Fitz Montréal Bike Tours

My boyfriend and I booked both the North and South bike tours for our first trip to Montréal and we loved everything about Fitz & Follwell's services. If you're staying in the city for multiple days and want a more complete experience, I highly recommend doing both tours. But if you MUST choose between the two, these were some of our insights.

South Tour: Jeff and Zach, our guides, were both very professional and engaging. This tour is great if you've never been to Montréal and want a more general tourist tour with the historical context of the city. The biking itself can be a tiny bit challenging at times if you're not used to city riding, but the guides (and the bikes!) are well equipped to address it.

North Tour: This tour was much smaller than the South tour for us. I think it had to do with both the fact that the North tour is more centralized around local neighborhoods and way of life and that we did this tour in the morning. We had a wonderful, intimate group setting, and the pace was much more leisurely than the south tour. We were able to grab some bagels and eat them in a park within sight of Mont Royal. This tour is great for foodies as well! However, a lot of the discussions we had during this tour were better informed because of the information we learned in the South tour the day before.

Overall Tips:
1.Your guides will give you the chance to zip around the park to test out your bike before you head out. Take advantage of it to make sure you have the right fit/ everything is good with the bike!

2. The afternoon bike tours end at a perfect time for an early dinner/late afternoon snack. There are a ton of really awesome restos along Rue Rachel where you can grab a poutine or snacks à emporter (take out) and picnic with some wine or beer in the park where you start the tours.

3. If you do the North tour, bring some cash and ask for a basket even if you don't have that much stuff. You'll stop at Marché Jean Talon, which has wonderful fresh produce and local foodstuffs. You'll want to be able to bring things back with you, and the ATMs were broken when we visited.

Really great Montreal tour today with Eduardo. This three hour tour gave us a good overview of the city. Bikes are in excellent condition. Eduardo was knowledgeable and kept things interesting and moving. Highly recommend.

Our bike tour with Anna was a fun adventure for our family of 4 which included our 2 teenagers (13 and 15 years old). First time on a bike tour and first time to Montréal. I hadn't been on a bike for years so I was a little apprehensive but all was great. This tour was a fabulous way to end our short but memorable stay. What a great way to see this diverse city, full of character and charm. Anna led us skillfully through crowded parks and streets, sometimes needing to make quick adjustments based on the day's unpredictable events but always keeping us safely together. We really felt like we got an intro to charming neighborhoods, bustling cafe and restaurant streets, historic Montreal and the old port region. Anna's instructions to our group of roughly 10 were practical and useful, and we appreciated ending right on time. You don't have to be an expert biker to do this. Fantastic family memory!

FIRST BIKE TOUR (but not the last!)
all positive reviews on FITZ are TRUE! started w a perfect latte in the shop, fitted w solid bikes/helmets. our first montreal visit, huge city. fred and jonathan led us safely on big blvds, green paths, sweet green alleys, thru immaculate parks, enclaves and areas undergoing gentrification. marché jean-talón A+ outdoor market and wall art my fave stops. tour is nicely paced, great info, low key, friendly, considerate of skill levels, photo ops. glad we chose FITZ--this shop is run with joy. will pass the word!

We were in town for a quick weekend trip that was planned on the fly. It was my husbands birthday and after obliging his "I want to take a nap for my birthday. Can I please take a nap?" request....,I booked a bike tour at the last minute. It was wonderful!! Daniel was our guide. He was a wealth of information and a delightful host, with a bit of dry, sarcastic humor (my favorite type of humor!).
I would 1000% recommend this company. The bikes functioned well, we felt very safe, and we definitely got more than our monies worth.
We plan to go back when we return to Montreal at some point!

Book now! The food tour will be a highlight of your visit!

What: Food tour featuring a Portuguese bakery, Wilensky's Light Lunch, Fairmont Bagel, Ice Wine/ cheese tasting at Marché Des Saveurs, and more!

Where: On foot, north of the Fitz & Folwell storefront in Mile End, Little Italy, and Le Plateau Mont Royal.

Who: Led by the fabulously knowledgeable, entertaining, and professional city guide, Jean-Phillipe.

When: Saturday, August 19, 2017.

This tour was one of the highlights of my week in Montreal. Not only did we experience some of the longest-standing food traditions of the city, our 10-member group also gleaned a wealth of historical and architectural backstory to the areas and businesses along the tour. And to settle any disagreement provoked by New Yorkers, a Long Island resident admitted that the Fairmont bagels are AT LEAST as good as the ones on which he was raised.
The people were lovely and diverse, the food represented many of Montreal's traditions, and the guide showed deep understanding and social grace. I loved it!

