Road trip. Quebec advice? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Road trip. Quebec advice?

jc100

Well-known member
So...following on from the other thread on a boycott of the US we have decided to stay in Canada and are looking at the Saguenay fjord area and Tadoussac for whale watching. My question is....is Saguenay itself a decent place to be based for a few days to explore the area? Tadoussac for whale watching cruises is about 1.5h away driving along the north shore of the fjord and it looks like the fjord cruises start from nearby to Saguenay itself. Also found a really good deal on a 4.5* hotel in Saguenay at $120 a night. Didn’t find any decent Airbnb or VRBO places for our dates unfortunately. There’s some decent music festivals on in the city too at the time. I don’t mind driving about to see stuff either.
 
This is a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time.

So I have very little to offer other than I have been told that the #381 highway to get up there is one of the most beautiful drives ever.
 
do you parlez vous, JC?
outside of Montreal, I've had little problem with my tourist French

no trip advice, other than to encourage it
I have a soft spot for la Belle Province
 
do you parlez vous, JC?
outside of Montreal, I've had little problem with my tourist French

no trip advice, other than to encourage it
I have a soft spot for la Belle Province

I speak French fluently...I have no idea what these people in Quebec speak.

Not strictly true....they understand me, I have a difficult time with them if they use a lot of slang.

I booked a hotel on Hotwire and it turned out to be the 5* (4.5* depending on reviews) one I thought it would be. $120 CDN a night, very happy about that one. Wife is a little upset that their state of the art personal card swipe wine dispensers may not be in operation yet. Cruises are about 60 for the fjords and 70 for whale watching. Pretty reasonable I think as each one is about 3h long.

I'm driving there with the wife so I’ll hopefully get to go along both shores of the fjords. Nice free music festival on while I’m there. Should be fun. Looking at staying in Lévis on the way up for something different. I like to see new places and I’ve already been to Quebec City.

Edit: I may also head up this way on the bike sometime soon.
 
All booked....one night in Lévis, one night in Trois Rivieres a few nights in Saguenay.....a couple of cruises to see fjords and whales and maybe a ferrry across the St Lawrence or two. Didn’t realize just how big that river gets further out east. It is a 60 minute crossing from Rivière du Loup to the other shore and 1.5h from Trois Pistoles further up. All car ferries, all about $40ish for a crossing with a car, 30ish for a bike. Booking.com had some $25 off vouchers if you shared a link so got $50 total off the hotels. Apparently beluga whales are seen easily from the car ferries and hang around the port areas along with seals and sea lions.
 
Is it hard to get around in the small towns if you don't speak french? I mean ordering at restaurants and things like that.
 
Is it hard to get around in the small towns if you don't speak french? I mean ordering at restaurants and things like that.

Montreal is difficult as it's the home of the Separatist movement
many there just will not speak English, even though most can

Quebec and places east that rely on tourist dollars,
the locals, while being single language Francophones
are more open to try and help out a single language Anglofone

a little effort goes a long way....biggest problem I have
is that I'm a bit more fluent in Spanish and sometimes that slips out
you get funny looks when you drop a por favor on them
they're not sure if you're being a jive turkey or not
 
Being originally from Quebec city (grew up there for 20 yrs) , outside of Montreal and Quebec city, the english is rare and not very developed as it's not needed to conduct business most of the time.

Seeing that people use the internet a lot and watch more and more tv shows in english they might understand better but not speak it.

As for @jc100 and the comment regarding "not understanding" their french, the way i see it it's like the equivalent of someone from Southern USA not understanding someone from somewhere in Australia or vice-versa. It's just different accents with different idioms. And if you're going to Saguenay, bonne chance, their accent is usually thicker up there. But they're nice people in general.

There isn't tons to do in Levis, you could keep exploring old Quebec city by taking the ferry (which is a lot shorter there). Trois Riviere should be alright, not super exciting but fun nevertheless.

Sadly you're missing the BIG summer festival happening right now on the plains of Abraham (and throught out old city). Enjoy your trip :)
 
Being originally from Quebec city (grew up there for 20 yrs) , outside of Montreal and Quebec city, the english is rare and not very developed as it's not needed to conduct business most of the time.

Seeing that people use the internet a lot and watch more and more tv shows in english they might understand better but not speak it.

As for @jc100 and the comment regarding "not understanding" their french, the way i see it it's like the equivalent of someone from Southern USA not understanding someone from somewhere in Australia or vice-versa. It's just different accents with different idioms. And if you're going to Saguenay, bonne chance, their accent is usually thicker up there. But they're nice people in general.

There isn't tons to do in Levis, you could keep exploring old Quebec city by taking the ferry (which is a lot shorter there). Trois Riviere should be alright, not super exciting but fun nevertheless.

Sadly you're missing the BIG summer festival happening right now on the plains of Abraham (and throught out old city). Enjoy your trip :)

It was a joke....actually quebecois french is a lot like the French of southwest France. It oddly also has some very old french words that aren’t used much in Europe too. The accent is what throws me plus local slang. I lived in Paris so was used to the equivalent of “BBC French” if you like. Very clear. I’ll get by just fine.
 
Is it hard to get around in the small towns if you don't speak french? I mean ordering at restaurants and things like that.

Little side story....when I first arrived in Canada (from France oddly) I was really tired after the flight and at the via Rail station in Montreal there was an announcement about “coach” seats in English that I didn’t understand (I didn’t know what “coach” meant) so I asked this old lady what it meant in English. She totally ignored me so I asked again...then realized she was ignoring my English but didn’t even bother to say she didn’t understand. Being tired and irritated I called her an ignorant whore in french and she seemed to understand that just fine. Not my proudest moment but I remember it well and it left me wondering about the “polite Canadians” I’d heard about. Long story short....some people are odd about language and fiercely patriotic.
 
