Québec City Itinerary

After leaving Acadia, my husband and I made our way to Québec City. We spent three nights in the city and had a wonderful time. There is so much to see and do, so we stuck to Upper & Lower Town, Montmorency Falls, and Île d’Orléans. There just simply isn’t enough time in three days to do it all, so that just means one day we will return! We had no issues with crossing the border and there were no lines on a Wednesday at 10am.

Route from Acadia

Full Boston–>Acadia–>Québec City Route

Montmorency Falls

We arrived in Québec City around 2:00pm and went straight to Montmorency Falls. At 83 m (272.3’) high, a full 30 m (98.4’) taller than Niagara Falls, Montmorency Falls made for the perfect first stop on our Québec City trip. We crossed the suspended bridge to the belvedere and took on all 487 steps of the panoramic staircase (974 down and back up) to the bottom of the falls. The roar of the falls at the bottom was insane and if you can handle the stairs, I really do highly recommend going all the way down and back up! We were really lucky to have such beautiful weather on the day we went to the falls, seeing rainbows all around. The weather the rest of our trip was rather cloudy and rainy, so we were really glad to have experienced the falls in the sun. If you’re debating on going on a cloudy day, I would suggest going if there is going to be any sun during your trip.

Accommodations

After the falls it was time to check in to our hotel. We stayed at Le Clos Saint-Louis, and I genuinely can’t recommend it enough. The location is perfectly walkable to everything, but the street itself is quiet enough that we never had any issues at night. I really wanted a hotel that gave us a cozy atmosphere and felt European at the same time to match the energy of old town. This hotel just did not disappoint. I will say, there are no elevators and it is a self-check in process. We did not realize there were two sides of the hotel and originally walked up the wrong flight of stairs (to the third level might I add where our room was supposed to be) only to realize the numbers did not match. We then realized the other side was the correct one for us, so we made our way back up the stairs. Just be visual with the room numbers here! We met a group staying in the downstairs living room and they did the exact same thing, so it is very common. The rooms are spacious enough and the bathrooms are very modern. Because the hotel is on a hill the rooms were also slanted, which we were not expecting. So be slightly prepared for that. All in all, I will recommend this boutique hotel to anyone who asks!

Parking: Finding parking in Québec City can be a process. Our hotel luckily had parking information in case their lot was full, which it was. Most of these hotels do not have a ton of parking spaces, ours only had maybe 10 for a hotel that has over 20 rooms. We were fortunate to be close by a parking garage, so we parked there for the length of our stay. Just be prepared to have to walk with your luggage and park away from your hotel!

Walking Tour

We used the Fodor’s Guide to do our walking tour guide. Looking back, I wish we would have done a guided tour or food tour (which is what we typically do in a new city) before walking the city on our own. We felt like we were missing information and not able to fully grasp the depth of the city by doing it ourselves. We love the freedom of being able to go where we want, when we want, and how we want but for this experience we just felt under informed and would have enjoyed learning from an expert. So if you’re trying to decide if you want to do the walking tour yourself or do a guided version, I would highly recommend you go with a guided tour if you want to get the full informed experience. If you are okay with just exploring and seeing the sights without being totally informed, this is very doable and there are loads of guides to do that. If you feel comfortable enough guiding yourself, please check out my Québec City walking tour blog!

Île d’Orléans

We originally were going to do Île d’Orléans on our second full day after spending the first exploring the city. Unfortunately, we woke up our first full day to a level two rain warning and it was a torrential downpour. We attempted to walk the city through the rain as we are individuals who pride ourselves on not letting the weather stop them from their plans and take it on like it’s an adventure (my Malwitz family motto), but unfortunately the rain was so bad our clothes were completely soaked through in less than an hour so we went back to our hotel and pivoted to doing Île d’Orléans our first day. Since we pivoted, we weren’t able to do everything we wanted on the island, so it was very minimal with mostly wineries and sightseeing. Regardless of how much time we had, we loved our time on Île d’Orléans and look forward to returning one day. I highly recommend starting early and staying late. For more information on our time on the island, see my Île d’Orléans blog.

I also want to note that while it was drizzling most of the time we were on the island, with some pockets of no rain, this allowed us to have so many spaces to ourselves and not have to fight any crowds. There were some moments we felt like we were the only people on the island! So if you have a slightly rainy or cloudy day, I recommend using that time to go to Île d’Orléans. You drive everywhere so you don’t really have to worry about being stuck in the rain and you won’t have to stress about the crowds. Plus we were still able to see everything and enjoy the views, they just weren’t sunny!

Food and Drink

Québec City is full of so many incredible restaurants and fun pubs. We had multiple delicious meals and enjoyed watching the World Cup matches with live music nightly. To see our favorite restaurants, please visit my blog on Québec City food and drink.

We can’t wait to return to Québec City one day and do even more. This city felt like such a hidden gem and I hope you enjoy your time visiting as much as we did!