Vaughan to the Laurentians and Saint-Sauveur: the resort valley an hour north of Montreal

The valley north of Montreal

The Laurentians north of Montreal are the province's resort valley — Autoroute 15 runs up it past a string of villages that grew around the railway and the ski hills from the 1930s: Saint-Sauveur, the first and the busiest, with its village of forty restaurants, its five ski hills and the Sommet Saint-Sauveur water park; Sainte-Adèle on its lake with the older inns; Val-David, the artists' village on the North River; Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts on Lac des Sables with its beach and its cruise boat; and, at the valley's top, Mont-Tremblant, which has its own post. The Laurentides tourism site calls the region the Pays-d'en-Haut; Vaughan families call it the Tremblant week's day out or, increasingly, the week itself — closer to Montreal, cheaper than the resort, and with a village that a family walks to dinner in every night. The chauffeured Sprinter that stays is the difference, because the valley's villages are twenty minutes apart.

Saint-Sauveur's village and hills

Saint-Sauveur's village is the rue Principale and the streets around the church: the restaurants and the terraces, the shops, the summer's street festival and the winter's lit street, with the Sommet Saint-Sauveur ski hill at the village's edge — a family hill with night skiing every night, the Avalanche and the Versant 70 as its neighbours, and the Sommet's summer water park on the same slopes: the slides, the wave pool, the rafting river and the mountain coaster, with the chairlift carrying swimmers to the top. A family's summer day is the water park from ten to four with the Luxury SUV in the lot; the winter's is the hill from nine with the village's fondue at six.

Sainte-Adèle, Val-David and Sainte-Agathe

Sainte-Adèle, ten minutes north, is the quieter town on its lake with the Chantecler resort's hill and the inns on the Chemin Pierre-Péladeau; Val-David, ten minutes further, is the artists' village — the galleries, the summer's 1001 Pots ceramics fair, the North River's park and the rock-climbing crags of the Dufresne park; Sainte-Agathe, the valley's old resort town, has the Lac des Sables beach, the Alouette cruise boat and the main street's cafés. A chauffeured week does one a day with lunch in each; a Tremblant day out does Saint-Sauveur's village and Val-David's galleries with the Sprinter and comes back for the après.

The P'tit Train du Nord

The P'tit Train du Nord is the region's spine: the old railway from Saint-Jérôme at the valley's foot to Mont-Laurier at its top, two hundred kilometres of paved and gravel path with the old stations as cafés and the villages along it — Saint-Sauveur's is Piedmont, then Sainte-Adèle, Val-David, Sainte-Agathe, and Mont-Tremblant's old village. A family with bicycles in the Sprinter's bay is dropped at Saint-Sauveur's Piedmont station and collected at Val-David's twenty-five kilometres on — the one-way shuttle that the path's guide recommends and that a family in its own car cannot make; in winter the same path is a groomed cross-country ski trail from Saint-Jérôme to Val-David.

The week, in shape

Day one: the 401 and Autoroute 40 across Montreal's north to the 15, Saint-Sauveur by evening with a Kingston lunch — six and a half hours — or a Montreal night for a family with young children. Days two to six: the water park or the hill, Sainte-Adèle's lake, Val-David's galleries and the North River, Sainte-Agathe's beach and cruise, the P'tit Train's shuttle, and a Tremblant day at the valley's top for the gondola. Day seven: the 15, the 40 and the 401 home. Six days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine; the travel desk holds the village's inn or the rented chalet.

The winter version

Saint-Sauveur's five hills, Sainte-Adèle's Chantecler and Val-David's Vallée-Bleue are the valley's ski hills — smaller than Tremblant's and cheaper, with Saint-Sauveur's night skiing the valley's signature — and a February week is the Tremblant shape at a lower price with the same Sprinter, the skis in the bay and the 15 north of Montreal driven on winter tires in a snowstorm by a chauffeur who has driven it; the village's lit main street at dinner is the reason families choose it.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for a family of five or more or two families with a week's bags, the skis or the bicycles; an SUV for a family of four or a couple; a Premium Sedan for a couple's inn weekend at Sainte-Adèle with the vehicle released. Boosters are $25 each.

What the chauffeur replaces

Thirteen hours of driving in a week; the valley's villages that are all drives from each other; the P'tit Train's shuttle; the water park's lot on a July Saturday; 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 for a week of a valley that is one road between villages.

