You’d think after enough visits that Quebec City’s charm would wear off. But no, this real-life Hogsmeade is still as impossibly charming as the first time I saw it.
A lot of people make the mistake of visiting Quebec City as a day trip. Which is entirely doable—two of the 4 times I’ve visited have been day trips. But the city really deserves a few days without an agenda. It deserves some early morning wandering before the rest of the tourists wake up and before the day trippers arrive. And since it’s consistently ranked as the safest city in North America, it deserves some late-night strolls, too. As a solo female traveler who won’t walk around at night in my own city, it feels like a remarkable gift to be able to walk around at night and feel safe here.
The weather was exceptionally uncooperative while I was in the city. The temperature reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit a couple of days, and while that’s very normal where I come from, I also come from a place where every indoor space is hermetically sealed and kept at 68 degrees year-round. We love to complain about the number of 100-degree days we have in the Deep South, but the truth is that many of us are never actually in the heat for more than the few minutes it takes to get from air-conditioned place to air-conditioned place. But Quebec isn’t prepared for heat like this, and most places are not air-conditioned. If a building does have air-conditioning, it’s likely a small window-unit that doesn’t stand a chance against temperatures this high.
My hostel wasn’t air-conditioned. At check-in, they gave me a small, personal fan that I could clip on the railing up my upper bunk bed. We opened the windows and aimed our mini fans at our faces and tried to sleep without any covers. By the middle of the night, it was finally a pleasant temperature. No one complained. No one questioned why there was no air-conditioning. No one seemed like their trip was remotely affected. We don’t recognize the degree to which we are spoiled in the United States until we leave it, and that seems like one of the most important lessons a person can learn about themselves.
I was in Quebec City for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, a public holiday in Quebec where they celebrate their French heritage and honor their patron saint, John the Baptist. It was the most crowded I’ve ever seen the city, but despite the crowds, I had the streets almost entirely to myself before 9:00am.
The people of Quebec City seem unbothered by much. When a terrifying, severe storm abruptly necessitated canceling the big concert and fireworks show right after it started, the crowd of thousands left the Plains of Abraham, calmly and orderly. Then they danced in the streets in the downpour. During the 90-degree heatwave, everyone carried on with their days as usual, eating dinner in unairconditioned restaurants, content as sweat dripped down their faces. Perpetually as unbothered as I aspire to be.
In the heat, I sought refuge in the Museum of Civilization, a strange place that I appreciated more for its air-conditioning than for its contents. I thought the ferry across the river would offer me a nice breeze. Instead, I felt like an egg on a skillet, but the view was nice, so no regrets. In the rain, I spent a morning writing in the House of Literature, a gorgeous public library inside a former 19th century church—a haven of solitude hidden away from the crowds.
The rains came after the heat. I trudged through the light rain to take a public bus to Montmorency Falls, the famous waterfall on the edge of town that I felt obligated to visit since I’ve somehow missed seeing them on previous visits. But the rain got worse once I arrived. I slid across the suspended bridge over the giant falls, not even nervous about the height because I was distracted by being miserable. I took the bus back to the city looking and feeling like a drowned rat. It took days for my shoes to dry, but at least the nice lady at the waterfall park entrance felt sorry for me and let me in for free. An overall successful mission.
When I’m returning to a place I’ve visited before, I always make sure I include activities or nearby places that are new to me. I didn’t know much about the Île d’Orléans (Island of Orleans) before visiting, but I wanted to see some things I hadn’t seen before during this visit, so I booked a tour through Viator with Quebec Bus Tours.
The island is just a few miles from Quebec City in the Saint Lawrence River, but it feels a world away. This tiny place was one of the first parts of Quebec to be colonized by the French, and a lot of French Canadians can trace their ancestry back to it. (There is, of course, another place that was given the name Île d’Orléans —New Orleans.)
The island only has about 7,000 residents, one traffic light, and one gas station. Many of the homes date back to the 17th century, and there are little farms stands, artisan shops, farms, and vineyards. I felt like I was at Green Gables.
The island isn’t walkable and would be hard to visit on your own without renting a car, and this bus tour was the perfect answer. Our guide, Jeff, grew up in the region and has big camp counselor energy in the best way, and it was easy to tell how close he is to all the shop owners. He brought us to the chocolate/ice cream shop, a cider house, a nougat shop, and a pretty vineyard, and we got very generous samples everywhere. And the ticket cost only $65—a fraction of what it was worth.
I’m cautious about group tours because they are so often cash grabs where you’re being charged a ton for something you could easily do on your own for a quarter the price. This is why I’m so eager to praise a tour that’s doing a great job. I can’t recommend this one enough.
In Quebec I also did something I tried for the first time in Mexico and then vowed I’d start doing as often as I could on my solo-travels—I did a photoshoot with a couple I found on Airbnb Experiences. I explained to them what I was looking for—photos I could use on my website and for my travel business, and also for author photo submissions when pitching to magazines. They understood the assignment perfectly.
Lise is the photographer and her partner, Louis, acts as her creative director and assistant. We met at 8:00am when the streets of Old Quebec and Rue du Petit-Champlain were empty, and they efficiently managed to fit a dozen difference locations into an hour and a half, even driving me around in their car to save walking time. Because I’m often alone when I travel, most photos I have of myself traveling are selfies or very awkward photos that I asked a stranger to take of me. It’s such a special souvenir to have some photos of yourself in a place you want to remember. Plus, it’s affordable! Doing the same thing at home would have easily cost triple the price.
In Quebec City, I stayed in HI Quebec City Hostel where I also stayed on my last trip. It’s a great example of how hostels are for everyone, not just young people. Because it’s one of the larger accommodations in the Old Town, I kept meeting people outside of the hostel and discovering after talking with them that we were both staying there. On the group tour to Île d’Orléans, my seatmate and I realized after talking for a while that we were both staying there on the same floor. An elderly lady seeking refuge from the severe storm in the restaurant where I was eating asked if my phone was working so I could point her in the direction of her accommodations. When she gave me the address to put in Google maps, I realized it was my hostel. I met people of all ages in the hostel, including one person who lives ten minutes away from my neighborhood in New Orleans.
HI is housed in a historic building that dates back to the 1790s. It’s not particularly glamorous, but it feels authentic in a way that the generic chain hotels near the train station don’t. While Quebec City isn’t a cheap place to visit, staying at HI makes it far more affordable, and you can be certain that you’re in good company.
My last international trip was to Mexico at the end of 2023, and while that doesn’t sound like a long time ago, the last year and a half have felt very long. Quebec City is such an easy and nice way to ease back into a traveling lifestyle. It’s always felt like a sample to me, a taste on the way to a bigger adventure.
