It's easy to see why Gourmet magazine recently devoted an entire issue to Montréal. Citing its vibrant food and arts scene, multicultural population, and affordability , editor Ruth called it “an absolutely extra-ordinary city.”

Montréal is a captivating mix of the charming old and the stylish ultramodern. It's a destination that offers more than enough attractions to keep even the largest groups busy.

For meeting planners, the city has an impressive range of lodging, more than 25,000 rooms, from large convention properties to intimate boutique hotels, many of the latter concentrated in the historic Old Montréal district. Some 15,000 hotel rooms are downtown; 4,000 of them are connected to the city convention center via underground walkways.

There are dozens of venues for groups of all sizes throughout the city. 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.

In the city with the largest number of restaurants per capita (more than 5,000), dine-around evenings are a natural choice.

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

Montréal is only 45 miles from the closest U.S. border and 90 minutes or less by air from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C.