r/travel • u/AutoModerator • Dec 05 '19
Advice r/travel Region of the Week: 'Quebec'
Hey travellers!
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Unhelpful: Read my blog here!!!
Helpful: My favourite part of driving down the PCH was the wayside parks. I wrote a blog post about some of the best places to stop, including Battle Rock, Newport and the Tillamook Valley Cheese Factory (try the fudge and ice cream!).
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Helpful: The best food we tried in Myanmar was at the Karawek Cafe in Mandalay, a street-side restaurant outside the City Hotel. The surprisingly young kids that run the place stew the pork curry[curry pic] for 8 hours before serving [menu pic]. They'll also do your laundry in 3 hours, and much cheaper than the hotel.
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u/akantho Dec 06 '19
I've visited Montreal, but I can't really speak much to the city since I was there for a bachelor party about 5 years ago and can't remember much. Montreal is very fun for bachelor parties.
I visited Quebec City this past summer with my wife for a long weekend and we loved it. We weren't able to get a room at Chateau Frontenac since it was a bit of a last second trip, so we ended up staying in the lower part of Old Quebec at a place called Hotel 71 that was very conveniently located.
We went to the changing of the guard ceremony at La Citadelle which was neat. Dragged on a little long, but we got to take a picture with their armored goat at the end, so that was worth it. Had to footrace a bunch of kids to get to the front of the line for that. Smoked them.
We made a trip to Montmorency Falls. They have a cool suspension bridge that takes you all the way over the waterfall and you can ride a zipline back across. After that, we went to Ile d'Orleans to check out some vineyards and grab some lunch. The tastings are very reasonably prices and we shipped a case back home. We visited Ste-Petronille and Isle de Bacchus for tastings.
My favorite part of the trip was just exploring Old Quebec. I loved the pedestrian areas of the lower area a bit more than up the hill. There's a funicular that connects them. I'm a big fan of funiculars. It was super crowded in both places though. There was a festival on Rue Saint-Jean which had the street as pedestrian only, so we visited the old walls and fortifications and made our way around that area for a while.
All in all it was a great trip and very affordable.
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u/sunbomb Dec 06 '19
Family of 4 with elementary school kids did a Quebec trip in early July 2019, for 6 days, 7 nights.
- Flew into Montreal and stayed at Le Saint-Sulpice for 2 nights. Could have probably done one more night in hindsight. Lots to see and experience just even in the immediate vicinity of Montreal's old section. The restaurant scene is awesome, but a tad pricey. We spent $80-100 CAD at breakfasts in the superb patisseries around.
- Rented car, drove to Quebec City and stayed at the Chateau Frontenac for 2 nights. Truly a great hotel to just hang around in. The boardwalk next to it looks over the St. Lawrence river and the evenings are very nice. The breakfast at the hotel was pricey, but absolutely fabulous.
- Drove east to Tadoussac to do some whale-watching at the mouth of the fjord. It was fantastic and we saw almost a hundred whales of different types in 1 2-hour period - guide did say that was atypical of the average tour. Stayed one night at Tadoussac at the Hotel-Motel Le Beluga. Average stay.
- Drove north to L'Anse-Saint-Jean for a kayaking tour on the fjord. This was also a pretty good side-quest, but the mosquitoes ate us alive when we came back from the kayaking in the evening. Stayed one night at Auberge des Cevennes - definitely the worst night of the trip with no A/C and staying on the top floor of this inn. Watch out for eating late here; everything shuts down but we drove to the nearby grocery/gas-station and procured some delicious comestibles.
- Last day drove back 8 hours to Montreal and saw some beautiful Quebecois countryside.
- Stayed last night at the Montreal Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel before catching early next morning flight. Highly recommended to avoid all last-minute crap.
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u/sunbomb Dec 06 '19 edited Dec 06 '19
Couple of notes
- I gained about 6 pounds because of the damn food. Be careful.
- We wanted to do a couple of the National Parks, but figured that we can make that the focus of our next trip, now that we know what we are dealing with.
- Coming from the South of US, the prices of everything seemed high, but the value seemed fair, if that makes sense.
- We all now actively seek out French patisseries on our trips to anywhere. The brunch highlight was at https://maisonchristianfaure.ca/en/. The breakfast highlight was at the Frontenac's restaurant. Dinner was strangely meh everywhere.
- One trick we learned in the last few days was to visit the local grocery stores for some truly delicious prepared foods. Not expensive and very filling.
- The soft-serve ice-cream everywhere was fantastic; very rick and creamy. All the ice-cream places have a facility whereby you dip the soft-serve into a liquid that then hardens around the ice-cream. Kids just love that kind of stuff.
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u/Siganus Dec 09 '19
My girlfriend and I are interested in visiting Montreal and Quebec City for the first week or so of the new year. We are travelling from Detroit and are debating driving to Montreal then taking the train to Quebec City or just taking the train all the way from Windsor. Any one have any strong feelings about the train? We are both apprehensive because Amtrak is a miserable joke and a terrible way to waste a day.
Also, any recommendations for things to do? Cheap thrills? Fancy dinners? We like breweries, coffee shops, conservatories, aquariums, walking around town, etc.
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u/Qiviuq Canada - visited 🇺🇸🇧🇸🇫🇷🇮🇹🇨🇳🇮🇪🇬🇧🇩🇴 Dec 09 '19
I've never found VIA Rail to be too bad, but I've only ever taken it between Ottawa and Port Hope. It does have to yield to freight trains so that can slow things down.