HIGHLY recommend! My girlfriend and I were visiting Montreal for the first time and had heard the city was extremely bike-friendly. We decided to do a bike tour our first day there to get a lay of the land and explore the city, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience!

We chose the 5-hour tour which included the bikes, helmet, and lunch with a beer at Atwater Market. (We did the tour in April, but looking at their updated website now in July, it looks like the 5-hour tour has turned into the "North & South Tour".) Our guide's name was Catherine, and she was simply delightful. My girlfriend and I ended up being the only ones on the tour that day so we were worried it might be a little awkward, but Catherine was super easy-going and fun (and we both secretly wanted her to be our best friend when the day was done). She taught us so much about the city and we got to see quite a bit! There were also plenty of breaks so we hardly broke a sweat if you're worried about that sort of thing.

10/10 would recommend for anyone visiting the city, whether you're a first timer to the city, or a Montreal native.

After attending a Yelp Elite event, I won a pair of tickets to any tour of my choosing at Fitz & Follwell. I opted for the long 5 hour bike tour that journeyed into Plateau Mont-Royal, McGill college, The Old Port and the Lachine canal.

From the onset of booking my tour, it was a great experience! Tour started on time and they were very organized. The bike I was provided was of high quality and comfortable. Our Tour guides ensured we felt safe off we went to visit La Ville de Montreal with all its nooks and crannies.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, passionate and friendly. He made us feel very engaged in our shared activity. I loved biking up and down the Lachine canal as well as the dozen or so stops to talk about the history of the city as well as its important sites.

We stopped at Marche Atwater for lunch and enjoyed a community picnic with local foods fresh from the farmer's market. The pizzas were good, the fruits were fresh and our bottled drinks hit the spot.

On the way back we also stopped for gelato and it was a nice touch in this journey.

We really loved this even and highly recommend it for those who visit the city as well as locals. We hope to do this one again albeit not one as long as 5 hours.... my legs were gumbo for a few days. :)

We returned to Fitz & Follwell Co three days in a row during our week-long visit in Montreal. The shop is trendy, has lots of quirky bike stuff, and has bicycles that are good for comfortably riding around the city. The staff are pretty hipster, youthful, and uber friendly. They took the time to fit us properly to our bikes, hook us up with baskets or panniers, and make sure that our helmets were the right size.

First, we went on a five hour bike tour led by Catherine, a bicycle mechanic, and a photographer. She was knowledgeable and entertaining. I greatly impressed how she kept our large group of about 20 riders close together - even when crossing busy intersections (there weren't many of them). There were a couple people who were not physically fit; however, they easily kept up with the group. One bike got a flat tire and the mechanic quickly swapped bikes with that rider so that the tour could continue without stopping. She fixed the flat in no time and caught up with the group.

For us, it was important to be exposed to bike riding in the city proper, in the neighborhoods, and on the paths. She showed us dozens of important sites and taught us history and facts. What I liked best about the tour was when we stopped for food! First we stopped at Marche Atwater (a year-round farmers market) where we ate lunch. Catherine got us local pizza and fresh berries from some of the booths. Then brought us to another booth for bottled drinks - even a whole host of local beers! The price of lunch was included in the cost of the tour. Next, we stopped for gelato. It was the perfect amount of food.

Next, we rented brand new All City bicycles for 24 hours. They gave us a deal because of the tour. We also got helmets, locks and lights. The All City bikes were beautiful and functional and the sportiest bikes they had. We took them on a 50 mile ride to and from a pow wow! It involved riding on pavement, gravel, and horrible dirt roads. Needless to say - those bikes are broken in!

We visited Montréal for the weekend and wanted to see the city by bike for an afternoon. Having a one and a half year old daughter, we needed a buggy for her to ride in. This requirement narrowed down the bike rental shops for us and we are so glad to have used Fitz & Follwell!

The staff is the main reason I give this shop five stars. They treated us like friends, not tourists. They were so helpful and kind. They were efficient in getting us our bikes/helmets/lock so we could get out on the streets. They made sure we were comfortable with the bikes and the buggy and provided us a city map. I can't say enough about the staff here -- after our ride, I wanted to hang out at the shop, that's how at-ease they made us feel.

The Linus bikes were in excellent condition and easy to shift gears. The helmets were clean and in excellent condition. The buggy for our daughter was also in tip top shape and we felt 100% comfortable with her taking her first ever bike-buggy ride.

I highly recommend this shop for rentals in the city as their prices were reasonable and once again, the staff was awesome!!! Next time we're in Montréal, no doubt we'll return here for rentals or just to say Hi!