Québec City

A walking tour of Québec City

Founded in 1608, Québec City is North America’s oldest walled city and the cradle of French civilization in the New World. It’s also a walker’s dream: compact, picturesque and brimming with European charm.

This tour reveals Québec’s rich and colorful history, taking you down narrow cobblestoned streets, past mansard-roofed houses, across the legendary Plains of Abraham and alongside the mighty St Lawrence River.

Gregor Clark

Lonely Planet Writer

Wild Québec: encountering nature in Canada’s backyard

From moose spotting in the Forêt Montmorency to whale watching in the Baie Ste-Catherine, Québec is the Canada of epic nature, big wildlife and wide-open skies our author Kerry Christiani always dreamed about.

A hiker walks through Forêt Montmorency. Image by Bruce Yuanyue Bi / Lonely Planet Images / Getty

Kerry Christiani

Lonely Planet Writer

First time Québec City: exploring the capital on the St Lawrence River

As one of the oldest settlements in North America, Québec City’s 400 years of history can be spotted at every turn. With its beautiful assortment of historic buildings and narrow, cobbled streets, there’s a distinctly Old World feel to this French-speaking North American city. But the beauty of Québec City is its balance between the old and the new. Visitors can dine in world-class restaurants under the shadows of 17th century church spires, sip New Age cocktails while overlooking mansard roofs or take a stroll through a park that was once the site of a pivotal battle during the Seven Years’ War.

Québec City's streets are a bastion of the Old World in the New. Image by Derek Hatfield / CC BY 2.0