What we did on our winter trip to Quebec.

Similar parka. My snowpants. My snow boots. (on sale.) similar hat.

Last night we arrived home from our amazing winter trip to Quebec.  Our kids are on their winter break so we knew we wanted to do something super fun with them, especially since we haven’t traveled anywhere as a family since we got back from Europe in August.  I was getting the travel itch bad, and this was the perfect way to scratch it.

I have to give credit for the idea for this trip entirely to my husband.  He was the mastermind behind it, and it was seriously one of the most magical and memorable trips we have ever taken.  Neither of us have ever done a snowy winter trip like this before, and there aren’t even words to describe how cool it was.  It was such a dream.   If you’ve never done a “winter trip” before I highly, highly recommend it.  And if I may suggest, Quebec is the perfect city for a winter trip.

Why Quebec?  First of all, if you want a taste of Europe without the hefty plane ticket price tag, you can get it with Quebec. (And if you live in New England, the drive really isn’t bad.)  It feels like a little slice of France, plus all the warmth and welcome you feel in other parts of Canada.  (Seriously, Canadians have got to be the nicest humans on the planet.). It’s also a city that was made for winter fun, so there are so many fun amazing wintery things to do in the winter. It’s a beautiful city with lots of character, and a fun wintery culture.

Speaking of which, here’s what we did on our winter trip to Quebec.  (Disclaimer: there’s so much more to do than this, and I am sure it is all as amazing as the activities we did, but I’m just going to share what we did, and our experience with it, which I am happy to say was 100% positive.  I can’t think of a single thing we did on this trip that didn’t surpass our expectations.)

Go to Winter Carnival: You have to come during the week and a half when this is going on, (which is why we made the trip this weekend) but I totally recommend going to the Winter Carnival.  There are so many cool activities and treats, axe throwing, ice castle to tour, ice sculpture blocks for the kids to play with, an ice maze, music and performances.  So many cool things to do and see revolving around winter that I have literally never seen before.  And it’s super family friendly.  We loved it.

Ride the Toboggan at Dufferin Terrace.  This was one of our favorites.  The city has this giant toboggan right next to the water and it’s been around since the 1800’s.  It was so, so fun.  It’s also really inexpensive ($3 a person) so very family friendly.  You buy a ticket and wait at the bottom for on of the wood sleds, then you pull it to the top, hop on and get the slide of your life. It’s seriously so, so fun.  We laughed and screamed all the way down. Everyone loved it.  (Plus the views of the river are super pretty too.)

Walk through Petit Champlain in Old Quebec.  I’ve never been in a place in North America that reminds me so much of Europe, so naturally I was in heaven.  We all were. The streets are so charming and it’s just really cool to see city streets piled HIGH with snow.  Loved all the little shops and restaurants.  The kids loved getting to practice their French.

Visit Hôtel de Glace. This was everyone’s very favorite thing we did.  Hôtel de Glace is literally a hotel made of snow and ice and it’s one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.  You can stay a night there, but we just bought tickets for the day and toured it.  It was amazing. The rooms are all done in different themes and the ice sculpture work is the most amazing/creative I have ever seen. You honestly have to see it to understand how magnificent it is.  They also have a fun little ice slide right inside the hotel that my kids loved going down.  Tickets to see the hotel are $20 a person.  There’s also a whole winter theme park around the hotel, but it’s a bit on the pricey side at $55 a person.  It would be super fun though, lots of tubing slides.

Go Ice Skating in the city. They have two different free ice-skating rinks right in the middle of the city.  Free if you bring your own skates or you can rent for a reasonable price. We skated at the rink at — Park. The whole park is a winter wonderland, you can also rent cross country skis and those hardcore Canadians were skiing and jogging all over the park.  It’s seriously impressive what they get out and do in that kind of cold.  We all have our own ice skates so we brought them from home and even though it was insanely cold, we loved skating around the track with French music playing in the background and views of the beautiful city and park.

Get the maple snow taffy. They sell this at Carnival, and also outside Hôtel de Glace and you guys, I cannot even explain why it’s so good, but oh my goodness it is amazing.  They basically pour hot maple syrup right on the snow and you roll it up on a popsicle stick (which is so fun), and the combination is amazing.  Oh, my goodness my mouth is watering just thinking of it!

Eat at one of the charming restaurants in Petit Champlain.  I highly recommend Parmesan Restaurant.  The food is amazing, the atmosphere is even better.  The décor is quirky and fun, it’s a loud boisterous restaurant (very family friendly) the staff is so fun and kind.  They even had a guy playing an accordion and singing.  The whole meal was an experience and since it was the last night in the city, it was the perfect way to end the trip.  It was packed, and they still got our party of 7 in within 20 minutes (which I found super impressive.)

The most important thing I can tell you about traveling to Quebec in the winter is to dress appropriately. It is so cold and you need to be prepared for that.  If you have the right clothes you’ll be comfortable and have a ball, if you’re not packed correctly, it will be miserable.  Come back tomorrow because I’m going to share a whole post on exactly what you need to pack for a winter trip to Quebec.

Happy Tuesday everyone!