Vaughan to Quebec City: the walled city at the end of a two-day drive

Quebec City, and the two days it takes

Quebec City is the trip Vaughan families plan a year ahead: the walled Old Quebec of cobbled streets, stone houses and ramparts on a cliff above the St. Lawrence, with the Château Frontenac on the cliff's edge and the Dufferin Terrace's boardwalk beneath it; the Plains of Abraham's park where the country's history turned in 1759; Petit-Champlain's shops and the funicular; the Citadelle's changing of the guard; Montmorency Falls, eighty-three metres, thirty higher than Niagara, ten minutes east; Île d'Orléans's farms and vineyards across the bridge; and, in February, the Carnaval — Bonhomme's ice palace, the night parades, the canoe race across the frozen river. It is ten hours from Vaughan by the routing estimate and nobody drives it in a day with children; the chauffeured version is a two-day drive each way with a Montreal or Kingston night, which turns the road into part of the holiday, and a Sprinter that stays because the city's best day trips are drives.

The drive, in two days

Day one: the 407 and 401 east from Woodbridge at nine, Kingston for lunch, Cornwall, the Quebec border, Autoroute 20 into Montreal by four for a night in Old Montreal — the Montreal post's evening — or, for a family that wants to break the drive earlier, Kingston's night and a longer second day. Day two: Autoroute 20 or 40 east along the St. Lawrence — 20 on the south shore through Drummondville, 40 on the north through Trois-Rivières, whose own post makes it the lunch — three hours to the Pierre-Laporte bridge and the Old City's gates by two. The Sprinter's tables carry the family's cards and screens; the chauffeur carries the plan.

Old Quebec, on foot

Inside the walls the city is walked, and a family staying at the Château or a Vieux-Québec inn walks it for two days: the Dufferin Terrace and the Château's lobby, the funicular down to Petit-Champlain's street of shops and the Place Royale where the city began in 1608, the Musée de la civilisation on the port, the ramparts' walk to the Citadelle and the changing of the guard in summer, the Plains of Abraham's park with the Musée national des beaux-arts on its edge, rue Saint-Jean's restaurants and the Saint-Jean gate, the Parliament's tour. The Quebec City tourism site has the walks and the calendar; the chauffeur's vehicle is in the hotel's garage and the family does not think about it for two days.

Montmorency, the island and the north shore

The vehicle's days: Montmorency Falls, ten minutes east on Autoroute 440, with the suspension bridge across the top, the cable car and the stairs; Île d'Orléans across the bridge beside the falls, a loop of sixty-seven kilometres through six villages of farms, vineyards, cider houses and strawberry stands; Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré's basilica and the Canyon Sainte-Anne's suspension bridges half an hour further; Mont-Sainte-Anne's gondola in summer and its ski hill in winter. Each is a half-day or a day with the Sprinter moving between the stops, and each has its own post on this site.

The Carnaval, in February

The Carnaval de Québec runs for two and a half weeks from late January into February: Bonhomme's ice palace facing the Parliament, the night parades through the Old City's streets, the ice sculptures, the canoe race across the ice-choked river, the snow slides on the Terrace — the winter trip that Vaughan families with school-age children book for the Family Day weekend. The drive in February is the argument for the chauffeur entirely: Autoroute 20 in a Quebec snowstorm is a road the Luxury SUV and the Sprinter drive on winter tires with a driver who has driven it, and a family car does not; the Montreal night is the buffer the plan has for weather.

Summer's festival and the seasons

The Festival d'été in July fills the Plains of Abraham with the summer's biggest outdoor stages for eleven nights and the city's hotels for the month; August's New France Festival dresses the Old City in the seventeenth century; September and October are the city's shoulder with Île d'Orléans's harvest and the north shore's colour; December is the German Christmas market in the Old City's squares and the Château's lights. The city is a year-round trip and each season is a Vaughan booking.