Seasons

December to March for the hills and the lit village; July and August for the water park, the lakes and Val-David's ceramics fair; September and October for the valley's colour and the path's cycling; May and June for the empty inns. The valley is a year-round region and every season is a Vaughan booking.

Pairing it

The Laurentians pair with Mont-Tremblant as the day out or the base swap, with Montreal for the night on the way, and with Montebello and Parc Omega by the Autoroute 50 road west for a family that comes home along the Ottawa River.

The summer week, in order, for two families

Two families from Maple — four adults, five children — in an Executive Sprinter with the bicycles in the bay: Saturday at 7:30, the 407 and 401, Kingston's lunch, Montreal's north on Autoroute 40 at 2:30, the 15 north, the rented chalet above Saint-Sauveur by 4:30, the village's terrace for dinner. Sunday: the Sommet's water park from ten to four with the chairlift to the top of the slides. Monday: Sainte-Adèle's lake beach and the Chantecler's pedal boats. Tuesday: the P'tit Train's shuttle — Piedmont station to Val-David, twenty-five kilometres with the children on the flat path, the Sprinter at Val-David's station with lunch in the village's galleries after. Wednesday: Sainte-Agathe's Lac des Sables beach and the Alouette cruise. Thursday: Tremblant's gondola and the village at the valley's top. Friday: Saint-Sauveur's village, the outlet shops, the last dinner. Saturday: the 15, the 40 and the 401 home. Six days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine, split two ways.

The village's outlets and the winter street

Saint-Sauveur's Factoreries outlet centre on the village's edge is the valley's shopping — the reason a Tremblant week's day out ends there — and the village's winter street, lit from December, with the Christmas market and the hills' night skiing above it, is the valley's picture; the Laurentides site has the village's calendar and the Sommet's night-skiing hours.

Costs, plainly

Two families in a Sprinter divide the week's daily hire into a per-family figure that two cars' thirteen hours of fuel and tolls, two drivers' weeks and the P'tit Train's impossible shuttle do not beat; a single family's week is a comfort purchase, and the site says so; the Tremblant week with a Saint-Sauveur day out is the Tremblant post's fare with the day inside it.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community, Autoroute 40 and the 15; a Maple or VMC pickup uses Highway 400 to the 407, Woodbridge and Kleinburg join at Weston Road, Thornhill at Bathurst. Give us the village and the chalet or inn, the nights, the Montreal stop if wanted, the water park's day, the path's stations, the seats and the bicycles or skis, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Sainte-Agathe and the Lac des Sables

Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts is the valley's old resort town at the top of the P'tit Train's middle section: the Lac des Sables' town beach and its boardwalk, the Alouette cruise boat's hour on the lake past the old summer estates, the main street's cafés and the Théâtre Le Patriote's summer season — the day a family with a Saint-Sauveur base spends when the water park has been done twice. The Laurentides site has the cruise's sailings; the chauffeur drops at the beach and the lot is the vehicle's.

The winter village, honestly

Saint-Sauveur's night skiing runs every night of the season on the Sommet's lit runs and the village's street is lit to match, which makes it the valley's best winter evening for a family — dinner on the rue Principale and the hill after — and the reason the valley's chalets are booked by the Ontario families who have found it; the 15 north of Montreal in a snowstorm is the chauffeur's road, and a Luxury SUV or Sprinter on winter tires with a driver who has driven it is the whole argument.

Val-David, for the day

Val-David is the artists' village — the galleries and studios on the rue de l'Église, the summer's 1001 Pots ceramics exhibition in a garden of ten thousand pieces, the Parc régional Val-David–Val-Morin's climbing crags on the Condor and the trails, the North River's park in the village's centre with the swimming hole, and the Saturday market — and a chauffeured family's Val-David day is the market at nine, the ceramics at ten, the river at noon and the crags' easy trail at two, with the Sprinter at the village's lot; the bakery on the rue de l'Église is the reason the family comes back the next day.

Costs, plainly

Two families in a Sprinter divide the week's daily hire and beat two cars' thirteen hours, two drivers' weeks and the path's shuttle; a single family's week is a comfort purchase and the site says so; a Tremblant week's Saint-Sauveur day out is inside the Tremblant post's fare. The booking engine shows the number before the chalet is booked.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the village, the nights, the Montreal stop and the days' plans; tell us the seats, the loads, the skis or the bicycles and the water park's day, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the 15's forecast on it.

Book the Laurentians week