 miles of underground passageways connect many buildings in center city, including the Montréal Convention Centre; the network can be used for scavenger hunts and rallies.

Most of the area's 3.6 million residents are as comfortable speaking English as they are French, and the city is only 45 miles from the closest U.S. border, 90 minutes or less by air from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Washington.