The week, in shape

Six nights: Montreal, four in Old Quebec with Montmorency and the island on days three and four, and Kingston or Montreal on the way home — five days of daily hire plus the two drives, one number in the booking engine, with the travel desk holding the Château or the inn, which for the Carnaval and the July festival is done in the fall. A couple does it in four nights and an SUV; two families do it in seven and a Sprinter.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for a family of five or more, two families or a group, with the bay for a week's luggage and the tables for two days of highway; an SUV for a family of four or a couple, and for any winter trip; a Premium Sedan for a couple's summer week if the vehicle is released in the city. Boosters are $25 each and stay fitted for the island's loop.

What the chauffeur replaces

Twenty hours of driving in a week; the Autoroute in a February storm; the Old City's one-way streets and the Château's garage; the island's loop and the falls' lot; and the drive home after a week in which nobody in the family drove anything. The daily-hire fare for a week is the largest number for a Canadian trip on this site and the site is honest about what it buys: for a family of five it is the difference between a road trip and a holiday, and for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars, two drivers and a rented roof box.

The week, in order, for a family of five

Day one, Saturday: the Sprinter from Woodbridge at 8:30 with the bay full; Kingston's lunch; Cornwall; Autoroute 20 into Old Montreal by 3:30 for the night — the Old Port's evening. Day two: Autoroute 40 north-shore at nine, Trois-Rivières' old town for lunch at 11:30, the Pierre-Laporte bridge at 1:30, the Château Frontenac's forecourt at two; the Dufferin Terrace and the funicular to Petit-Champlain before dinner. Day three: Old Quebec on foot — Place Royale, the Musée de la civilisation, the ramparts, the Citadelle's guard at ten, the Plains of Abraham's park and its museum. Day four: the Sprinter to Montmorency Falls at nine — the cable car up, the suspension bridge across the top, the stairs down — Île d'Orléans's loop from eleven with a Sainte-Famille strawberry stand, the Cassis Monna cassis house, a Saint-Jean lunch, the island's church; the city by five. Day five: Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré's basilica and the Canyon Sainte-Anne's bridges in the morning, the Old City's rue Saint-Jean for the last dinner. Day six: the drive home to Kingston with a Trois-Rivières lunch; day seven, Kingston to Woodbridge by early afternoon. Six nights, five days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine.

Old Quebec's two levels

The Old City is Upper Town on the cliff — the Château, the Terrace, the Citadelle, the ramparts, the Parliament outside the gate, rue Saint-Jean's restaurants — and Lower Town at the river's edge below it: Place Royale, Petit-Champlain's street, the port's museum and the ferry to Lévis, connected by the funicular from the Terrace and the Breakneck Stairs beside it. A family walks both in two days with the Quebec City tourism site's map; the Château's garage holds the vehicle, and the ferry to Lévis — ten minutes across the river and back — is the cheapest view of the city there is.

The Carnaval, in order

The Family Day weekend from Vaughan: Thursday's drive to Montreal on the 401 with the chauffeur watching the forecast, Friday's three hours to Old Quebec in a snowfall on winter tires, the hotel inside the walls by two; the Terrace's snow slides, Bonhomme's ice palace facing the Parliament at dusk, the night parade on Grande Allée at seven with the family on the kerb in snowsuits and the chauffeur's Luxury SUV warm at the Plains' lot after; Saturday's ice sculptures, the canoe race across the ice-choked river from the Terrace's railing, the Plains' winter playground, the tubing; Sunday's drive to Montreal and Monday's home. The Carnaval's site sells the effigy that admits the family; the hotel is held in the fall.

The corporate and the couple

A Vaughan company's delegation to a Quebec City conference at the Centre des congrès is the Sprinter with a Montreal night and the team at the tables; a couple's anniversary is the SUV or a Premium Sedan with four nights — a Montreal night, two at the Château, a Montreal night — and the vehicle released at the Château for two days of walking, which prices as a return pair with a Montreal stop and is the cheaper version for two.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst, and the fare, quoted from the exact address, includes the toll. Give us the hotels and the nights, the north or south shore route, the island and the falls days, the Carnaval dates, the seats and the loads; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the Autoroute's forecast on it.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the nights, the stops each way, the Old Quebec hotel and the days' plans; tell us the seats, the loads and the Carnaval or festival dates, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the Autoroute's forecast on it.

Book the Quebec City week