Background and Planning
After several trips to warmer climates, we decided it was time to go somewhere with SNOW! We’ve never been much of a winter sports family, and the girls have yet to really experience winter weather, outside taking Sage to SLC when she was too small to remember it.
We considered several options (I still really want to visit Iceland!) but kept running into barriers. We even hit a point where we thought we may not go anywhere, deciding we needed to plan our trips further in advance instead of the usual Thanksgiving break week. Finally, Meg found Quebec City as a unique place to visit in the winter with an old European vibe and plenty of things to keep us occupied for a few days. I had to pull up a map to even find out where Quebec City is located – turns out to be on the St. Lawrence River, a huge river which flows from Lake Ontario into the North Atlantic.
PHX –> YUL (Montreal) –> YQB (Quebec)
The trip started with the best type of air travel – generally uneventful. After a few bad airport parking experiences around the holidays, I opted for an Uber pickup (5:30am!) which made the process quite a bit easier. We flew Air Canada for the first time, which we thought was overall nice with noticeably friendly attendants. The four and a half hour flight led into a three hour layover in Montreal Airport, which was very easy to navigate. We even had a decent dinner at a place called Pork and Pickle.
After dinner, an older gentleman flagged me down after he recognized me from the Phoenix flight. We ended up chatting a bit – he told me how beautiful my family is, asked about our trip, and offered several suggestions for things to do in Quebec City. Turned out he was originally from Brooklyn and moved to a farm south of Quebec City in the 70s to avoid being drafted. He saw us again later at the gate and gave the girls a pair of turquois earrings and necklace he’d found in Mexico. He also made a list of things to do, drew a map of things to see around our hotel, and left his name / # in case we had any questions while we were there.
The YUL to YQB clocked in at less than an hour and went by fast. We picked up our checked bags and caught a taxi to the hotel. Our driver was from Rwanda and very friendly. He’d been living in Quebec City for around seven years. He mostly spoke French but seemed excited to practice his English during the ~20 minute cab ride. Meanwhile, Sage and Vivienne were freaking out about the snow, squealing in excitement every 10 seconds about every snow pile, snow covered tree, snowy roof, etc.
Hotel Arrival – Fairmont Le Château Frontenac
We arrived at our Hotel, the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. The property is both beautiful and impressive, originally built in the late 1800s and anchoring the Old Quebec neighborhood. It’s surrounded by several restaurants and small shops, and a German Christmas Village that’s open through most of December.
Upon check-in, the girls were given coloring books and a scavenger hunt for things to find around the hotel. We checked into our room and went down to find dinner. We ended up at a hotel restaurant, Bistro Le Sam. Service was good and we all enjoyed our food. I ordered the lobster roll with caviar to try something new – I’d never had caviar before. I had Sage and Vivienne try it as well. None of us had strong feelings towards it either way.
After dinner we headed up to the room and promptly passed out after the very long day of travel!
Day One: Toboggan Ride, Bella Ristorante, Christmas Market, Aux Anciens Canadiens
As we got up and around, the girls were ready to get in the snow! We decided to start the day with the Toboggan Slide outside the hotel, which was built in 1884! It also claimed to hit speeds of 40+ MPH. The short walk over was filled with snowball fights and the girls just rolling around on snow piles.
The line for the ride was quite long and took almost ~90 minutes. Great first opportunity to test our cold weather resolve! I hopped in line while Meg and the girls went to get some hot chocolate. The girls were able to go play in snow piles while we waited in line. At one point Sage climbed an icy staircase to get to the top of the hill – unfortunately she slid down on a muddy hill (vs. the snowy one) and covered her jeans in mud!
The line provided great views of the river and hotel. After about an hour, Meg and the girls went to warm up in the hot chocolate cafe for a bit. After they got back, I went over and spent a few minutes too! Overall our winter gear was holding up but our fingers/toes became quite cold after standing still in the line for so long.
The Toboggan Ride itself was cool, although over in about 20 seconds! All four of us climbed on the same sled, and the combined weight sent us down much faster than the other two toboggans that went at the same time. It was a cool experience, and afterwards we hurried back to our hotel room to warm back up!
After we warm up, we ventured out to a restaurant called Bella Restaurante, a nearby Italian restaurant within walking distance. It had an upscale vibe and extensive menu. We started with a focaccia bread basket (delicious) and bruschetta (meh), I ordered a pizza (amazing), and Meg and the girls had pasta (also amazing). Overall we were very impressed and gave it 9 or 10/10s!
After lunch, we stopped by a couple shops – Sage found a trapper hat with the Canadian flag and Vivi found a small wolf stuffy. We also walked through part of the Christmas Market, and the girls even stopped to see a French Santa. After, we headed back to the room to rest for a few and ended up taking a quick nap.
We had 6pm dinner reservations at Aux Anciens Canadiens, which was recommended by the hotel Concierge. The restaurant resides in an old house, originally built in 1675! We weren’t terribly hungry after lunch but wanted to go for the experience. The restaurant was neat with a very historic feel – not too many seats. I had a “filet trio” with elk, bison and deer while Meg had a chef’s special which was a Thanksgiving-like plate with turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberries. We also ended up having a couple desserts – I had chocolate pie, whereas Meg ordered two (!) maple desserts, both amazing!
