Ottawa, Mont-Tremblant and Quebec City: autumn colours

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ottawa

   Ottawa International Airport (YOW) to your hotel near the Byward Market

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ottawa
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ottawa International Airport (YOW), about 20 minutes from the centre, where a driver meets you and takes you to your hotel within walking distance of the Byward Market. Aim to land by about 3 pm so you can join the late-afternoon walk; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. At about 4:30 your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the lobby for a short walk to get your bearings: down the stone steps beside the Rideau Canal locks, where the canal drops to the Ottawa River below Parliament Hill, and back through the market streets as the lights come on. The canal, opened in 1832, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then we sit down together for a welcome dinner nearby, go over the week, and talk about where the colour is this year, since your guide will have been watching the reports.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Ottawa International Airport (YOW)
   • Orientation walk with your guide past the Rideau Canal locks and through the Byward Market
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: About 2 km of easy walking, with stairs beside the canal locks.

   

2. Day 2: Gatineau Park colour and Parliament

   Ottawa to Gatineau Park and back, then Parliament Hill and the Byward Market

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ottawa
   Day 2 details

   We cross the river into Quebec straight after breakfast and drive about half an hour up the Gatineau Parkway to Champlain Lookout, at the edge of the Eardley Escarpment. On a weekday morning it is quiet, and the view runs across the Ottawa Valley below, where the sugar maples and red oaks of the park turn from late September. We walk a short loop trail on the ridge, then drive back down for a sit-down lunch in the city. In the afternoon we take a guided tour inside Parliament: the House of Commons now sits in the West Block while the Centre Block is restored, and we book whichever tour has a slot for our group. Afterwards the guide shows you the view from behind the buildings over the river. The evening is yours in the Byward Market, which has restaurants on every corner.

   Included

   • Gatineau Park: Champlain Lookout and a short ridge-top loop walk
   • Sit-down lunch in Ottawa
   • Guided tour inside Parliament (West Block or the Senate of Canada Building, as slots allow)
   • Walk behind Parliament Hill above the Ottawa River

   Easier option: Stay at the lookout terrace instead of walking the loop; the view is the same.

   More active option: A longer ridge walk on the escarpment trails while the rest of the group takes the short loop, with your guide's timing.

   Free time: Evening free in the Byward Market

   Activity: About 4 km on foot across the day. Parliament tours include a security check like an airport's; bring photo ID.

   

3. Day 3: Into the Laurentians

   Ottawa to Mont-Tremblant through the Outaouais and the Laurentians

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Mont-Tremblant
   Day 3 details

   We leave Ottawa at about 9 am and drive about two to two and a half hours east and north into the Laurentians, the old, worn-down hills north of Montreal, where the colour usually comes earlier than in the cities. The road climbs past lakes and mixed maple and birch forest, and we stop where the colour is best rather than at a fixed point. Lunch is in the old village of Mont-Tremblant, a few kilometres from the ski resort. In the afternoon we walk an easy lakeside stretch of the P'tit Train du Nord, a former railway line turned into a path, with the water on one side and the hills behind it. Then we check into our hotel by the resort's pedestrian village for two nights. The evening is free: the village is compact, and you can walk to dinner.

   Included

   • Drive into the Laurentians with stops for the colour
   • Sit-down lunch in the village of Mont-Tremblant
   • Lakeside walk on the P'tit Train du Nord path

   Free time: Evening free in the pedestrian village

   Activity: About 3 km of flat walking on a gravel path.

   

4. Day 4: Mont-Tremblant: national park, gondola and a sugar-shack dinner

   Mont-Tremblant National Park (Lac-Monroe sector), then the Tremblant gondola

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Mont-Tremblant
   Day 4 details

   Mont-Tremblant National Park is Quebec's oldest park, created in 1895, and its Lac-Monroe sector is a short drive north of the resort. We go in the morning while the light is low across the lake. The group splits for an hour or two: the active walkers climb a lookout trail above the lake with the guide, while others take the flat shoreline path with the driver and meet at the water. Lunch is back in the village. After lunch, when the morning queue has gone, we ride the panoramic gondola up to the summit of Mont Tremblant, at 875 m the highest of the Laurentians, and walk the paths at the top. The gondola runs on set autumn days only; if it is closed on our date, we walk a trail at the base of the mountain or by Lac Tremblant instead. In the evening we sit down to a sugar-shack style dinner: pea soup, tourtiere, beans, maple-glazed ham, and pancakes with syrup.

