Review of Montmorency Falls, Quebec, Canada: A must visit destination!

 

Montmorency Falls, Quebec, Canada

My wife and I always had fond memories of Canada, thanks to its delectable cuisine, wonderful world class cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, and friendly people.  It had been close to 20 years since we last set our foot in Canada, and we were itching to get up there when the right time came.

After we retired (2020), we were planning to go up to Canada, but the stubborn Covid-19 had other plans. The border crossing and the quarantine requirements were a bit too much for us, especially with our Pomeranian Toby in tow.  The animal quarantine requirements were actually worse than for us humans, so we had been putting off visiting Canada until recently.

With the passing of our Toby in March of 2022, we finally decided the time was right to revisit one of our favorite places in all of Canada, Quebec City.  The last time we were in Quebec City was in October 2002.  We had stayed at the Hilton Hotel overlooking the downtown area and the St. Lawrence River.  

We remember getting a room right next to a conference hall which was loud at times, and complaining to the front desk about the noise.  We didn’t get our room changed, as the hotel was booked solid for that particular weekend, so we made do with what we had.

Besides the loud room at the hotel, everything else was just about perfect.  We walked everywhere as it was only a 5 block walk to the famous Chateau Frontenac.  We loved seeing the brightly colored homes, the beautiful sidewalks full of cafes/restaurants, and the incredible European ambience of the city, almost reminding us of great European cities we’ve visited like Vienna, Salzburg, and Nurnberg.

We were reminiscing about all these things when we decided finally to book a trip to the city for July 21-23.  Instead of our usual go-to booking site, AirBnB or similar, we decided instead to use ‘booking.com’ for this trip.  We found a clean, highly rated hotel called Cofortel, about 8 km away from the city center.  

With hotel reservation taken care of, we needed to get other logistical details out of the way.  We found out that before we can cross the US/Canada border, we needed to sign up for ArriveCAN, which is an app used to register every visitor for their Covid-19 vaccination status.  We downloaded the app from the Apple App Store, then entered in our passport info/vaccination information/current Covid-19 symptom related questions.  

After filling that out, we entered in our travel dates, the border crossing town name, and where we were staying.  After filling all those out, we got a QR Code to use when crossing the border.  It took probably around 20 minutes to complete the entire process.  ***Note:  The ArriveCAN app is true as of our trip in late July.  I used search keywords ‘crossing over to Canada’ to find this information.  Please check online for the latest information and/or requirements. 

We left on a sunny and a beautiful Thursday morning of July 21st from our place in Stratton Maine for Quebec City.  We took Route 27 until we got to the US/Canada border.  We stopped at the Canadian side of the border, then turned off our engine as instructed.

We were met by a young customs official who asked us to roll down all the windows of our car, then proceeded to drill us with questions like the purpose of our visit, whether we’re bringing in any food/plants, where we were staying, and for how long.  I frankly enjoy these experiences at the border crossings, as it means I’m traveling to another country!

There’s always something very exciting and anticipatory about going to another country.  It never grows old…

After our delightful interaction with the Canada customs official, we continued our trek going north.  We passed through cute towns with their colorful houses, businesses selling their wares in French, and lots of road construction!  We must have seen half dozen road signs for ‘Travaux’ along our way, which delayed our trip by about 30 minutes or so.

We decided to head straight to our first destination in Quebec City, Montmorency Falls, north of the city.  By the time we entered the suburbs of the city, the weather changed dramatically.  It was no longer sunny, but getting dark and foreboding every mile (or every kilometer) we drove.

When we arrived at Montmorency Falls and paid our entrance fee of $8 per person, rain started coming down.  The weather forecast did call for scattered thunderstorms all afternoon, and it was right on.  We did prepare by bringing two umbrellas, which we put to good use.

Visitor center/gift shop/restrooms 

We first headed to the visitor center/gift shop to use the restroom.  The building also houses a restaurant which overlooks the river.  We looked over the menu at the restaurant but decided the menu didn’t appeal to us that particular day, so we started our exploration instead.  After all, we had eaten our prepared peanut butter & jelly sandwiches prior to arriving there…

Even though it was raining, we made the best of it.  We used our umbrellas sparingly as we walked, immensely enjoying the scenery below, of the famous St. Lawrence River, and the staircase leading down to the bottom of the falls.

