Want a winter weekend getaway? Check out my 48 hours guide to Quebec City:
It’s nothing like Montreal, so I’m going to leave those comparisons behind. I mean, that’s what I had imagined from glimpses and photographs, but what Quebec City is, is a place that seems to be just on the tip of your most northern dreams. One of French colonial relics with their iconic peeks, stretching turrets and eyeful watchtowers just nestling into the hills along the St. Lawrence river. Adorable.
As romantic as its architecture is as rugged as its people. The Quebecois are a rugged group, and let me tell you, it takes real balls to live out here. In the first full month of fall, the average high barely gets over the 30s (farenheit). It doesn’t return to the 40s until April. There’s no short order cooks coming from developing countries on low wage, or construction workers brought in from far away lands for just a short time - everyone cooking your food, doing the work, and making this city move are people born and bred here. They’re not surviving on mango smoothies and avocado toast, to survive out here takes a meal with guts.
In November 2022, my newly wed and I booked a flight out of Newark. Just an hour after hopping on our connection in Toronto, we landed in Quebec City Airport (YQB). Small, clean, easy.
Lay of the Land
Your best bet here is to take an Uber into town. Figure about $30 and a half-hour ride. You can take the ‘Line 80’ bus for $3, but it will take you around an hour to get into town. You also need to download the Nomade app to buy your ticket, unless you’re coming in with some Canadian dollars.
And where are you taking that bus to? There’s several neighborhoods worth staying in:
Old Quebec is known for its beautiful architecture, and this is where the majority of tourists stay. Figure lots of shopping and typical Quebecois restaurants (poutine, french onion soup, and cheese) as well as an influx of art galleries.
We stayed in the Montcalm neighborhood, named after French general Louis Montcalm, who was killed in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (after a frivolous attack), which ended the French and Indian War. While within a mile of Old Quebec, this area has a down to earth feel, with working class people, distributors, and purveyors working hard to keep their city going. Its plentiful cafes are met with a variety of Mediterranean restaurants.
We often found ourselves walking towards Saint-Roch. It sits in the middle of a hill, with Montcalm back up a lengthy staircase, and the rest of the city at the bottom of the valley. With this jagged layout, it seems the hipsters and young entrepreneurs moved here a few years ago. It’s somewhat polished, fun, and Rue Notre Dame des Anges is an avenue where you can easily spend half a day just walking around.
Day 1 - Old City Living
Quebec City is known for its bagels. If you’re from the New York area though, bagels are a hard sell since they are a commonality in our morning routine. But don’t expect the fluffy and puffy ones from back home. Instead, these bagels are thin, with a plainer texture, which is intended to be covered in local Quebecois goodness.
You can start your day off with one of these alongside some soup and a sandwich at Bügel Fabrique de Bagels in Montcalm. Maguire is the other known bagelry, but they’re a little
deeper outside of the city center. Fabrique does a good job, and the inside is cozy and quaint. The servers are kind, and freshly baked goods are there for an extra snack, or to take away for later. The food here is really fresh, and it’s off the beaten path on a nice little sidestreet.
Are you here in winter? You know, when it’s like ten degrees and you're freezing your balls off? If so, there is a reward for you. The toboggan slide in the city center will shoot you down a sheet of ice at speeds around 50mph. It’s one of the oldest attractions in town, appearing in 1884. The season usually begins around mid-December and lasts until mid-March. $3 per slide.
While you’re squinting to see past the icicles that are now forming over your eyelids, look left and there’s the Hogwarts-style castle that features in just about every post card and travel show about the city. That’s the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, or just ‘the Fairmont.’ Considered the world’s most photographed hotel, it was constructed in the late 1800s and rises to almost 300 feet tall, considering that it’s built into the mountainside.
Once you take in the hotel lobby and the constant stream of visitors through its revolving door, the shops in the main lobby are cool for upscale local items. Around Christmas time, the foyer is lined with differently decorated Christmas trees for a nice family picture or two.
But the real reason you’re at the Fairmont is to have a drink at the 1608 bar. This is a place for people watching, as you’ll never know who you’ll bump into while having one of the finest cocktails of your life. I went a little adventurous with an anise based drink, and they all looked delicious as we looked to our left and right to see who was having what. It’s fancy, but you don’t have to dress in a suit and tie or dress - like I said, the city is a bit more rugged, and that carries over into the dining scene as well.
