Doing a trip in a day, is that just too much, maybe a bit insane? One of my most adventurous and fun trips I’ve had in awhile (other than my India ones) was my most recent trip to Quebec City. There aren’t a lot of things you can do there, but if you plan ahead of time and know some key areas you want to visit, then it will be a successful trip!

Planning

Keeping in mind that this trip was all going to be done in a day, the first thing I did was make a wish list of all the places and things I wanted to do using my handy Google Maps.

There are two types of trips: relaxed or hectic, and yes, they are complete polar opposites of one another. Keeping in mind that I wanted a relaxed trip this time around, I started prioritizing my list. Different people will have different desires, but personally on my first trip to Quebec City, I wanted the whole food experience because I LOVE food! I started looking at food tours in Quebec City and did a bit of reading on Yelp and Google reviews to make sure they were some of the best. After settling on one, I booked my food tour and planned everything else around it. The food tour consisted of 5 restaurants and a mini tour of places/history in Quebec City.

Trip Time

The trip started with a nice long car drive to Quebec City. With good music and snacks for the road, we were golden. Being the entertainment for the driver so that they stayed awake the whole ride there, I needed to keep switching the music between Bollywood and hype dance beats. We finally got to Quebec City and I must say it was delightful with its narrow streets and the lights that enveloped the buildings. We started walking around and there were so many tiny stores everywhere. It all looked so beautiful and cozy. But of course, do plans ever go the way we envisioned? I was hungry and I really needed food before the food tour (of course). I went to L’Omelette, and I got their French toast and hot chocolate. It was really nice getting something warm after a long drive and cold weather. It’s always amazing to go with people who enjoy food and adventure just as much as you do. Firstly, you get to try many different foods and secondly you get to see places from other perspectives. Side note: going on a trip alone is alright, but just one other person is so much more fun. As the numbers get bigger yes, it’s good, but not the best! As the time for the lunch tour approached, we began to walk over to the first food location. Now a slight heads up, it’s going to read like a Yelp review below, so skip on over to the rest of the tour if that’s not your cup of tea.

La Buche

I walked into the restaurant and it was very rustic. It was all wooden and looked like exactly what you’d expect to see in old Quebec. We had the pea soup and the Pâté chinois. The Pâté chinois was literally shepherd’s pie, but rather deconstructed, all broken down. The pea soup was good; it had some roasted chickpeas added to it which added a bit of crunch. Now if you are ever here please visit the bathroom. It’s an odd thing to say, but you’ll thank me later when you actually do it. To end it off, we got to roll our own maple taffy. We did it on ice, so technically not the traditional way. It was quite good and just enough sugar at the end of an amazing first course.

BeClub

Before this restaurant, we had a wonderful tour around the city, so by the time we got to BeClub, I was starving (again). Inside it was a nice wooden setting, in particular with a beautiful wooden table upon which white wine was already laid out for us. The waiter brought the mac and cheese, where I took one look at it and thought, “Wow, small portion”. However, there was a lot of pork belly in the dish, which was delicious and somewhat filling. I could eat it all day, mostly because I love pork belly. Now, to be honest, “I think my friend and I make mac and cheese a lot better”, but this was still worth the trek in the cold.

Paillard

Paillard is known to have the best croissant in all of Quebec, so naturally our next stop was to get a croissant. Now the first thing I noticed in the croissant was the crispiness just by looking at it. I could tell that it was crispy from the golden finish on the top part of the croissant. I took my first bite, and a lot of the croissant fell off (which I did not enjoy). The secret to this croissant is all the butter they put in it, all of which you can really taste. It was an amazing croissant, and it would’ve been even better after heating it up for 10 seconds.

Chez Boulay

Across the street, we arrived at the lesser known version of a fancier restaurant of Quebec. All the ingredients used at this restaurant are local to Quebec. The restaurant has a cookbook of its own as well: Le garde-manger Boréal. The fudge we were given tasted scrumptious. It was soft and a bit chewy at the beginning. I would recommend going back to get some amazing treats from here.

Maison Livernois

This was the last and perhaps most fascinating stop in the food tour. We got their special poutine and local gin. The poutine was special here because they used veal gravy, and it was also crunchy because of the peppercorns scattered throughout the dish. The local gin was a yellow tinted gin by the name of Ungava. It was really tasty, and you could drink it straight (not that I’m an alcoholic). The gin and poutine went well together. If you’re in Quebec trying poutine for the first time though, I would not really recommend trying the poutine from here, because it wasn’t classic and didn’t have the original taste to it. However, do yourself a favour and try one of the many different flavours of gin here - you’ll probably find one you enjoy.

Other Than Food

Food wasn’t the only thing we explored in Quebec. We also tried out other things and checked out some sights in the short amount of time we had. To start off, we went shopping at Simons. Since it was nearing Christmas time, the place was decorated and beautiful. This store was huge and very organized. It was nice to walk off all the food that I had just eaten. Next stop was Funicular; an elevator that takes you to the Old Town just below. The elevator oversees the whole town, and what an amazing sight it is. The town below is cute, for lack of a better word. There are so many narrow buildings that are bunched up together. And of course, everything was well decorated for the holidays. I walked through the whole town and made my way to the Old Quebec Port. The port was serene and calm. It overlooked another city base. If it wasn’t so cold outside, I could’ve spent hours there listening to the wind and water whisper secrets to each other. Instead of taking the Funicular up, we decided to walk up and experience the beauty of cardio. We went to see the Parliament which was a bit far of a walk in the cold. It was already dark, but we got to enjoy the view. At this time, we had one more spot to get to before heading home.

The drive to Montmorency Falls was around 20 minutes. Did you know that these are the tallest falls in Canada? I was not only close to the falls, but I got to walk across them on a narrow bridge. It was so beautiful; I’ve never gotten to do that when exploring Niagara. This was a first for me getting so close to the falls without a boat. It was an amazing place to end up at as the last destination of the trip. We started making our way back home, and since Montreal was on the way, we decided to stop for a quick bite and hit the road again (a story for another day).

Overall, Quebec in a day is doable. I liked what I saw and all the walking and eating that was done. There is for sure plenty more to see however. I would love to see the ice hotel and the carnival that happens in February. Finally, shout out to the one person who was constantly there to help me take pictures of the food and all the places we went. I am not sure about you, but sometimes I need someone to help me take stunning pictures. Also, it’s truly a skill holding off eating while I get that perfect picture. After the success of this trip, I would do one day trips over and over again, especially with another person, because while travelling alone is fun, it gets that much better with one more person.

Until the next adventure.

Yours truly, Traveler