Road Trip to Canada
We survived our first road trip outside the United States and it was fantastic.
We recently visited Québec City in Québec, Canada, and it was truly amazing. I run an online Scentsy business, and through my company, I work toward earning an incentive trip each year. We have been blessed to travel all over the world through these trips, and this was trip #12 we’ve earned since 2011. It’s been incredible!
For this trip, we decided to drive even though it was quite a long distance. I mean, we travel full-time, so why not? 😉
So we took off from the southern border of Oklahoma and spent about a week driving north to Québec City. We didn’t stop to do many activities or touristy things on the way up there because we didn’t have unlimited time. We did enjoy a few things along the way, though.
One place we tried to stop by was the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it there until about 10 minutes before closing time. Lol! Whoops! Maybe next time.
One of the other places we enjoyed was actually just a rest area. We pulled off to take a little break and accidentally discovered a rest area that was just gorgeous, with sweeping views. We were in New York, traveling east along Interstate 86, stopped between Colburns and Belleview, just west of Jamestown, and took in views overlooking Chautauqua Lake. If you’re traveling that stretch of road, it’s definitely a nice place to take a break.
We chose to drive up through Vermont to reach the Canadian border so we could take the Lake Champlain Scenic Byway and enjoy views of the lake and the mountains on both sides. It was so beautiful and a delightful time. Because of the route we chose, we ended up driving through the Allegheny Mountains, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains. So amazing!
Another place we stopped was Burlington, Vermont. We'd actually considered stopping here for the night, but the hotel prices were INSANELY high, so we decided to keep moving. We enjoyed a nice break at Oakledge Park and Beach, where we walked along the path and the beach, taking in views of the lake and the mountains and soaking up the beautiful weather. It was cool to be standing on the shore in Vermont and look across the water at the mountains in New York.
Once we left Burlington behind, it was on to the border! We’ve never driven across a border (at least not since passports became required) and have always flown, so going through border control was a little intimidating because we didn’t really know what to expect.
It was a breeze, though - we just answered a few questions, showed our passports, of course, and we went on our way.
Hello, Québec!
Our first time visiting this Canadian province.
Once we made it into Canada, we stopped in Drummondville for a night before continuing to Québec City. Driving into Québec City was very cool. We got great views of the St. Lawrence River and the city itself, including the city wall. Did you know that Québec City is a walled city dating back to the 17th century, and it’s the only fortified city in North America north of Mexico? So cool!
As I mentioned above, this was a Scentsy incentive trip, and they always go all out for the places they choose for us - this was no different.
We stayed at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac - a national historic site and the most photographed hotel in the world. It’s like a giant castle and it’s definitely beautiful!
We managed to get assigned a room on the very top floor of the hotel - the 18th floor. To reach our room, we had to take a specific elevator to the 17th floor, then switch to another elevator for the 18th. It was pretty wild being all the way up at the top!
The room was very spacious and really comfortable. We enjoyed the space and our stay. If we’re being honest, though, this isn’t a place we would ever choose to stay on our own. It’s WAY too expensive for our tastes. 😜 But we sure enjoyed it for this week!
The thing I loved most about our room was the view. We saw some incredible sunsets from our room while looking out over the city and the river beyond. We had a pretty awesome view of the square out in front of the hotel, too.
The outside of the hotel was just stunning. We had a lot of fun figuring out which windows were ours. Haha! We stood out in the courtyard a couple of times, looking at the windows, and then we’d look from the inside to figure out exactly where we were. I’ve got a pic here with an arrow pointing to them. And in the next pic, with the front view looking down the sidewalk, the windows at the top are ours.
The hotel is just massive and looks like a huge castle! It was definitely a sight to enjoy. And seeing it at night was just amazing. It was so beautiful, all lit up.
The town itself was very walkable and a great place to explore. There were tons of little shops, lots of restaurants and bars, and plenty of historical things and beautiful architecture to see. I loved seeing the beautiful streets, the war memorial statue, the fountains in front of Hôtel de Ville, the statue of Samuel de Champlain, the St. Lawrence River, and the Fontaine de Tourney - all shown below.
As for the food, poutine is apparently THE thing to eat in Québec, so we gave that a try. We weren’t big fans, so we figured maybe we hadn’t gotten one that was all that great, and we’d give it another go. We tried it three times, and we weren’t fans of any of them. We decided poutine is not for us. 🤷
We did find some great food, though. Our favorite place was Le Chic Shack, where we had the best burgers and fries - maybe some of the best we’ve ever had anywhere! It was right across from the hotel, and it had a very cool vibe. We loved it there!
Another place we loved was an Irish Pub called Pizzeria Chez Murphy’s. They had fantastic pizza and some delicious drinks. It was on Rue Saint-Jean, a street closed to traffic so people can walk around, sit outside, and eat without worrying about cars.
There is so much more to share about our time in Québec. Not only did we explore the area on our own, but we also had a couple of days of excursions, where we went out to see things beyond the city.
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