Now that you’re a little toasty, take a stroll down the hill of Cote de la Montagne, into the rest of Old Quebec. Make a stop at Mary’s Popcorn Shop, then have a free hand as you descend the city’s oldest - and steepest - set of steps, towards a good mix of art galleries and interesting storefronts. If you need to get back up the hill, don’t worry, as the funicular is just around the corner, right next to Pub Borgia.
It’s now dinner time for night one, and you’re going to none other than the famous Le Continental. It’s a special occasion, and this old school spot is still making flambé meals prepared at the side of your table. The waiters all wear white gloves, with jacket color designating their respective roles. Figure about $100 each for a nice romantic night, and it’s money well spent.
I went with the lobster bisque to start and the caesar salad (a must), with scallops on the back end. She had shrimp flambe, which get extra points for being cooked in front of your eyes. Delicate and decadent, French and sophisticated. Read the menu ahead of time and get excited about it.
Day 2 - Live Like a Local
If your first morning started with a bagel, it’s time to live up to the area’s French roots and get a croissant with a cappuccino (yes I realize cappuccinos are Italian). Take a stroll down to Saint-Roch and follow the beginning of Rue Saint-Jean and take it all the way into Old Quebec.
The New York Times points you to Cantook Micro Torrefaction for its “Northwest feel,” but we’re here for a Quebecois feel! You have such a variety of local shops with baked goods, second-best only to the streets of Paris. Jump into whichever seems comfortable.
Then, take a look inside Library Claire-Martin. Formerly a church, it was purchased by the city in 1979 for a symbolic $1. Take in the local shops, which are much less touristy and geared towards things you can use everyday, rather than the novelty items being sold just a few blocks down inside the city walls.
Once you’ve worked up an appetite, lunch is worth a trip to Nina’s Neapolitan Pizza. We like Nina’s because it’s a good changeup from the rich local cuisine, and it’s a decent pie. Each option is solid, and the appetizers and salads are fresh. For drinks, go with an aperitivo or the house lemonade.
Take some time to digest here before dessert, because it’s time for the best hot chocolate of your life. Respect to my wife for finding Musee du Chocolat. They do the drink a little differently here, thicker and pure. You can sit inside to take shelter from the cold, and have a look at some of the shop’s chocolate artifacts. There’s a window into the chocolate making process, so you can see the artists in their natural habitat. Everytime we went in, those guys seemed to be working.
If it’s not time for a nap, the Museum of Civilization is an awesome spot for a few hours. At the time of writing, the Ancient Egypt exhibit is happening with plenty of remnants from the dynasties stemming back at least 7,000 years ago. The poop exhibit was super cool too, and made me think about bathrooms and what we do with waste in a completely different way.
I learned about the second night’s dinner from Anthony Bourdain’s CNN Parts Unknown. I
was taken back by L’Affaire Est Ketchup, meaning that’s cool in local slang. The impression I got off the show was that it was a popup restaurant run by a group of mutinied pirates with nuanced food choices, but the reality is a top-tier spot produced by people who love their culinary traditions with a hard-nosed approach to eating well with off-track meats and dishes. They work their asses off to deliver farm to table ingredients, and your menu is announced at the beginning of every shift.
To start things off, we went with the ‘sweet cream,’ which was not sweet cream in the least bit. When I asked the waitress what exactly this rich, creamy, caramelized meat was, she pulled the words to say it was something like the thyroid or throat of the duck. I tried hard not to think about that until it was finished, but yeah, it’s pretty good.
The highlight of the meal was the bison steak though. Seared to perfection, raw on the inside, salty and lean. This was one of the best things I’ve eaten. The ossobuco bone marrow is also so decadently done, and a must if it happens to be on your night’s menu.
Since we stayed in Montcalm, that meant a walk uphill with full stomachs. An incline which we underestimated! But it was part of the fun, and another cool look of the city at night.
Quebec City has magic underneath the obvious. Past the old world charm, there’s a strong working class full of awesome ideas that bring Quebec into the modern day. But you can feel the history here, it’s always alongside you, spoken by the coureur de bois attitude that permeates into these hills.