When visiting Montréal, I say skip over cheap mass-produced souvenirs and opt for a more meaningful type of item vintage clothing. 

Although it can be tempting to purchase a new fridge magnet or trinket for your shelf, there is a far better alternative available.  By choosing to shop second-hand, your souvenir to remember a trip to this incredibly special city is more sentimental, more usable, and is directly attached to your memories and experiences.

Montréal is renowned for its vintage reselling scene, with many iconic stores and locations, some which have even featured in vogue as “worth a road-trip” (Hardy, 2024). In the “Plateau” neighbourhood, vintage stores line the street, with cafes, restaurants, and boutiques strung in between. The area is quintessential Montréal with every available wall decorated with murals while the iconic Montréal duplexes fill the side streets. I know from my own experience, first as a tourist and then as a tour guide, that spending time in this neighbourhood is a perfect way to explore this city and feel like a local.

When on vacation, experiences are truly what is important, not the items you bring home with you. The BBC reports that individuals are moving away from traditional mass-produced souvenirs and instead opting for utilitarian, collectible, or sentimental items (Mohnot, 2025). Perhaps instead of adorning your fridge with new items, it’s time to adorn yourself with an item which makes you feel good.

If the benefits to you and your vacation are not convincing enough, consider the impact to the environment. By shopping second-hand, you break the cycle which sends perfectly good clothing directly to the landfill (Petrie, 2025). Additionally, prevent yourself from buying first-hand clothing, limiting the environmental impact of your consumption habits. The garment industry is a major polluter, both in production stages as “energy-intensive stages emerge as hotspots” and when clothes are discarded, as an estimated 70% of clothing was made of synthetic (plastic) fibres in 2016 (Petrie, 2025)

To find a curated selection of unique second-hand items, I recommend taking the metro to the Mont-Royal station on the Orange line, from here plenty of stores are nearby. You can walk to rue St. Denis where the trendy Marche Floh and Club 777 are located, among a variety of smaller spots. If you walk a couple blocks further to rue St Laurent, you’ll find the iconic Eva B and its second location Eva D which is known for its 1$ espresso. These are only a few of the vintage reselling stores within this area and all provide a selection of high-quality, clean, and preserved items.

Of course, if you’re not interested in the mark-up that vintage resellers add to the price of an item, there are plenty of thrift stores across the city, which offer an un-curated selection of clothing. Although it takes a bit more searching, many tourists and local find items which become wardrobe staples in these locations. To find a thrift store, I recommend searching for one of these names: Salvation Army, Renaissannce, or Village des Valeurs (Value Village).

With a myriad of options, Montréal is the perfect city make a day of second-hand shopping, whether it be high-end (or low-end) vintage resellers, or searching through the local thrift stores. You can spend the time seeing some beautiful parts of the city and with unique and wearable items, as well as a lighter conscience. A trip to Montréal is not complete without a bit of vintage shopping.

Reference List:

Hardy, A. (2024, December 31). This street in Montréal is a secondhand shopping lover’s dream. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/montreal-secondhand-shopping-saint-laurent 

Mount, T. (2025, February 18). Is it time to change how we buy travel souvenirs? British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved October 15, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250217-is-it-time-to-change-how-we-buy-travel-souvenirs

Petrie, L. (2025). A Consumer’s Guide to Making Sustainable Garment Choices. Scientific American, 333(1), 42–45.