I know it’s still summer, but it’s never too early to start planning an epic winter getaway! I always dread winter because it just seems to drag on and on, but having an exciting trip right in the dead of winter can be such a great way to add some enjoyment to Canada’s seemingly eternal winter.

This itinerary is a trip I did last February and is one of my favourite roadtrips ever! I planned the trip around the Quebec Carnival season, usually the first half of February, and included so many of my winter bucket list items, I still can’t believe I did all that in one trip!

What’s Carnaval

Many communities throughout Canada have some sort of Carnival celebration, usually in February at the height of winter. The oldest and most famous winter festival in Canada is the Carnaval de Québec. Starting in 1894 as a way to brighten up the dead of winter, it has been a regular annual tradition since 1955.

Check the dates for when Carnaval will take place as well as the events calendar to make sure you plan to be there for the events you don’t want to miss! More on Carnaval later.

Trip Overview

Myself, my partner, his brother and my mom went on this epic 10 day roadtrip. To preface, none of us are really into winter, but since we were going to Carnaval anyway, I thought we should do it right and really enjoy all the season has to offer.

After driving to Montreal, we headed north to try snowmobiling for the first time before making our way towards Quebec City where we visited the Ice Hotel. We stayed a few days in Quebec City to enjoy Carnaval and spent one day snowboarding on Mont Ste Anne. After leaving Quebec City we drove to a farm resort for a horse-drawn sleigh ride before making our way to the Wolf Lodge. Our last stop was at a sugar shack where we stayed in an authentic pioneer wooden cabin. I was hoping to get some skating on the Rideau Canal in on our way home but, to my knowledge skating never opened up on the canal last year because it was too warm and the ice never reached the proper thickness, the first time that’s ever happened.

Day 1: Toronto to Montreal

We left Toronto bright and early, as it takes about 6 hours to drive to Montreal from Toronto and longer if the weather’s not great. We got to our hotel around 2pm and found overnight parking in the nearby QUAM underground parking. This is probably the best place to park downtown Montreal, that I’ve found anyway, the only thing to note is to make sure you know how to get back into the garage, especially once the QUAM doors are locked for the night! We found out the hard way. 😅

We didn’t really have any plans other than just to wander around. If you’ve never been to Montreal before, spend an extra day or two here. Although it wasn’t too cold, we mainly stayed in Montreal’s Underground City. This 33 km pedestrian network connects metro stations and buildings underneath Montreal’s downtown core, like Toronto’s PATH, but bigger and better. One place we hadn’t seen before was the fountain in the Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montréal (Trade Centre). It lived up to its pictures online. A great photo spot!

We also walked around old Montreal and found a few really nice cafes, to try next time we’re there! Le Petit Dep is a cute little coffee shop with pastries and great decor. The Crew Collective & Cafe is a co-working space inside an old bank building with a cafe. By the time we got there it was close to closing, so we just peeked in, but the architecture is stunning. I’ll have to come back and enjoy a coffee in this space!

For dinner we ended up going to OSMO X MARUSAN near St Laurent and Sherbrooke. This cafe, popular with students, also serves Japanese curry and sandwiches. A DJ was setting up when we left. We ended up sharing a katsu curry and an egg sando, both of which were really yummy! The only thing is the space is a bit small and so are the tables, better for sitting with a coffee with friends.

We headed back to our hotel and called it an early night, lots of driving and adventures the next day to rest up for!

Day 2: Montreal to Quebec City

We got up early and started driving the 100 km north of Montreal to our next adventure, snowmobiling! None of us had ever snowmobiled before so I was looking for something that would include everything, gear, insurance, gas, permits and rental as well as a guide. I found Arctic Aventure which seemed like a good fit for our beginner snowmobiling experience.

It took us about 2 hours to drive there, mostly along windy roads through the Laurentians, which was a very pretty drive. Luckily it was a bright, clear day, so no new snow on the roads to contend with.

We got there a bit early and checked in and then received our gear. There was also a washroom in the office building as well as a fire going. Our gear included snow pants, a jacket, mittens, boots and helmet. Once everyone was ready, there were about 10 people in our group, they took us outside and showed us how to operate the snowmobiles, which was pretty simple, and then made us do a test drive, in which we had to start it and drive up a few meters before stopping.

We then started our adventure, single file along the snowmobiling paths following our guide. It was so much fun! My partner though didn’t like it as much. He rides a motorcycle and I think the difference between the feel of a motorcycle and a snowmobile threw him off. The snowmobile is on skis, not wheels, so it does slip occasionally and doesn’t feel as in control as a motorcycle I’m guessing. I really loved it though once I got used to how the machine worked.

The trail we went on crossed a few roads and then went over a frozen lake where we were allowed to go the max speed, and it was awesome racing across the lake! We then doubled back our route to the office. We did the half day snowmobiling, which is about 3.5 hours.

