Where To Stay In Quebec City
Cozy Up in One of the City's Charming Hotels, Auberges & B&Bs
Jan 21, 2008
With an embarrassment of choices ranging from contemporary four-star hotels to centuries-old inns, Quebec City's accommodations are anything but run-of-the-mill.
Winter in the city offers the charm of a romantic European getaway coupled with a chance to get good and chilly and to engage with such notions as “fireplace” and “hot toddy.”
If your true mission is some downtime with a loved one, the first thing is to find a cozy spot to cuddle up in.
Views of Quebec City
For an unquestionably luxurious experience, the no-brainer choice is a suite at Le Chateau Frontenac (1, rue des Carrières, 418-692-3861), a town landmark that sits on a hill above the St. Lawrence River in Old Quebec and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. Rooms here can run from $225 to $425 per night.
For the first part of 2008, in celebration of the 400th anniversity of Quebec City, the hotel is offering a package that includes an anniversity-themed welcome gift, dinner for two at the property's upscale restaurant, Le Champlain, and breakfast in the terrace restaurant for $400 CAD per night.
Bed-and-Breakfasts and Boutique Hotels
For a more intimate alternative, one of Quebec’s proliferation of bed-and-breakfasts or boutique hotels is ideal. With its multilevel streets winding slowly down to the river, hidden crannies, cornices and wrought-iron balconies, the city is tailor-made for intimate living.
A little outside Old Quebec and less than half the price of the Chateau (most hotels in this category cost about $100-$200 CAD per night) is the Hotel Cap Diamant (39, Avenue Sainte-Geneviève, 888-694-0313), a nine-room guesthouse built in 1826 and still retaining a homey feel with antique prints and paintings, 1920s furnishings and wood-burning fireplaces.
Auberge St. Pierre (79, rue St-Pierre, 418-694-7981), near the Vieux-Port in the walled part of the city (Quebec City still retains its crumbling fortress wall that today marks the separation between Old Quebec and Quebec), was built in 1821 and spent much of its career as an insurance agency. Today it’s a boutique hotel and guidebook staple with its 41 wood-floored, stone or brick-walled rooms, down comforters and in-room massages.
Nearby is the Auberge St. Antoine, a museum/hotel that was renovated in 2003 and made the Condé Nast Gold List for that year. What’s most interesting about this hotel is that it’s located on an archaeological dig site; after excavating, the hotel used the artifacts it found to decorate the lobby and the rooms.
Also in Old Quebec is B&B à l’Augustine (775, Richelieu, 418-648-1072), a stone house dating from 1801, and Hayden’s Wexford House, an ancestral Irish home built in 1832 where you can sleep under a slanted roof surrounded by chintz or flush up against the original stonemasonry.
Adventures on Ice
Ready for something a little more adventurous? Try a full-tilt winter night at the Village Igloo (791, Dalquier, Sainte-Foy, 418-648-8228), about 20 minutes north of the city. It’s just what it sounds like – an actual Inuit-style igloo that sleeps four.
There’s an on-site heated lodge where you can watch a presentation on the Inuit, take a hot shower and enjoy the complimentary breakfast. The Village offers winterized sleeping bags, but to be lured out from the warmth of the lodge into your waiting igloo with its soft pine-needle covered floor, you’ll have to really want to rub noses with the one you’re with.
For a more rollicking and stylish version of this same adventure, there’s the Ice Hotel (143, route Duchesnay Pavillon Regie, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, 418-875-4522), located 30 minutes west of the city center and “open,” that is, still frozen into shape, until early spring. The hotel is 30,000 square feet of crystallized ice, including a bar where “on the rocks” means you’re drinking from a glass made of ice, a movie theater and a buffet including that staple of side table food offerings, the ice sculpture.
There’s even a fireworks display at night, and an on-site wedding chapel that holds 80 people. (Quebec offers civil unions as well as same-sex marriage licenses). You can also participate in interesting winter sports like dog sledding.
If you prefer not to rent a car — and this is very much a walking city, especially in fine weather, although there is a funicular from the lower to the upper streets if you can’t handle all the ups and downs, the Sherpa Plein Air (418-640-7437) shuttle will take you round trip from Quebec City to the Ice Hotel.
