Things to do in Montréal & Québec City

Old Montréal's cobblestone streets lead past Notre-Dame Basilica, whose interior fills with the AURA light show in the evening, to the street performers of Place Jacques-Cartier, the Old Port and Marché Bonsecours. Climb Mount Royal Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, to the Kondiaronk Belvedere, visit Saint Joseph's Oratory with its 97 m dome on the mountain's slope, browse the growers and bakers of Jean-Talon Market in Little Italy, and walk through five ecosystems with penguins and seabird cliffs at the Montréal Biodôme. In Québec City, Old Québec, the only fortified city north of Mexico, keeps its walls, gates, the Château Frontenac and Dufferin Terrace, Petit-Champlain & Place Royale mark where the city was founded, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec on the Plains of Abraham shows Inuit art and the Espace Riopelle. Nearby, Montmorency Falls can be crossed on a suspension bridge above the water, and in winter the Hôtel de Glace (Ice Hotel) at Village Vacances Valcartier and the Québec Winter Carnival, with Bonhomme Carnaval, night parades and the ice canoe race, celebrate the snow.

Good to knowBook the AURA show at Notre-Dame Basilica online in advance; daytime visits run Monday to Saturday and on Sunday afternoons. Jean-Talon Market moves indoors for winter and the Montréal Biodôme is entirely indoors, while in winter Mount Royal Park offers skating on Beaver Lake, snowshoeing and sliding, and Dufferin Terrace has a toboggan run. The Hôtel de Glace opens only in winter, so dress warmly, and pick up the Effigy, the official Québec Winter Carnival pass, for access to winter activities and discounts.