Montreal & Quebec City 2025
This year, over my Thanksgiving Break, we headed up north to Montreal and Quebec City. It was our first time visiting Quebec, and it didn’t disappoint.
The first day in Montreal, we went to the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, wow.
After oohing and aahing in the basilica, we walked through town to get a late lunch/early dinner at Olive et Gourmando. I had an amazing french toast, and Christopher had a cuban sandwich. Yum.
We walked around just taking in the city until it got dark, and then we went to check into the hotel. We stayed at the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain, which was very nice and conveniently on the metro too. There was a hockey game happening next door, and we could see the drumline playing for the fans while they waited in line to get in. We had an M Club lounge at this hotel, so you know we got some lounge food.
On our second day in Montreal we booked a guided tour through Get Your Guide, which ended up being private because we were the only ones to sign up for the day. A dude in a minivan picked us up, and off we went. We saw the Olympic Park, Mount Royal Park, Saint Joseph's Oratory, The Biosphere in Parc Jean-Drapeau, Habitat 67, Casino de Montreal, which was part of the 1967 Expo, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, the underground city, and drove on an F-1 track. And it SNOWED all day!
After our tour, we walked around near the hotel to see some Christmas lights, and got Five Guys for dinner, we had to make sure it still tasted the same in Canada, it does.
Our third day of the trip was a rough one. We started out at Jean-Talon Market where I had my wallet stolen out of my purse. Thankfully, I noticed quickly and was able to put holds on all of my credit cards with their various apps, but they still got a wad of cash and a wallet I liked a lot. If you have a wallet you like a lot, leave a link in the comments. I still haven’t replaced it. Thankfully, my driver’s license wasn’t in there, and neither were our passports, so it could have been much worse. We decided to comfort ourselves with a Montreal bagel from St-Viateur Bagel, but they only took cash and Canadian debit cards. So we went to a bank to try and exchange some cash, but of course, they only exchange for people with accounts. A nice man behind us in line googled the exchange rate and exchanged our cash for us; it was so nice of him. Back to the bagels we went.
We started our last day in Montreal with breakfast sandwiches and coffee from Bar Caffettiera and then spent most of the day at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This place was HUGE, we didn’t even see it all. The Kent Monkman exhibit was particularly popular when we were there. Then we had lunch at Ma Poule Mouillée, which was really good.
To top off our trip to Montreal, we got extra festive and hit up a Christmas-themed bar, La Taverne de Noël. This place made us so happy. It was decorated with vintage Christmas decor, and the front had a tree made of blow molds. We had a couple of Christmas cocktails, and then ended the night with their specialty hot cocoa.
Next up, we took the train to Quebec City. We booked business class tickets so we could bring our larger suitcase, and that included lounge access, a meal, free alcohol, and they brought us a little truffle with our coffee. The train ride was nice. I wish we had better train travel in the US.
After checking into our hotel, Quebec City Marriott Downtown, we found a laundromat and did laundry, then got dinner at a pub on the way back to the hotel. We had a corner room with four windows and the perfect view of the Christmas market and ice skating rink across from our hotel.
On our first full day in Quebec City, we started the day with brunch at Paillard. We each had the quiche of the day, broccoli and cheese, a latte, and we shared a chocolate croissant. Other than the coffee just being Nespresso, it was good, and the quiche slices were pretty big.
Next up, we got more coffee from Café La Maison Smith to take with us to walk around and see the Christmas markets.
One of the main reasons we took this trip was to see the German-style Christmas markets around town, so here are some fun pics.
One of the markets was right in front of Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral, and they had a huge Nativity scene set up.
After walking around town and visiting all of the Christmas markets, we headed over to Apikol - Distillery & Meadery for a tour and tasting. This happened to be Thanksgiving day, and all of the tour participants were American. So we toasted to Thanksgiving.
After our mead and alcohol tasting, we headed to St-Hubert for a roast chicken dinner, and I even had sweet potato fries to be extra festive. We started with mozzarella sticks, because we’re fancy.
On our second full day in Quebec City, we took a tour of the outskirts of town. We saw L'Île-d'Orléans and visited Chocolaterie de l'Ile d'Orleans, Cuivres d'Art Albert Gilles Boutique et Musée, Sanctuaire Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, and Montmorency Falls.
After the tour, we walked over to Restaurant La Buche for dinner, and thank goodness they had space for us, because this was one of my favorite meals of the trip. The french onion soup was probably the best I’ve ever had, and the meats were so tender in both of our dishes. Christopher started with a pea soup and he loved that too.
On our last full day in Quebec City, we started with brunch at Le Casse-Crêpe Breton. We shared a pizza crepe and a nutella and fruit crepe.
After brunch, we went to the Parliament building, which is beautiful.
Then we went to find the city mural and came across the famously steep stairs, Escalier Casse-Cou.
We also found a Christmas cafe that was all decked out in vintage blow-molds. We got fancy hot chocolates.
For dinner, we ate at Cochon Dingue. We started by sharing a french onion soup, which was good, but not as good as La Buche. Then I had a steak and Christopher had ribs.
That night, we also saw the most bizarre parade ever from our hotel room. It reminded us of Krampus, but we definitely don’t know the story behind it, so if you do, drop that in the comments.
The day we went home, it was snowing so much! It was beautiful, but I slipped in it, which wasn’t the best time.
We had crepes and french onion soup at Au Petit Coin Breton for brunch, before packing up and heading to the airport.
After we boarded the plane, we experienced our first deicing! Very exciting for us Floridians.
Once we were back in Orlando, it took over two hours to get our bags, because the airport was having some kind of technical problem with the baggage carousels.
Overall, it was a great trip, and I highly recommend visiting Quebec City.
