Vaughan to the Eastern Townships: Quebec's lake country by chauffeured car

The Cantons, an hour east of Montreal

The Eastern Townships — the Cantons-de-l'Est — are the hills and lakes south-east of Montreal toward the Vermont border, settled by Loyalists and named in English, French-speaking now, and the region Quebec goes to for its own holidays: Magog on the northern tip of Lake Memphremagog, the long lake that runs into Vermont; the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac on its western shore with the cheeses and the Gregorian chant; Mont-Orford's ski hill and national park above the town; Bromont with its ski hill, water park and equestrian park an hour west; Sherbrooke, the region's city, with its murals and its river gorge; Sutton and the Route des Vins' vineyards along the border; North Hatley's inns on Lake Massawippi. It is the Quebec week for a Vaughan family that has done Tremblant, and the chauffeured Sprinter that drives it is the difference between a base and a region.

Magog and the lake

Magog is the region's resort town: a main street of restaurants and shops running down to Lake Memphremagog's beach and marina, the Merry Point park, the lake cruises that run south toward the Vermont line, and the Mont-Orford ski hill and national park ten minutes north with the summer's gondola, the lakes and the trails. A family's base is a Magog inn or a rented lake house; the Tourisme Cantons-de-l'Est site has the region's calendar and the Route des Vins' map. The town's summer is the lake; its winter is Orford's hill and the Nordic spa on the lake's shore.

The abbey

Saint-Benoît-du-Lac is a Benedictine monastery on the lake's western shore, built from 1912 in a style that its own architect-monk called a sermon in stone — a tall church, a cloister, an orchard, a shop that sells the monks' cheeses (the blue Ermite, the Bleu Bénédictin, the Mont Saint-Benoît) and their cider — with Gregorian chant at the daily offices that visitors attend from the nave. Forty minutes from Magog around the lake's western road; an hour for a family with the cheese in the cargo area; the chauffeur drops at the abbey's lot and the church's silence is the reason the Luxury SUV waits outside.

Bromont: the hill, the water park, the horses

Bromont, an hour west of Magog on Autoroute 10, is the family town: Ski Bromont's hill with night skiing across a hundred and forty runs, the Bromont water park on the same slopes in summer with its slides and wave pool, the equestrian park that hosted the 1976 Olympic events and still runs the summer's international show jumping, the chocolate museum on the main street, and the Route des Vins' eastern end. A Vaughan family that wants the water park and the hill in one region books Bromont as the base and Magog as the day.

Sherbrooke, Sutton and the border villages

Sherbrooke is the region's city — the university, the murals on the downtown's walls that a self-guided walk follows, the Magog River's gorge in the city's middle with the promenade, the Musée des beaux-arts — and Sutton, Knowlton, Dunham and Frelighsburg along the Vermont border are the villages of the Route des Vins, the region's wine road of vineyards, cider houses and Knowlton's Brome Lake ducks, with Sutton's ski hill and its village of galleries. A Sprinter's day from Magog does Sutton, two vineyards and Knowlton's lake; a couple's day does the same with lunch at a vineyard's terrace.

The week, in shape

Day one: the 401 and Montreal's south shore by Autoroute 30 and 10, Magog by evening with a Kingston lunch and a Montreal-ring stop — nine hours, or a Montreal night for a family with young children. Days two to six: the lake and the beach, the abbey, Orford's gondola and trails, the Bromont water park, the Route des Vins, Sherbrooke's murals, North Hatley's inn for a dinner. Day seven: Autoroute 10 and the 401 home with a Montreal lunch. Six days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine; the travel desk holds the base.

The winter version

Mont-Orford and Bromont are the region's ski hills, Sutton and Owl's Head on the lake's southern end the others, and a Vaughan family's February week in the Townships is the Tremblant shape with smaller hills and the abbey's cheese: the Sprinter with the skis in the bay, the Magog inn, Orford in the morning, Bromont's night skiing on a Thursday, the Nordic spa's outdoor pools on the lake, and Autoroute 10 in a snowstorm driven on winter tires by a chauffeur who has driven it.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for a family of five or more or two families with a week's bags and the bicycles; an SUV for a family of four or a couple, and for winter; a Premium Sedan for a couple's summer inn week at North Hatley with the vehicle released. Boosters are $25 each; the region's roads are paved and easy outside a February storm.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eighteen hours of driving in a week; the Montreal ring's traffic; the region's days that are all drives — the abbey, Bromont, Sutton, Sherbrooke are each an hour from Magog — and the drive home. For a family of five the week's daily hire is a comfort purchase, and the site says so; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars and two drivers for a week of a region that is nothing but roads between lakes.

