The Humanti Hotel’s tagline ‘A city within a building’ is a bold statement to make. However, if you check out the Montreal based establishment’s gastronomic, spa and bedtime offerings, you’ll appreciate they have an embarrassment of riches to offer at the hotel.
Hotel
Recently opened, this is not your stereotypical brutalist hotel, which was popular during the boom years of the 1960s in Montreal. The towering Humaniti glass complex isn’t just a hotel, but also apartments, office space and retail shops.
The innovative h-shaped, twin-tower architecture has been designed by renowned Lemay architects. It is the embodiment of the ‘live, work, play’ lifestyle. The lobby resembles more of a contemporary art gallery rather than any conventional hotel reception area. Splashes of colour dominate the interior from the cushy yellow sofa to a statement pink honeycombed textured sculpture.
The location could not be more convenient. It is only across the street from the Palais des congrès and mere blocks away from Quartier des spectacles, where you’ll find countless cultural and shopping institutions.
Room
Modern design along with high-quality amenities can be found in all 193 of their rooms and suites. The rooms start from a very respectable 334 sq. ft to the Hero suite at 1200 sq. ft which feels like your own private condominium in downtown Montreal.
From the work of famed interior designer, Andres Escobar, the rooms are filled with colour and modernity. Mustard yellow chairs and marine blue bathroom tiles help to liven up your stay along with floor to ceiling windows for you to admire the Montreal skyline. Helpfully, there is less brutalist architecture in this part of town.
The mini-bars reflect the needs of 21st-century hotel guests, so you’ll find a couples kit, peppermint gum and Cirka gin, which is made locally in Montreal. They offer high-quality, eco-friendly bathroom amenities such as BeeKind body lotion with honey and chamomile extracts to ensure you are protected from the elements outside.
Food and drink
Humaniti Hotel’s in-house restaurant, H3 is an underrated culinary gem in the city. It offers a warm, welcoming environment, and a menu that fiercely supports local producers, they even use 100% maple syrup from their maple grove.
Their tasting menu is the option to go for and is very reasonably priced at $95. The dishes change seasonally but you could be trying exquisite delicacies like foie gras mousse tartlet, Cacuna sea urchin, Gaspésie q10 scallop or Wagyu beef. And the dishes are ingeniously paired with other ingredients to help accentuate the flavours such as the sea urchin being paired with rhubarb sauce along with fried kale for textural variety. You also have the opportunity to finish your tasting menu with desserts in their chilled wine room, complete with blankets to keep you warm.
Even breakfast is strongly focused on local produce, so expect the sight of maple bacon and St Viateur bagel. And once again, they have floor to ceiling windows so you can observe the pedestrian adventures of passersby in the square below.
Spa
The hotel spa is a true urban refuge with 2,000 sq. ft. of floor space, four treatment rooms, two pedicure stations and two manicure stations, along with a split-level state-of-the-art gym. They focus on working with ethical brands that are natural, organic or vegan such as France Laure, Bkind and Laspa.
I would particularly recommend The Detox – Body Exfoliation. After a season of indulgence, this is a great way to encourage cell renewal. It helps to cleanse and nourish your skin so you leave the hotel with a healthy glow. And they are to be highly commended for introducing a vegan pedicure, when often you might find in pedicures technicians using products like emu oil.
To do
Purchasing the Passeport MTL card is highly recommended as you get to visit the city’s attractions at a discounted rate. Next to the hotel is OASIS immersion. A brand new immersive space over 23,500 sq ft. located on the ground floor of the Palais des congrès de Montréal. Exhibitions like Van Gogh are brought to life in an all-encompassing 3-D digital experience and you can quite conceivably see more art galleries in future moving in this direction.
If you want to know why Montreal is one of the leading gastronomic destinations in Canada, make sure you book a food tour with Round Table Tours. They offer quirky culinary tours that not only let you try some of the great Montreal specialities but also learn about local cultures such as their Chinatown tour or their Jewish food tour.
In a nutshell
This is a hotel that represents the modern face of Montreal. It’s vibrant, it’s eclectic and always welcoming.
Factbox
Humaniti Hotel Montreal Autograph Collection offers rooms from 399CAD per night.
Address: 340 Rue De La Gauchetière O O, Montreal, Quebec H2Z 0C3, Canada
Phone: +1 514-657-2595
Email: Info@humanitihotel.com
Website: humanitihotel.com
All imagery supplied by Humaniti Hotel Montreal Autograph Collection.
