This is part two of a two part series about RVing in Quebec with Gretchen Holcombe from Boxy Colonial on the Road. To check out part one about Montreal and the Montreal South KOA Journey please click here. To listen to this episode about Quebec City and the Quebec City KOA Holiday please click on the media player above or subscribe to the RV Atlas wherever you get your favorite shows. Or simply read on right here for Gretchen’s guest blog post.
Old Québec City very much feels like something out of a fairytale version of an old European city…at least if you can manage to forget about all the tourists around you who are thinking the same thing. At times it can feel a little too perfect–as if you’ve accidentally gone to the World Showcase at Disney’s Epcot instead of to Canada. But there’s a lot of very real history and culture behind the picture perfect surface of Québec City, and our family loved our time here. We stayed at the Quebec City KOA Holiday during our stay here–and it served as a great basecamp for exploring the city.
The Quebec City KOA Holiday
The Québec City KOA Holiday is just across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City, in the town of Levís. This is a great KOA with a helpful, bilingual staff, easy access from the highway, great proximity to Québec City, and lots of nice amenities to come back to after a day of touring.
The RV sites are mostly full hook-up gravel pull-throughs with pretty good sized yards. There are some patio sites, as well as a range of non-RV options, including rustic camping cabins and deluxe cabins. RV sites range from around $65 CAD up to over $100 CAD for patio sites.
The pool area is awesome, complete with water slides, a hot tub, and a splash pad area. There’s a communal fire pit in this area as well and lots of other indoor and outdoor communal spaces throughout the campground.
There are a lot of different options for getting into the city from the KOA. The campground runs a free shuttle every day, but it does need to be reserved a day in advance. We had planned to drive to the Levís ferry and take the quick ride across the river to the historic district, but we found out the the day we arrived that the ferry workers were striking and the ferry wasn’t running. So we ended up driving into the city every day, and this was actually surprisingly easy. It’s only about a 20 minute drive and traffic was never too bad. Driving and parking in Old Québec looked harrowing, however, so we parked in one of the large paid surface lots along the edge of town, which meant about 15 minutes of hilly walking to get to most of the sites.
Fun Things to Do in Québec City
Walking Tour of Old Québec
Old Québec is so compact and walkable, and so rich with stories and history, that we thought a walking tour would be a great way to get our bearings and learn about the city. We went with the 2 hour “Grand Tour” with Tours Voir Québec and were very happy with the company and with our guide, but there are other well-reviewed companies that offer similar tours (some with guides in period costumes!) We really enjoyed getting to hear about the city from the perspective of someone who lives there and to see some hidden spots we wouldn’t have found on our own.
Fortifications of Québec National Historic Site
Old Québec became an Unesco World Heritage site in 1985, largely because it’s one of the oldest towns in North America with a mostly intact system of fortified walls surrounding it. This Parks Canada site offers a few different ways to explore the walls and learn more about them. They offer a two hour guided tour that sounds wonderful but isn’t recommended for younger kids, so we opted instead to head to the Artillery Park area so our 11 year old could do the interactive “legend of the talking walls” activity. He got to borrow a magic sword and complete a quest that took us along the walls and through the town, using our iphone to get clues. There’s also a museum about the history of the city and walls at Artillery Park and a self-guided tour (with costumed characters!) of historic buildings full of three centuries of military history.
Morrin Centre
I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in the world where you can take a tour of a building that has, over time, served as a jail, a college, and a library…but you can do just that at the Morrin Centre. Our guide first took us downstairs to see the creepy jail that dates to the early 1800’s (complete with a chance to be closed up in one of the cells) then took us back up to learn about the building’s college years and see the English-language library it’s home to today.
Musée de la Civilisation
“Civilization” is a pretty broad theme for a museum, and the Musée de la Civilisation takes full advantage of it, with exhibits on everything from the Catholic diocese of Québec to professional wrestling. We enjoyed the “This is Our Story” gallery about the 11 Indigenous nations in Quebec and the sprawling “In Other Words, Quebec” exhibit. We especially loved “Word is Bond. The Sound of Rap Queb” where you borrow a set of headphones that plays a soundtrack for you as you go through the exhibit.
Old Québec Funicular
This nearly vertical cable car takes you from Lower Town to Dufferin Terrace. We thought the $5/person (cash only) price for a 30 second ride was a little steep (pun intended), but it’s a fun experience to do one time (and it saves you a trip on foot up the frighteningly-named Breakneck Stairs).
Where to Eat in Québec City
We highly recommend brunch at La Buche, which features Québécois cuisine including house-made rhubarb jam. We also enjoyed a dinner at the Parisian bistro-style Cochon Dingue. Finally, we loved the burgers and creative poutines at Le Chic Shack, in a historic house right by Dufferin Terrace.
