Lace Up Your Skates

The Best Outdoor Skating Rinks in Montreal

SportsYacine Bouhali & David S. Landsman — Published January 7, 2014 | Updated January 7, 2014 at 5:41am

Call up your friends, grab your skates and put on your tuque: here’s our list of the best outdoor skating rinks in the city.

Laurier Park
Located in the heart of the Plateau, Laurier Park is a five-minute walk from Laurier metro station.

The park has two large rinks and a smaller one better suited for three-on-three games or just skating for fun.

Weekday evenings and weekends during the day are the best times to go if you’re looking to play traditional six-a-side games.

You’ll also be able to put your hockey gear on or take a break in the temporary shack that the city has put in place for the rink’s users.

Like most other outdoor rinks in town, there’s no water fountain, so bring your own fuel and enjoy what this park has to offer.

Beaver Lake

Just beside Beaver Lake in Mount Royal Park you’ll find a refrigerated ice surface where you can skate for free until 9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

This place is great to visit in the evening when you can play a game of shinny to a backdrop full of Montreal’s colorful lights.

In the building across the ice, you can rent skates for $9 for two hours or sharpen your own for $7. The rink is open until March 9.

Bonsecours Basin

The $6 fee entrance you’ll need to pay to skate on Montreal’s Old Port skating rink is fully worth it.

With its two ice surfaces (one natural, one artificial), this is the place to be if you like to get funky while skating, with musical evenings starting everyday at 6 p.m.

You can dance to the hits of the ‘80s on retro Fridays, but you might prefer the romantic Thursdays or the rhythm-heavy Saturdays.

One thing you’ll surely enjoy is the amazing view of the Old Port and its buildings while sipping on some hot chocolate.

The rink is open until 9 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday and closes at 10 p.m. from Thursday to Sunday.

You can rent skates for $8 or sharpen yours for $7.

La Fontaine Park

Located in the Plateau, La Fontaine Park has one of the biggest natural ice surfaces in Montreal—so big, you’ll feel like you’re skating on a frozen river.

After dark, thousands of lights illuminate the usually high-quality ice.

You should skate just long enough so you can say that you deserved the tasty poutine at La Banquise, a famous spot for Quebec’s main dish.

The rink is open until 10 p.m. every day and offers a skate rental and skate sharpening service.

Entrance is free.

Girouard Park

Girouard Park doesn’t offer much to sit on aside from snow piles outside the rink, but it’s a great spot for hockey players of all ages to lace up and have a great time with friends—or complete strangers.

There are official NHL nets to go alongside a pair of shovels by the boards, so you can shovel the snow-covered ice and get your game on.

The rink is open every day and the lights only go out at 11 p.m.—plenty time for you to settle your 3-on-3 draw.

Confederation Park

The Patinoire Bleu Blanc Rouge in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce opened to the public only last winter, but has quickly become a go-to place for hockey fans of all ages in the quaint family neighborhood.

What stands out with this arena as opposed to others on the list is that it features actual NHL regulation measurements, with official boards, nets, a high-tech refrigeration system and the logo of the Montreal Canadiens adorning centre ice to top it all off.

Trenholme Park

If you’re ever around Loyola with a few hours to kill, and aren’t so much a fan of lingering in the library twiddling your thumbs until it’s time to head to class, you should take a short walk (or an even shorter bus ride) to the Trenholme Park rink and get your skate on at this old wooden outdoor rink.

It’s a quality rink that usually attracts a good number of people from all walks of life, and to top it off, right across the street are a few convenience stores, the Ultramar gas station and some small restos for you to warm up in before heading to your next destination.