During the summer of 2010, I went to spend 3 intense weeks in Canada, and more specifically in the province of Quebec. This was my first trip to Quebec (also my first trip across the Atlantic) and it was on this occasion that I fell in love with this French-speaking region! I therefore wanted to share with you some of my tips unearthed during this trip to visit your Quebec cousins. This journey was divided into four stages: the Gaspé Peninsula; Quebec City; Ottawa; Montreal.
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Table of Contents
1st stage: The Gaspé Peninsula
This peninsula in northern Quebec is a treasure trove of natural parks (I visited 4) and it offers truly magnificent landscapes. A small suggestion: touring the Gaspé Peninsula can be done very easily by car, counting on a minimum of 5 days. Without a car, it quickly becomes very restrictive, but even with a French driver’s license, you can easily rent a car in Canada (you don’t even need an international driving permit anymore).
For hiking, I recommend the Gaspésie National Park, the largest in the area, and Forillon National Park, at the very end of the peninsula, which might allow you to spot whales if you’re lucky. If you are less lucky, you might come face-to-face with one of the 80 black bears that live there… Also worth seeing are Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island with its colony of Northern Gannets (seabirds), which is truly very impressive.
For affordable accommodation, campsites can easily be found all along the road, and I also recommend youth hostels, which are often very friendly places, especially the Sea Shack festive hostel in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, which every young Quebecker has heard of at least once!
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2nd stage: Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital of the province of Quebec, but it remains a much smaller city than Montreal, which is in the same province. For accommodation, I once again recommend a youth hostel, the Auberge de la Paix, which is very well located just next to Old Quebec. To eat the best hamburgers in the city (tested and approved), go to Chez Victor, 145 rue Saint-Jean, and definitely skip a few meals before going if you want to finish your plate; personally, there were 4 of us and none of us managed to finish it…
To end on a more cultural note, you can go take a look at the city’s Fine Arts Museum, where access to the permanent collections (which will already keep you busy enough) is free. Go check out their beautiful Inuit art collection in particular. Another free place is the Maison Chevalier in the Petit-Champlain district. It is an old 18th-century bourgeois residence where you will find recreations of 18th and 19th-century interior house decor.
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3rd stage: Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada (even though it’s mainly an administrative capital in the end) and is located in the province of Ontario. However, very strangely, when you cross the Ottawa River that borders the city, you find yourself on the other side, in the city of Gatineau, which belongs to the province of Quebec! Even if Ottawa is not a very big city (as a quick reminder, the biggest city in Canada is Toronto), it is worth going there for 3 or 4 days, but no more, I think.
For interesting visits to do on-site, I recommend a guided tour of the Parliament of Canada. The tours are free and very frequent in the summer, and they will allow you to better understand how the Canadian government works and the conditions under which Canada unified in 1841.
For culture, I also recommend the very beautiful and very vast Museum of Civilization in Gatineau (plan for a few hours of visiting time because this museum is very large and the ticket also includes admission for temporary exhibitions).
To stay occupied when night falls, go see the Mosaika show (a sound and light show projected on the central Parliament building). It’s really beautiful, not to mention that it retraces some of Canada’s history from the perspective of its people, and as a bonus, it’s free! What more could you ask for?
In Ottawa, we didn’t really find any incredible places to eat, but I tested my first club sandwich at Zack’s Dinner and I must admit it wasn’t bad at all! For accommodation, we found a super and inexpensive place, the Ottawa Backpackers Inn, a kind of youth hostel, with a very friendly atmosphere, a common kitchen, in short, the ideal place if you want to meet plenty of backpackers and chat with people from all over the world (and for my part, improve my English a little…).
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4th stage: Montreal
Montreal is the most important city in the province of Quebec, even if it is not the capital of the province. There are so many possibilities for sightseeing that I am not going to list them all.
For my part, I recommend the Fine Arts Museum, whose permanent collections have free access. I particularly liked their pre-Columbian and African art collection, which was very well presented, as well as their Inuit art collection. For the rest, the best thing to do is to walk around the city to discover its neighborhoods: the Plateau Mont-Royal, Saint Helen’s Island, the parks, Chinatown,…
For the view, I recommend you climb to the top of Mount Royal Park, from where you will have an incredible vantage point over the city (by day or by night, for that matter). As for ice cream, my first visit to the other side of the Atlantic couldn’t end without a little pilgrimage to a Ben & Jerry’s shop to try one of the many flavors we don’t have in France, poor me!
To finish this article, a little tip regarding plane tickets. To find the cheapest tickets possible, I recommend you visit the vol24.fr website for flights to Quebec. It is an online flight search engine that allows you to compare airlines, find the best prices, and thus take advantage of the savings made on transport to really treat yourself once you are there. I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very good trip, whatever your future destination may be!
Find all my articles about Quebec below
(3 trips in 2010, 2013 and 2018):
⇒ All my articles about Quebec
GENERAL INFO ABOUT QUEBEC
⇒ Quebec: practical info, how to get there, general info about Montreal
MY STAGES IN QUEBEC
⇒ The Gaspé Peninsula
⇒ Montreal
⇒ Quebec City
⇒ The Laurentians
⇒ Abitibi-Témiscamingue
⇒ The Outaouais
Photo credits: Melle Bon Plan Photos are not royalty-free, photographer authorization is required before any use
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