View of Old Montréal’s Marché Bonsecours

DAY ONE: BIENVENU À MONTRÉAL

Welcome to Montréal, the second largest French-speaking city in the world. Arrive at Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport during the mid- to late afternoon, meet your VISIT QUÉBEC guide, and transfer to your hotel at the edge of Montréal’s colorful Latin Quarter.

Begin your Montréal visit with a walking orientation tour of Place Jacques Cartier, ending with dinner in a colorful French-Canadian sports restaurant (with a predictable bias toward the Montréal Canadiens) deep in Old Montréal.

After dinner, return to the hotel by Metro. Overnight security services begin at 10:00pm.

DAY TWO: NÔTRE DAME BASILICA, BIODÔME, MONTRÉAL UNDERGROUND, ICE SKATING

Walk or take the subway to breakfast at a trendy breakfast restaurant in the heart of Old Montréal, then walk across Place d’Armes to Nôtre Dame Basilica (pictured at right) for a an unforgettable guided
tour of the “Jewel of Montréal”.

After your visit to most beautiful church in all the Americas, take the Métro to the Biodôme de Montréal, where you can see 4000 animals from 200 species as you walk, in a matter of minutes, from a hot and moist tropical rain forest to the Antarctic.

Following lunch on your own in the Biodôme cafeteria, you will ascend on the funiculaire to the top of the world's tallest inclined tower for a panoramic, 50-mile view of Montréal, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the surrounding countryside. On a clear day you can see all the way to the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondacks of New York.

Return to sea level, then take the Métro to Place Montréal Trust, where you will descend into the heart of Montréal’s vast Underground City. There, you can spend the late afternoon exploring and souvenir-shopping in the Montréal Underground, a 30-kilometer network of underground shops and passageways.

You’ll have dinner this evening in historic Windsor Station (the oldest of North America’s metropolitan railway stations).

After dinner, walk next door to 1000 de la Gauchetiere, an architecturally acclaimed office building in the heart of downtown Montréal where you will spend the evening ice skating at l'Amphithéâtre de Glace, pictured at left, a 10,000 square foot ice-skating pavilion “without equal in North America”.

Return to your hotel on the subway. Overnight security services begin at 10:00pm.

DAY THREE: QUÉBEC CITY, ORIENTATION, DINNER AND HISTORY LESSON

Breakfast in the hotel, then board your bus and depart on a two-and-a-half-hour ride down the Saint Lawrence River Valley to Québec City.

Arrive in the heart of Old Québec (at right)and check in to your hotel, then depart with your guide on a walking orientation tour that will begin at Place d’Armes and introduce you to the Terrasse Dufferin, the majestic Château Frontenac and the Assemblée Nationale.
You’ll have dinner in fine French Canadian restaurant in an restored heritage building on the Grande Allée (the Champs Elysées of Québec) or in the 300-year-old stone vault of an historic building in the Quarter Petit Champlain.

Your day will end with an interactive history lesson, in which every student will participate, about warfare in the time of generals Wolfe and Montcalm.

Overnight security services begin at the hotel at 10:30pm.

DAY FOUR: CITY TOUR, QUARTIER LATIN, ÎLE D’ORLEANS, SUGAR SHACK

After a French breakfast in the Latin Quarter in the hotel, meet the bus and depart on a city sightseeing tour that will include the Parc des Champs-de-Bataille, the Grande Allée, and many other points of
great historic significance.

The tour will end in the Quartier Petit Chaplain, where you’ll have lunch on your own in the oldest part of the City (where the greystone buildings date to the 1600s), or the Quartier Latin, where you can have lunch on your own in one of the many restaurants or cafes along colorful rue Saint-Jean, then you’ll be free to practice your French while browsing among the Latin Quarter’s student-friendly boutiques.

Your last day in Québec will end on Île d’Orleans with traditional dinner and a memorable evening of French-Canadian music and folk dancing at an authentic cabane à sucre (pictured above).

DAY FIVE: AU REVOIR, QUÉBEC

After breakfast in the hotel, time permitting, walk to the Quartier Petit Champlain for some last-minute gift-shopping and picture-taking, then board the bus and transfer back to Trudeau International Airport to begin your journey home.

Au revoir, Québec, a bientôt.