Seasons

July and August for the lake, the water park and the show jumping; September and October for the Route des Vins' harvest and the hills' colour, which the region calls its Flambée des couleurs; December to March for the hills and the spa; May and June for the empty inns and the abbey's spring.

Pairing it

The Townships pair with Montreal for the night on the way, with Burlington, Vermont across the border an hour south of Magog for a family with passports and a Lake Champlain day, and with the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec loop as an eastern extension.

The week, in order, for a family of five

Day one, Saturday: the Sprinter from Kleinburg at 7:30 with the bay full; the 407 and 401, Kingston at 10:45, Cornwall, the border, Autoroute 30 around Montreal's south shore at 2:30, Autoroute 10 east through the Montérégie's farms, the Magog exit at four, the rented house on Lake Memphremagog's shore by 4:30. Day two: the lake's beach and Merry Point, the town's main street. Day three: the abbey at ten — the church's office, the cloister, the cheese shop — the lake's western road, lunch in Georgeville, the Magog cruise at three. Day four: Mont-Orford's gondola in the morning, the national park's lake for a swim, dinner in North Hatley on Lake Massawippi. Day five: Bromont — the water park from ten to three, the chocolate museum, the equestrian park's evening show if it is August. Day six: Sutton's village and two vineyards on the Route des Vins, Knowlton's lake and its duck-farm shop, dinner at a vineyard's terrace. Day seven: Sherbrooke's murals and the gorge on the way to Autoroute 10, Montreal's south shore, the 401 home with a Cornwall dinner; Kleinburg by nine. Six days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine, and a region of roads driven by someone else.

Mont-Orford and the national park

Mont-Orford is the ski hill above Magog with the province's fourth-highest vertical and, in summer, a gondola to the summit's view over Memphremagog and the Vermont hills, hiking trails down, and the Parc national du Mont-Orford's lakes — Stukely and Fraser — with beaches, canoe rentals and campgrounds ten minutes from the town. A family's day is the gondola at ten and Stukely's beach at one; the park's day-use fee is paid at the gate and the Luxury SUV waits at the beach's lot.

North Hatley and the inns

North Hatley is the village at the head of Lake Massawippi twenty minutes from Magog — the region's prettiest, with the Manoir Hovey and the Ripplecove among the lakeside inns, the village's galleries and its summer theatre, the Pilsen pub on the water — and a couple's Townships week is a North Hatley inn with a Premium Sedan released for the days and rebooked for the abbey and Sutton; the Cantons-de-l'Est site has the inns and the Route des Vins' map.

Costs, plainly

Two families of four in a Sprinter divide the week's daily hire into a per-family figure that two cars' eighteen hours of fuel and tolls, two drivers' weeks and a rented roof box do not beat by enough to argue; a single family's week is a comfort purchase, and the site says so; a couple's inn week with the sedan released prices as a return pair with days added.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community to Montreal's south shore and Autoroute 10; a Kleinburg or Woodbridge pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst. Give us the base and the nights, the Montreal stop if wanted, the days' plans, the seats, the loads and the skis or bicycles, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with Autoroute 10's forecast on it.

The Route des Vins, for choosing

The Brome-Missisquoi wine route runs from Dunham — the region's first vineyards in the 1980s — through Frelighsburg, Sutton, Bromont and Farnham with twenty-odd estates on it, and a group's day picks three by area: Dunham's cluster for the whites and the ice wines, Frelighsburg's for the cider houses and the view of the Vermont hills, Sutton's for the village and its galleries. The Cantons-de-l'Est site has the route's map; the chauffeur, who does not taste, sequences the day so no leg is more than twenty minutes.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the base, the nights, the Montreal stop and the days' plans; tell us the seats, the loads, the skis or the bicycles, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with Autoroute 10's forecast on it.

Book the Townships week