Little side story....when I first arrived in Canada (from France oddly) I was really tired after the flight and at the via Rail station in Montreal there was an announcement about “coach” seats in English that I didn’t understand (I didn’t know what “coach” meant) so I asked this old lady what it meant in English. She totally ignored me so I asked again...then realized she was ignoring my English but didn’t even bother to say she didn’t understand. Being tired and irritated I called her an ignorant whore in french and she seemed to understand that just fine. Not my proudest moment but I remember it well and it left me wondering about the “polite Canadians” I’d heard about. Long story short....some people are odd about language and fiercely patriotic.
Love it. She kinda had it coming.
 
In Saguenay right now. Saw about 20 assorted whales yesterday some reasonably close up. Amazing day. Tadoussac is awesome and I have to come back this way on the bike as the 172 from Saguenay to Tadoussac is epic. Amazing scenery and reasonably twisty with some big elevation changes. Off to see the fjords today.
 
I'm jealous! I love exploring in Quebec. I don't speak French very well at all but do make an effort which seems to get things done. I don't know what it is about Quebec but I always have a fabulous time no matter where I have been in that Province whether it be summer or winter and .... the food!! Oh my, always something yummy :)
 
Got back a day or so ago. Averaged about 4h driving a day over 5 days. Will post pics when on the laptop. Conclusions:

1. Levis was our first stop and it was actually pretty neat. The old downtown area was hopping and we had our best meal here (at a vegan restaurant no less, Soixant 5). Accommodation was at a motel in town and it was actually pretty pricey considering we were staying in a brand new 4*+ hotel in Saguenay the next day for the same price. Caught a night ferry to Quebec City which was pretty cheap and had a great view of the old city.

2. Drive to Saguenay through Jacques Cartier park on the 175. Great road, beautiful views. We were up high at some points along the route with a thunderstorm rumbling around us. It eventually found us and let loose a deluge for the last little push into Saguenay.

3. Stayed at the OTL Gouverneur hotel in Saguenay. Brand new...$120 a night on Hotwire. Slippers and gowns in room, pool, free (amazing!) breakfast. Only issue is Saguenay is not a very walkable town. We did walk to the old pulp mill which is definitely worth it. The museum has one good exhibit on the pulp industry there.

4. Day trip to Tadoussac, 1.5h drive away down the north shore of the fjord. Amazing amazing road. Even in the car it was awesome. Plenty of passing points, elevation changes, twists and turns and the scenery is breathtaking. Whale watching in Tadoussac was fantastic on the large boat, I’m sure in the zodiacs it’s pretty awesome too but our boat had a bar! Saw belugas, fin whales and minke whales (and seals and birds), about 20+ whales in total. Some up pretty close. Fantastic 3h tour for about $70 all in per person. Marine biologist on board who spoke perfect English French and Spanish. Got some great pics. Back to Tadoussac town for some food (really really good but pricey). I wish we had spent longer here as the town has a wonderful beach and I would have gone back out in a zodiac to see more whales.

5. Day trip to Sainte Rose du Nord for a 3h cruise up and down the fjord. The town is 35mins from Saguenay and the town (village really) is very quaint and very welcoming and totally unpretentious. You can take food from local vendors on board the cruise....so we took a tray of food (just bring the tray back after the tour) and sat on the deck of the boat in the sun. Amazing views of the Saguenay fjord, saw some more beluga whales, seals and a big statue of the Virgin Mary. Some insane people climbing a massive rock face. Chatted to many other passengers. Just a great day all round. $50 for 3h, commentary in English and French on the boat...just sit on the RHS! Everything that is pointed out is on the RHS (we were on the left and it was a little annoying).

more later.....
 
On the way back we thought we would spend a night in Trois Rivieres. This was just a midpoint kind of stay and we weren’t expecting much but we were very pleasantly surprised. The town centre was absolutely hopping on a Sunday night. The small downtown had a ton of restaurants with a range of prices and outdoor seating. The river was a mix of industry from the port and tourism from cruises and it was really nicely set out at the riverside with patios, parks and music. Talking of parks there were little ones everywhere with the history of the town and various other bits of information on placards. We stayed at Les Studios du Huard which was inexpensive and perfectly fine right near the river. We will definitely be visiting Trois Rivieres again as it was a little like Old Quebec but less touristy, and less pricey.

Drove back from Trois Rivieres to Kingston and avoided Montreal by taking a route northwards through Joliette towards Hawksbury then south west from Hawksbury. Just before crossing into Ontario via the bridge at Hawksbury we stocked up on cheap beer....well actually excellent beer at cheap prices. I got some Alchimiste beer and a Unibroue mixer pack which was nearly $10 cheaper than in Ontario....crazy.

Summary: A fabulous trip to see parts of Canada we haven’t seen before. It was amazing watching (lots of) whales in a river 1000km from the ocean and seeing fjords of the kind you see in Norway just a (long) days drive from Ontario. I’d suggest splitting up the drive like we did though.

Going back on the bike I would absolutely head for Tadoussac from Saguenay and perhaps try to stay in one of the small towns alongside the fjord rather than in Saguenay itself. The roads away from the fjords are incredibly picturesque and the only annoyance for me was the quebecois love for massive RVs that clog up the roads.

Food was amazing and the people were fabulous.

I'll definitely go back. And soon.
 
LOL - Quebecer's are into the camping thing big time. I would say about 50% of the huge-arse campers I see on the highways around here have Quebec plates. Pretty sure it's even worse in their home Province :)

For sure getting back to nature for awhile is a good thing tho so fill yer boots I say! They certainly have a lot of beautiful wilderness areas in that province so why not take advantage of them.
 
Enjoyed reading this, thank you. Going to add this to my list of places to visit.
 

Back
Top Bottom