Spade & Palacio is the fruit of two born and raised, young Montrealers who are passionate about their city and love to show it.
They originally met during guiding classes (yes tour guide school) and bonded over a shared interest and intention of having their visitors walk away with a day in the life of a local experience. Three years later the company was born. Palacio eventually went on her own way and Spade became the mother of the house with the city’s best tour guides, a proud mother indeed.
It’s simple; we take our guests away from the mains, and our tours are non-touristy. We want to showcase unknown parts while promoting local, young, and women entrepreneurs on our walking food tours and your local guide’s favorite parts of town on our bike tours. Our street art tours are top rated just as any route we run. Unlike other companies, we guarantee intimate groups of 10 or less. We hire only local and licensed fun guides. You aren’t sheep we herd around town, you’re our guests and we keep it human scale, we keep it real.
Over the years others have attempted to imitate our style, and routes and we have influenced others to reduce group sizes and switch up the areas covered with their guests. We are both flattered and proud of this. We’d go on our own tours and that says a lot because when we travel, we can’t stand tourists. (Shhhh!)
Meet Danny
“Co-Founder”
It’s hard to find anyone who loves this city as much as he does. Danny has been babysitting tourists for 15 years, first in the Caribbean and now on the island of Montréal. He used to run away from winter. Now, with a four-legged husband, he learned to install studded tires on his bicycle. He was practically born on two wheels, those two wheels give him freedom. He appreciates anything urban planning and landscape architecture related. He’s more paper maps than Google Maps. His soft spots include natural wine bars and Mont-Royal, which both tend to be spots he visits daily…his husband Damascus likes them too 😉
Meet Amelie
Avid traveler, coffee snob, and craft beer lover, Amelie has worked, traveled, and lived abroad for 5 years. When she finally decided to settle, she knew it had to be in Montreal. Even though she still travels a lot, her heart is here. When not sharing her passion for the city with others, you might find her eating at her favorite Mexican or Indian restaurant, attending one of the many festivals, or enjoying the weather in one of the city’s numerous parks.
Meet Thom
Born in Montreal to an English speaking dad and French speaking mom, Thom dreams in Frenglish. His motto is “bonjour/hi” and he’s so completely obsessed with Montreal that he spends his days off doing exactly what he does on his working days: He explores neighborhoods as he entertains theories about which bagel is best. When not in Montreal, chances are he’s either on a train or on his way to catch one.
Meet Jeff
Jeff’s Montreal roots run deep. He spent his weekends as a kid hanging around his dad’s shop on Le Main, proudly giving away free Portugal bracelets to visitors. Now he lives in an apartment above his 90-year old Vavo in the heart of Le Plateau. He spent (too many) years as a history student at McGill, and has an honorary degree in finding good and cheap eats. He works as a high school and college teacher during the winter (which, let’s be honest, is most of the year here!).
Meet Mel
Born in Vancouver, Mel took her first steps on the beach in BC before moving to Montréal with her parents when she was two. Since then, she has been passionate about her hometown, so it only made sense that she would end up becoming a tour guide in her beloved city! Mel has been involved in the Montréal street art and graffiti scene for over a decade now. She loves sharing her knowledge about different local artists and their work. You will never see the streets the same way after a tour with her.
Meet Gabriela
She’s been in love with her city from a young age with fond memories of summers at the Old Port, music pouring from the city festivals and many meals on many terraces. No matter the time of year though, Gabriela knows there is always magic to be found in her home city whether it’s the coziness of hiding from the cold in a local café or appreciating the glistening downtown streets after it rains. Some of her favourite pass times include exploring the different neighbourhoods and scouting out the local thrift and artisanal scenes.
Meet Chris
Chris was born in a small town but always had his eyes set on Montreal. When he finally got here, he delved into learning everything there is to know about the city. Due to bad luck more than anything, he’s lived in more of the city’s boroughs than most Montrealers can name. You can find him riding the city’s bike paths to the bagel shops, skating in a park, or trying to figure out which Metro car will drop him off right in front of his destination’s escalators.
Meet Félix
Félix was born happy and lucky. It’s all in his name.
He adopted Montréal in his early twenties back when he had short clean hair and a serious “adult job”.
After a decade in the office towers of downtown Montréal, Félix was done with the suits and ties. He decided to be outside and bike around with fun people. He’s an avid traveller, Félix is passionate about social science, cycling and eating other people’s leftovers. If you feed him, he will gladly give you a Ted Talk about Montréal.
Meet Marie-Pier
Born in Montreal, Marie-Pier has the Saint Laurent river running in her veins. She has never stopped exploring the city on two wheels and takes every opportunity to learn more about the place she calls home! She never misses out on her favour fest, the Circus Festival, eating at fancy restaurants and supporting (by tasting) every pastry shop of her neighbourhood Villeray. She’s a new mom and her happy hours are now spent hanging in the many parks, especially Jarry Park! Having a background in visual arts means she has a love for street art and all of the art galleries in the city.
Meet Rodrigo
Brazilian by birth and Québecois by choice, Rod has been in love with Montréal since the day he arrived to complete a PhD many years ago. Very passionate for music, he’s super proud to live in the city that gave Leonard Cohen and Oscar Peterson to the world. Always ready to host a party, Rod has lots of fun shaking tiki cocktails for his guests while talking about the differences between rums and rhums. Weather permitting, he will be out for a picnic by the river and won’t say no for a jam session at the Tam-Tams on Sunday afternoons in the summer.