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u/sierranevada007 Dec 12 '19
Fancy dinners?
Look into Toqué and Joe Beef. They are ranked as Canada’s 2nd and 3rd best restaurants!
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u/joepyeweed Dec 07 '19
My wife and I are thinking to do a driving tour of the Gaspe area of Quebec next October. We are going to fly into Presque Isle, ME and go from there. We only have four full days - what should we prioritize?
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u/adventurescout140 United States-->Dominican Republic Dec 10 '19 edited Dec 10 '19
Went to Montreal and Quebec City as a short road trip from New England in March of 2017 with my college roommate. Our itinerary as best as in remember it:
Drive to Montreal. In Montreal I dont remember our exact itinerary but we stayed 2 days. We stayed in the DODGIEST hostel ever. The first day a local friend of my roommate took us to the park on the hill, Notre Dame, and old Montreal. We went to a festival of lights and all went to a pub later. The second day we slept in after staying out late and then met up with a friend of mine who, coincidentally was also in the city, at a pub in old Montreal where we hung out for the rest of the day. We went to a jazz bar that night with my cousin who also lived in Montreal at the time (I'm from New England 🤷🏻♀️)
We then drove out to Quebec and spent 2 days there. We spent one day exploring old Quebec, and one day snowed into our airbnb (March). Old Quebec is so charming and beatiful.
I completely agree with anither poster's characterization i Of Montreal, it's a funky, cool city. It's definitely a place where you want to take advantage of local events and festivals, and also the type of place where you can vibe out in a cozy bar or pub for a day. It's really cold in the winter.
Quebec was a winter wonderland and I found it so charming but I do feel it had less to do after we had explored the old town.
Coming from New England in 2017, Montreal was much cheaper than any Northeast city, and the exchange rate was ~well~ in our favor at the time ( less than 0.75 on the dollar). I think I spent $75 over 2 days in Montreal
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u/FastestSnail10 Dec 10 '19
So vous voulez la vrais experience de Quebec, vous devez visiter le Gatineau.
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u/EditorForLife Dec 11 '19
If I was going to visit sometime next year, would I be better off going in April, or October? I like the idea of fall color, but worried that would be too late. And not sure if April isn't too early?
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u/travelwithAlexWong Dec 11 '19
I have only been to Montreal and I find the culture very unique. A great city to practice your French if u studied French as a second language like me. Make sure you get some Maple Syrup!
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u/PoneyUp Dec 12 '19
As a Vermonter we visit Montreal often. It’s an amazing city for all the reasons highlighted above. As far as places to check out, the Biodome. It’s a lot of wild life in man made natural settings. Good option if you’re vacationing with kids. Montreal also has lovely art museums & great venues for concerts. For night life, there are so many great places. My favorite bar is the Lockhart , a Harry Potter themed bar that is just wonderful for any Harry Potter fan & not too over the top for non-fans. My favorite restaurant is Couscoussiere D’Ali Baba, I haven’t been there since last year (2018) but they used to do live belly dancing Friday’s & Saturday’s. It was also one of the best 6 course Moroccan meals that I’ve had in a while. They also have bike tours in Old City & sometime in January or February there is the Festival of Lights (Montréal en Lumière) & that is pretty cool to see. Again I haven’t been back since 2018, though Montréal is an amazing city with so much to offer.
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u/traboulidon Dec 06 '19 edited Dec 06 '19
Montrealer here (sorry for my english mistakes). In short here are the basics for the city.
-Montreal : big city yet it remains at a human scale. Cosmopolitan with a huge immigrant and english population yet it has the french quebecois touch. Very modern but compared to the west of Canada it has history and old buildings from an north american point of view. Americans and canadians think they are in europe, europeans think they are in New York ( they are both wrong). So visit Montreal if you like cool safe urban settings, festivals, food and drinks, happy people. Montreal is not the prettiest city, it does’nt have spectacular touristic sites but the real gem is its people and the unique vibe. It is a fun and funky city. No car needed here, walk or take the metro. Explore the different neigborhoods , find an hotel there instead of the generic downtown.
-around Montreal: Cantons de l’est(eastern townships): our version of new england. Small historic villages, farms, forests and hills. An historic english population (loyalists refugees from the states from the revolution). I would rent a car and explore the charming villages.
Laurentides: more rugged. Lake and forest country, with cottages. Less cute villages because it’s more « new ». I would rent a chalet in front of a lake and explore the local national parks. Avoid Mont Tremblant and its fake european village.
—- edit for Québec city and around:
-Charelevoix: the true gem of Quebec province because It is the prettiest region: the Saint-Laurent (saint lawrence river) at this point is really wide, almost like small sea + combine this with the mountains and hills of Charlevoix and it is a killing combo for the spectacular scenery. Also the little villages along the St Laurent are really cute and it is really worth it to rent a car and follow the route du fleuve next to the river and explore them. The region is also vast and wild, while the river section is inhabited, the arrière pays is full of mountains, rivers and national parks.
-Tadoussac: this historic village is cutted from Charlevoix region by the spectacular Saguenay fjord ( you have to take the ferry to get there), a truly beautiful scenery. The whales sightings are the star attraction here: i suggest to take a zodiac tour instead a huge boat full of hundreds of tourists. Even if you don't care about the whales, the tour is worth it for exploring the majestic river and the fjord. The village is really small and in summer with a lot tourists, careful with accommodation. —-
In conclusion my favorite itinerary would be : Montréal - Québec - Charlevoix and Tadoussac.