After dinner, we explored the Christmas Market some more. I ended up buying a couple small bottles of maple-based liqueurs and maple-based desserts – yum! After, we ended up turning in at the hotel – watched the 49ers game and fell asleep!
Day Two: Hotel Pool, Ice Skating, Dinner at Ciel!
We started the day with Meg heading to the gym, while I took the girls to the hotel pool to swim for a bit. It was a nice area, with a hot tub and small higher pool that fed into a larger swimming/lap pool. I set up on a chase with my laptop to work on the blog! There were several other families there from all over, and the girls got to play with some of the other kids in the pool. I always find it interesting how different countries have different pool etiquette. This hotel was not too far off of most American pools, with a few things like “no jumping in” and “no splashing”. The girls got a finger wag at one point for hitting each other with pool noodles.
After getting the girls cleaned up from the pool, we headed back to the Christmas Market for a light lunch. We had German sausages (duck, deer), churros (“C” tier!), and some delicious macarons. We headed back to the room to drop things off, before taking our next trek to an ice-skating rink.
The skating rink was a ten-minute walk from the hotel – not far, but the ~5 degree weather wasn’t helping, and we weren’t sure how long we’d last on an outdoor skating rink. We bundled up and started the walk, passing large snow drifts on the way. The rink was next to a beautiful downtown area and some government buildings. The rink wasn’t large, but fortunately looked very “beginner” which was welcome given our lack of ice-skating experience.
There was a small building with bathrooms and skate rentals. We headed in to get skates. They were relatively cheap at $10. There were no waivers to sign, and everyone left their shoes in a common area. This was the first of several cases on the trip I noticed where places put more “trust” in the individual to do the right thing and be respectful, instead of having to protect people from themselves. I always appreciate that. Once our skates were strapped on, we headed to the ice rink.
There were walkers available to help you avoid falling, which Meg and Vivienne started with. Sage and I decided to just go for it. My skates were slightly loose which made them flare out and harder to control, but I decided to just power through it. Sage and Vivi stayed on the outside of the rink using the side rail as a crutch. As time went on, the skating kept us surprisingly warm and I was even sweating. We skated for almost an hour and a half, with a 15 minute break to smooth the ice, before having to get back to the hotel. We all ended up having a lot of fun, and the girls expressed interest in more skating back in home. On the walk back we went through another beautiful small downtown area – we stopped in a few stores and picked up some caramel corn and Vivi got a replica (e.g. fake) Lebubu.
We had a quick rest at the hotel and changed for dinner. Dinner reservations were for Ciel! Bistro-Bar, a recommendation through a Canadian colleague. The restaurant was a bit outside walking range (especially in dressier outfits!) so we caught a taxi. Our driver was very enthusiastic about teaching us French words and attempting to address my inability to make certain sounds.
First off – “the restaurant”Ciel!” was on the top floor of a hotel and the outer seating rotated throughout the meal – very cool! We were sat with a view towards our hotel, and made a little over one full rotation during our 90 minute meal. Interestingly, we also rotated around the inner ring of the restaurant, so we started by a bar, moved by coat check, the kitchen, etc. For the meal, we started with a cheese platter, and the girls each got cauliflower soup. The girls each had a spaghetti with meat sauce dish, Meg had braised beef cheek, and I had the roasted rack of lamb. Food reactions were mixed, with Meg (and all of us!) enjoying her braised beef cheek the most. The views were amazing and it was cool to see the city in all directions. At one point Sage asked why there were so many cows down in the park… after closer examination, they turned out to be benches.
We caught an uber back to the hotel and wrapped up the night. We were all quite tired, and quickly fell asleep.
Final Day and Trip Home
With limited time on Christmas Eve morning ahead of our midday flight, we decided to go out in the snow one last time.. for more snowball fights!
After some snow shenanigans, we packed up and headed to the airport. At Quebec airport, my backpack got flagged for “extra review” (3 for 3!) and when zipping it back up, the TSA agent got the zipper so badly stuck it took Meghann and I almost an hour and a half, along with basically destroying an inner pocket, to get it unstuck. During part of it, we asked the restaurant for scissors, which we were only able to use “under supervision”. We eventually got it unstuck, and lots of cheering ensued.
Just like the trip out, we had a ~3 hour layover at Montreal airport. We had dinner at an Irish pub, which we did NOT like – both service and food quality were poor. We did have a 90 minute delay (mechanical) on the last leg of our trip, putting us back in Phoenix at 11:30pm! Interestingly we did US customs in Montreal airport, and didn’t have to do anything upon our arrival in Phoenix.
Parting Thoughts
We set out to take a trip somewhere to enjoy a true “winter” climate for a few days, get to another country, and let the girls experience snow. To that end, mission accomplished! We enjoyed our visit to the point we all want to come back soon – maybe explore in the summertime. I’d love to do an RV/camping tour.
After the ice skating, the girls are now interested in visiting one of the Phoenix indoor ice skating rinks to get in more practice. We were also amazed by how friendly and accommodating all of the Canadians were throughout the entire trip. Reminded me of being back in the Midwest!
Now we’re back in Phoenix for Christmas, and have a week and a half left of break before we all head back to work and school. We’re planning to try and book our 2026 trips by the end of the break, so more to come!
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