From there we drove about 300 km to Valcartier Vacation Village, just north of Quebec City to visit the Hôtel de Glace (Ice Hotel). Located within the Valcartier ski resort complex, you can either stay in a room for the night or just purchase tickets to visit it. As it’s the only ice hotel in North America, I really wanted to stay there until I saw the prices! Rooms start at $400/night and go way up from there. What that gets you is access to a room in the ice hotel after 8pm, when visiting hours finish, as well as a second room in the hotel not made of ice. The second room is to keep your belongings in, have access to a full washroom as well as to warm your butt up after trying to spend time in your ice room. 😂

It’s definitely a bucket list, once in a lifetime experience, but for me just visiting it was enough. Firstly, it is cold! To be expected of course, but my phone died from the cold and my hands just about froze, yes I had gloves on. Half the rooms, the cheaper options, have no special lighting or decorations, they look a bit like jail cells tbh. The pricier rooms are works of art, all the more so because they only last for the season as the hotel is remade each winter with different themes. However, I feel like I would not last the entire night in there and then what’s the point, you may as well take pictures on a visit and go to a warm hotel after. 😅 Of course it depends on how serious you are about taking photos. If you want yourself interacting with the ice furniture then you’ll have to book the room as areas are roped off for visitors, a bit like an art gallery. You can go in the room, but of course interaction is limited as it would pretty quickly get destroyed. The second reason for me is the toilets, of course there are none, there’s no plumbing because it’s made out of snow and ice. If you follow the washroom signs they will lead you to a porta potty outside the structure.

It started snowing when we left, and a lot too! Luckily, our place was only 30 km away. We stopped at Benny & Co., a rotisserie chicken chain, for dinner and then headed into the city. We stayed at an Airbnb that unfortunately is no longer listed on the site. The amazing part was the location, between the Chateau Frontenac and the Citadelle. The drawback was there was no parking spot included. We’d stayed at this place once before and so knew the drill. My partner would drop us and the luggage off at the place before driving down to a parking lot in the old town and climbing back up the hill. What we didn’t take into account was it was Carnaval and so many streets were closed in the downtown core for the festival, so that made things a bit difficult. We eventually were able to get close enough to unload the luggage. Then we went to park the car and walk back up the hill. It was snowing like crazy by this point and it was absolutely magical!!!

Day 3: Mont Ste-Anne

It pretty much snowed all day today, which was both good and bad. The bad part was driving in it. We didn’t have to go too far, about 45 km east to Mont Ste-Anne, however, due to the snow storm it was a bit of a white knuckle drive, especially since we had to do it twice. Originally, we had planned to stop at Montmorency Falls, but the blizzard made viewing conditions too poor for it to be worth it. At this point though we realized we had left our food for the day on the kitchen table, which would have spoiled by the time we got back home, so back we went to get it and then back again this time all the way to the ski hill. Pro tip: triple check you have everything before heading out into a blizzard. 😅

We have our own snowboarding gear but ended up just renting it as we didn’t want to lug it around the whole trip for just one day. We got a half day pass as none of us are great and after 3 hours my leg muscles are pretty much done. I was a bit sad that the blizzard prevented us from seeing the view from the mountain but it actually made the experience much better! It was pretty magical!

We returned that evening and met my mom, who had opted to skip the snowmobiling and snowboarding parts and take the train out to meet us in Quebec City for Carnaval.

My partner and I then quickly changed and headed out once more for our Valentine’s Day dinner reservation at Sagamité. There are two locations of this restaurant. We obviously went to the one in Quebec City, but there is also one in Wendake. Named after the harty Wendat stew, this restaurant is a great place to experience Indigenous cuisine. We had the Yatista (fire) dish. There are 4 choices for the Yatista meal, we opted for the Potence of Three Antlers for two. Servings come for one or two people and includes an appetizer, the main course, a dessert and tea or coffee.

We started off with a venison puff pastry and a choice of either the Sagamité soup or warm duck salad, we got one each to try both. The soup was really good but my partner said there wasn’t enough meat. He ended up trading me his soup for my salad. I liked both. Then onto the main course, which is both delicious and an at-table spectacle! You get a dish with potatoes and vegetables and then the waiter brings out a tower of meat (deer, elk and bison) and sets it on fire at your table. It’s pretty awesome to watch the flames and makes you appreciate the importance of fire for the Wendat, as was the intention of the dish.

Once the flames die out you take your meat and add it to your plate. Everything was really yummy. I think we both liked the elk best. The meal is then finished off with a piece of maple pie. It is pretty sweet, obviously as it’s maple, and I personally prefer pouding chômeur, but it’s a traditional quebecois desert, so if you’ve never had it, I’d recommend trying it. It is yummy, just in small quantities, especially if you don’t like deserts that are really sweet, like my partner. We had some tea and coffee and then headed back to our Airbnb to rest up for Carnaval the next day.

Onto Part 2.