Quebec City
Canada
The only walled city north of Mexico, and it takes winter seriously
Photo by Timothée Geenens on Unsplash
Photos by Shubham Sharan, P C, Joy Real and Gene Dizon on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Canada
June to September, or February for the Carnaval
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 131mm in Jul
Where it is
46.81°N, 71.21°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk the fortifications and the Plains of Abraham
- Take the funicular down to Petit-Champlain
- Cross to Lévis on the ferry for the view back
- Drive Île d’Orléans for the farms and cider
- See Montmorency Falls, which are higher than Niagara
- Come for the Carnaval, and dress for it properly
Quebec City travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Canada
Mid-rangeQuebec taxes — 5% federal and 9.975% provincial — are added at the till, and tips are 15-20%. English is understood in the tourist quarter and less so outside it, but an attempted bonjour is met with warmth rather than the coolness Paris might offer.
ATMs & cards
Desjardins, RBC and BMO machines in and around the old town. Avoid the white-label ones in souvenir shops. Cards work everywhere; cash is for the market and the sugar shacks.
Avoid these
- machines in souvenir shops in the old town
Use these instead
- Desjardins
- RBC
- BMO
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Canada
Very safeAmong the safest cities of its size anywhere, and the crime rate is genuinely low. Winter is the whole risk list: −15°C, ice on cobbled slopes, and a wind off the river that finds every gap in a coat. The Carnaval in February is wonderful and cold in a way that visitors consistently underestimate.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (5 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Ice on the Old Town stairs in winter, which is the genuine hazard here
- Grande Allée — at closing time
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Canada visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 180 daysC$7
An eTA is required to fly to Canada and is valid five years. It is not needed if you are arriving by land or sea. Apply only through the canada.ca site — C$7 is the whole fee.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 180 days
Visa required in advanceC$100
A visitor visa, applied for online with biometrics.
How to get it: Apply for the eTA at canada.ca; most are approved within minutes but some are held for days, so do it well before booking anything non-refundable.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
Electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA)RequiredCAN$7
Before you book, ideally. Most are approved in minutes.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- a credit or debit card
- an email address
Valid five years or until the passport expires. Anyone flying in needs one; driving across does not.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Canada
Good but costlyRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
Excellent, and expensive for visitors — there is no reciprocal arrangement with most countries, and an emergency admission runs to thousands of dollars. Travel insurance with a high medical limit is essential. In the Rockies, mountain rescue is coordinated by Parks Canada and is not billed, but the helicopter and hospital that follow are.
Wildlife and weather rather than illness. Carry bear spray on trails and know how to use it. Hypothermia is possible in any month at altitude, and snow closes passes well outside winter.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodQuebec country cooking in the city: tourtière, pea soup, maple everything, and cheese from the island farms. Go to a cabane à sucre in March if the timing works. The old town restaurants are priced for tourists — walk out to Saint-Roch or Saint-Jean-Baptiste for what locals eat.
Nightlife
A small old town with terraces in summer and an ice bar in February, and Grande Allée, which is where the students go.
- Grande Allée — the bar and terrace strip
- Quartier Petit Champlain — the pretty, early evening
- Saint-Roch — the microbreweries, and the locals
Closing: 03:00 on Grande Allée.
A beer in a bar: C$7–9
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- LyftWorks here
- BoltNot here
- Against a taxi
- A little under the meter, and thinner on the ground in the cities that allowed ride-hailing late.
Time zone and your working day
America/Toronto — the same time as you
8 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 09:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 09:00–17:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Canada
Why these are Canada's numbers and not Quebec City's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 79% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Quebec City, so these are medians for all of Canada. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Canada, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French (Québécois)
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- Hello / hi (Montreal)Bonjour-hibon-zhoor HI
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
6 more phrases
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- Corner shopDépanneurday-pa-NEUR
- CheersSanté !son-TAY
- You’re welcomeBienvenuebyen-ve-NOO
Open with bonjour and the whole interaction changes, even where everyone speaks English. In Montreal you will be greeted with "bonjour-hi" and may answer in either; in Quebec City, French comes first and the effort is noticed. The accent is not Parisian and neither is the vocabulary — a corner shop is a dépanneur and a car is a char.
Religion
Christian majority, and secular
Christian by heritage with a fast-growing share reporting no religion. Indigenous spiritual traditions are recognised, and their sites carry protocols worth respecting.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Queue properly, hold doors, and apologise reflexively — it really is the norm
- Tip 15-20% in restaurants and for taxis; staff wages assume it
- Carry bear spray on Rockies trails and know how to use it
- Take note of which province you are in — rules on alcohol, cannabis and driving differ
Don't
- Do not assume Canada is a variant of the United States; it lands badly
- Do not approach or feed wildlife, and never get between a bear and its cubs
- Do not underestimate distances — the Rockies are far bigger than the map suggests
- Do not litter or leave food out at a campsite; it is both a fine and a genuine danger
Where to stay in Quebec City
No Holistay rentals in Quebec City yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Quebec City on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Jean Lesage YQB
25 minfrom the airport· 14 km as the crow flies
25 min by taxi; there is no train from the airport.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
