Sometimes you just don’t get to spend all of the time you want to in an amazing city. We had a pretty tight timeline for our Quebec holiday, with only two days in Quebec City. My two tween daughters and mother-in-law were with me and we all had to agree on what to do. We really wanted to see Old Quebec and fit in some of the other top attractions.
We started out by taking the Levis-Quebec City Ferry to get to downtown. This was a huge success! We timed it right and took the ferry into Quebec City at rush hour on a Friday when everyone was going in the opposite direction. The drive down to the ferry in Levis is incredible and the ferry ride offered amazing views of Old Quebec from the water. It would be a perfect way to see the fortress all lit up at night.
We stayed at the Chateau Laurier. The hotel is just up the hill from Old Quebec and it was a perfect location to start our walking tour of Old Quebec with Cicerone Tours. The hotel had a nice indoor pool, hot tubs on a terrace, and large rooms. The breakfast at Swiss Chalet wasn’t the best I’ve had and it was very crowded, however we would stay at the Chateau Laurier again because of the location and service.
On our first morning we went on a walking tour of Old Quebec with Cicerone Tours. Our tour guide Danny was excellent. He was knowledgable about the history of Old Quebec and entertained us with a few jokes as well. He also stopped to play the spoons for us with a local musician. We walked quite far, however, our pace was slow enough for everyone to easily walk the distance.
During a walking your of Old Quebec you get to see a lot of important sites including the impressive Chateau Frontenac, the Fortifications of Quebec, Rue du Trésor an open air art gallery, Parliament Hill, the incredible Fresque des Québécois wall mural, and ride the Funiculaire elevator back up the hill. I highly recommend taking a tour to make the most of a short visit!
In the afternoon, we visited Musees de la Civilisation in Old Quebec. It was one of the best museums we have been to. The exhibits were entertaining for all ages, the food in the cafeteria was reasonably priced and delicious and it was easy to walk to from our hotel. One of the best exhibits was an interactive play area called Once Upon A Time with costumes for both adults and children. You could try the costumes on and then play in the exhibit area in Rapunzel’s Castle, the wicked witch’s cottage and more.
On our last day in Quebec City we decided to go to the Aquarium du Quebec. We skipped breakfast at the hotel because we thought we might get something along the way. We didn’t have an opportunity to stop so we tried to get something to eat at the cafeteria when we arrived at the Aquarium. Even though the Aquarium was open and staff at the cafeteria, they were not prepared to serve customers and didn’t offer to help us find anything (like cups for coffee). It was a disappointing start but we enjoyed the rest of the Aquarium. They have excellent touch tanks, a huge walrus and a lot of great play areas for smaller children. It wasn’t very interesting for my older girls but many families seemed to be enjoying it.
We also had the opportunity to visit Le Massiff de Charlevoix, a ski area about an hour away from Quebec City. We had a lot of fun exploring the Charlevoix area in the summer and kayaking down a local river! You can read my article about that visit on Trekaroo.com!
Disclosure: I was provided with my hotel and activities from Tourism Quebec, however all opinions are my own.
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(Silly autocorrect!)
I really want to go. You know, we spent so many years just trying so hard to get to Nova Scotia that we never to the time to go and play or explore in Quebec City. The longest we stayed was to “fix” a poorly navigated, construction sign laden, exit. 🙂
I guess we need to make some plans…