Wooden staircase to the bottom of the falls

The ground was muddy in some places and the rain was fairly steady the more we walked.  We came upon  a suspension bridge to cross to the other side.  We stopped to check out the impressive thunderous sound of water moving, then crashing to the bottom.  I took a peek at the falls directly above, but very gingerly, as I didn’t want to fall in, or drop my phone.

The suspension bridge 

We followed the crowd until we came upon a wide open meadow with views of the river down below, and the staircase leading down to the bottom of the falls.  We looked at the staircase and figured it had to be at least 20 stories down.  We mentally prepared ourselves for the walk down (and the walk up eventually), then made our descent.

Just as we were descending, we caught a glimpse of bright lightning and ominous clouds not too distant from where we were.  We soon heard the thunder and then felt the heavier rain coming.  Our umbrella was protesting at the heavier rain and had a hard time staying upright.  

We made it to one of many observation decks with views of the falls, and stayed put, at least until the heaviest rain passed.  There were around 8-10 people at the first observation deck.  We drank some water, as the day was getting hot, wet, and humid.  We took a breather for about 5 minutes, then continued descending.

Rain didn’t let up the rest of the way down, but we kept on descending.  We had made it down to the bottom of the falls at last!  The crowd had thinned out considerably at the bottom, so we enjoyed the nice views of the falls pretty much to ourselves.

At the bottom, we felt the cooling mist of the falls, covering us and the bottom 1/3 of the staircase and the promenade.  We kept on walking until we came upon a stadium seating area facing the falls.  We stopped there admiring the views.

We got up and looked to our left, where the cable car is located.  We were hesitating for a minute whether or not to take it on our way back up, but decided against it, as the line that was forming to use the cable car was real long!

We passed the cable car, then continued along the promenade when we realized there was no way to go back up from that point.  We backtracked to get back up the same way we had come down.  We took our time ascending, taking plenty of rests along the many observation decks.  

We were soaked with sweat by the time we had made it all the way back up the staircase.  By then, we had ascended 32 stories according to my iPhone.  We felt sweaty, wet, and overly exerted, but we nonetheless felt great.  It was that feeling of job well done, and a feeling of accomplishment.  

By the time we made it all the way back to the visitor center area, we had walked close to 9000 steps.  We wanted to cool off, so we went inside the visitor center to buy a cold soda, and to sit for several minutes.  We found a comfortable loveseat near the gift shop, then cooled down thanks to air conditioning.

It felt great sipping a cold soda, chatting about our trip so far.  While sitting, we heard the beautiful and melodic sound of spoken French among the staff at the visitor center.  We loved it!  It really felt like we were in another country, which we were!

It took about 20 minutes to cool down, at which time, we decided to head to our hotel for some much needed shower!  We made it to our hotel in about 30 minutes due to heavy traffic near Quebec City.  We checked in, and was very pleased with the hotel and our room.

Room was absolutely beautiful, clean, and with modern decor.  The bathroom was also modern with spa-like shower head.  My wife loved it, which means I loved it as well.  

At $200 per night including taxes, we thought the price was on the high side.  The included continental breakfast help lessen that feeling that we paid too much, as we got to enjoy delicious bagels, breads, juice, coffee, fruits, and yogurt, while watching local news broadcast in French.  

Even though we had mostly no idea what they were saying, the subtitles did help.  We guessed several words that sounded familiar to words we know, correctly.  It was actually fun figuring out what the news was about.

In one of the broadcast segments, we found out the Pope was due to visit Quebec City that same weekend.  We guessed that’s why there were so many visitors and traffic everywhere we went.  That may also explain why the hotel prices were also as high as it was…

In conclusion:

Our second visit to Quebec City took us all of 20 years.  During those 20 years we got older, wiser, and most importantly, retired!  Although we had changed, the city was almost exactly the same as we remembered it: Beautiful, majestic, and with European flair!  We had longed to visit the city again, and we’re glad we got to do that this summer.  

Quebec City is a world class UNESCO Heritage Site thanks to its status as the only walled city in North America, boasting incredible sites like the Château Frontenac, the Citadel, and Montmorency Falls.

We didn’t get to visit Montmorency Falls on our first visit, but we’re so happy we got to do it this time, despite the thunderstorms!  It is a must visit destination when visiting the great city of Quebec.  It is perhaps one of the most well known and photographed places in all of Quebec City.

We thank you all for reading and happy trails!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 

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