   Included

   • Mont-Tremblant National Park entry and a guided walk in the Lac-Monroe sector
   • Sit-down lunch in the village
   • Panoramic gondola to the summit of Mont Tremblant, on its autumn operating days (otherwise a guided walk at the base or by Lac Tremblant)
   • Sugar-shack style dinner

   Easier option: The flat shoreline path at Lac Monroe in place of the lookout climb, and the gondola both ways at the summit when it runs.

   More active option: The lookout trail above Lac Monroe in the morning, and walking down part of the mountain from the summit on a marked trail.

   Free time: Late afternoon free before dinner

   Activity: The lookout climb is the steepest walk of the trip; trail length and climb are confirmed with the park before departure.

   

5. Day 5: Montreal on the way to Quebec City

   Mont-Tremblant to Montreal (Mount Royal, Atwater Market, Lachine Canal), then on to Quebec City

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Quebec City
   Day 5 details

   This is the longest driving day, about four and a quarter hours in all, so we break it in the middle with about four and a half hours in Montreal. We leave Tremblant at 8:30 and are on Mount Royal by about 10, at the Kondiaronk Belvedere, where the city's towers stand above the St Lawrence and the slopes around you are in their autumn colour. From there it is a short drive to Atwater Market, where October brings pumpkins, apples and squash out onto the stalls. We have lunch in or beside the market, then walk a stretch of the Lachine Canal path, the 19th-century canal that once carried ships past the rapids, to the green steel swing bridge on Rue Charlevoix. We leave Montreal by about 2:30, before the evening traffic, and reach Quebec City at about 5:30. The evening is free inside the old walls.

   Included

   • Kondiaronk Belvedere on Mount Royal
   • Atwater Market and lunch in Montreal
   • Walk on the Lachine Canal path
   • Drive to Quebec City with your guide

   Easier option: Stay at the market and skip the canal walk; the vehicle picks you up at the door.

   Free time: Evening free in Old Quebec

   Activity: About 3 km of easy walking in Montreal. The drive is about 1 h 30 to Montreal and 2 h 45 on to Quebec City.

   

6. Day 6: Jacques-Cartier National Park and Old Quebec

   Quebec City to Jacques-Cartier National Park and back, then Old Quebec, then Quebec City airport (YQB)

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 6 details

   We drive about 45 minutes north of the city to Jacques-Cartier National Park and are in the valley by 9 am, before the day visitors from the city. The Jacques-Cartier River runs along the floor of a deep glacial valley with steep forested sides, and in early October the hardwoods on those slopes turn red and yellow above the dark spruce. Walkers who want height climb a lookout trail with the guide; the others walk the riverside path along the valley floor. We are back in Quebec City for lunch in the old town, then spend the afternoon on foot with a local guide through the only city north of Mexico that still has its fortified walls, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the walls, Dufferin Terrace under the Chateau Frontenac, the stairs down to Place Royale and Petit-Champlain. If the morning has been a long one, the walk can be shortened to the walls and Dufferin Terrace, with the funicular in place of the stairs. We finish at about 4 pm and drive you to Quebec City airport, about 20 minutes away.

   Included

   • Jacques-Cartier National Park entry and a guided walk in the valley
   • Lunch in Old Quebec
   • Walking tour of Old Quebec with a local guide: the walls, Dufferin Terrace, Place Royale and Petit-Champlain
   • Drop-off at Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) or a hotel in Old Quebec

   Easier option: The riverside path on the valley floor instead of the lookout trail; a shorter Old Quebec walk on the walls and Dufferin Terrace, with the funicular instead of the stairs down to Lower Town.

   More active option: The lookout trail above the valley; length and climb are confirmed with the park before departure.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 6 pm, or stay on in Quebec City; we can drop you at a hotel in the old town instead of the airport.

Wildlife and weather: Autumn colour peaks over a few weeks and moves by a week or more between years; cold nights bring it on, and heavy wind or rain can take leaves early. Crisp mornings are common, and frost is possible at Tremblant.

• Ottawa2 nights
• Mont-Tremblant2 nights
• Quebec City1 night