When I’m returning to a travel destination I’ve visited before, I always want to make sure I’m experiencing something new with each visit. Since I knew I’d be spending most of my time in Canada in Montreal (which I’d visited before), it was important to me to include a destination that was new to me before settling in my temporary home.
So I caught a bus from Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul. The little town sits on the St. Lawrence River in the region of Quebec called Charlevoix amid the Laurentian mountains. This is the kind of place that presumably everyone in Canada knows about, but the rest of us have been missing out on.
The Canadian Rockies get a lot of fanfare (deservedly so), but for a quieter, less flashy escape, Charlevoix really blew me away. Baie-Saint-Paul only has about 7,000 residents, but it has way more to offer visitors than its size would suggest. The little downtown is full of art galleries, cafes, and restaurants, and the Contemporary Art Museum was beautiful. I spent a couple days eating incredible food, tasting local wine, walking the nature trails, and admiring the local art.
In Baie-Saint-Paul, I stayed in one of the neatest hostels I’ve ever stayed in. I’ve stayed in a lot of hostels, and it is increasingly rare that I find a hostel that’s doing something entirely unique. But Auberge des Balcons is the type of place that I’d go out of my way to visit as much for the hostel as for the town. I absolutely adored it.
The history of the hostel is particularly fascinating. It’s housed in a former convent, and nuns still go to the chapel in one section of the building for prayer. At one time, the property was also a hospital for children with mental illnesses and developmental problems. Parents weren’t sure what to do, so they brought them to convent in hopes that the nuns would care for them.
Today, the place is not only a hostel but also a community space. There’s a co-working area, multiple lounge spaces and kitchens, and a gorgeous café with fresh pastries, the perfect picnic foods, and a huge selection of board games. There’s also a bar with a great restaurant. The hostel holds regular events, and I watched a swing dancing class while I ate dinner. You can’t imagine how much fun these people are having.
The neatest thing is how incorporated it is with nature. It sits on a park with a walking path just 10-15 minutes from the bay. There are trails and animals you can see on the way, and there’s a community garden that everyone’s welcome to use. I walked to the river both days of my stay, and on the way, I met wild woodland creatures like a marmot and chipmunk. On the walk, you also pass by the farm animals owned by the luxury hotel next door. They have cows, alpacas, chickens, rabbits—an animal-lover’s dream.
The hostel also hosts a weekly farmer’s market. If someone told me they had an idea for opening a hostel in a quasi-rural location net to a tiny town, I’d assume there’s no way it could work. And I would be 1000% wrong because these people have absolutely figured it out.
I assumed that for a town this size, a couple days would be enough. But I could have stayed much longer. I loved this place.
At the end of my stay, I didn’t something I’ve always wanted to do—I want on a whale-watching tour. Baie-Saint-Paul is a little too far south for whale watching, but I was committed to seeing a whale while in Canada, so I found an all-day tour on Viator that picked guests up in Quebec City and drove them three hours north to Croisières AML—a whale watching company in Baie Saint Catherine at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord, home of 13 species of whales. It’s the farthest north I’ve been in North America.
But since the tour left from Quebec City rather than Baie-Saint-Paul, I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be able to do it. I reached out to the company to see if there was any chance the bus could stop and pick me up on their way, and they agreed.
I waited outside the luxury hotel next to my hostel where the company instructed me to wait, and as the pick-up time came and went, I felt certain they’d forgotten me. But eventually, a giant charter bus pulled into the parking lot just for me! None of the passengers who were already on the bus seemed bothered that they’d taken a detour to pick up the lone girl with the giant backpack, and I was so very grateful that the company made it possible for me to join.
We drove through the mountains of Charlevoix alongside the St. Lawrence River with increasingly pretty (and slightly frightening) views. And then we arrived at our boat.
Passengers could choose between a zodiac or a big boat, and I was very happy to be warm on the big boat with access to snacks and bathrooms. And for three hours we searched for whales. Honestly, I would have been happy even if we hadn’t seen any because the scenery was so spectacular. I’ve never seen smoother water.
But we did see some whales! We saw some belugas, some porpoises, and a few minke whales. I raced around the boat when our guide announced a sighting like I was competing in an Olympic sport. And even though I was wearing every layer of warm clothing I brought with me, I was still freezing. And I was delighted.
I rode the tour bus all the way back to Quebec City, so they saved me from having to pay for public transportation. The tour wasn’t cheap, but it was a lot cheaper than I could have done it on my own.
Baie-Saint-Paul wasn’t the easiest to visit without a car, but it is well-worth the bit of pre-planning required. The bus to and from Quebec City runs once per day, and the bus stop is a random parking lot of a store in the commercial part of the city. If Ubers are available, there must not be many of them, because I waited a while trying to find one. Finally I gave up and walked to the hostel in the cute downtown. It was only a mile from the bus stop, but it’s not ideal if you’re carrying luggage. If you rent a car, it’s only an hour away from Quebec City, so easy to do as a day trip. Regardless of whether you have a car or not, I’d tell anyone visiting Quebec City for more than a few days that Baie-Saint-Paul is a must-visit.
Also, Cirque du Soliel started Baie-Saint-Paul. Who knew?
