Quebec: the Gaspé Peninsula, Percé, Forillon and Le Bic

1. Day 1: Quebec City

   Quebec City Jean Lesage Airport to Old Quebec, then a walk through the walled city

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Quebec City
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Quebec City Jean Lesage Airport (YQB), where your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in arrivals at about 2:30 pm for the 20-minute drive to a hotel in or beside Old Quebec. After check-in we walk the historic district, listed by UNESCO in 1985 as the only walled city north of Mexico: along the Dufferin Terrace under the Château Frontenac, down the Breakneck Stairs to Place Royale and the Petit-Champlain quarter, and back up by the funicular. The late afternoon is the quiet hour, after the day visitors thin out and before dinner. Your guide, who speaks French and English, gives a short briefing on the week ahead: the tides, the boats and what to wear in the parks. Then a welcome dinner together in the old town. If your flight lands later, a private transfer brings you in and you join the group at the table. Quebec City gets one night here; if you want more of it, add nights before the trip or join our Quebec City and Charlevoix trip.

   Included

   • Group transfer from Quebec City Jean Lesage Airport (YQB)
   • Guided walk through Old Quebec: the Dufferin Terrace, the Breakneck Stairs, Place Royale and Petit-Champlain
   • The Old Quebec Funicular
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: An hour free before dinner

   Activity: Land by about 2 pm to join the group transfer and the walk; the exact meeting time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

2. Day 2: Kamouraska and the seals of Le Bic

   Quebec City down the south shore of the St. Lawrence to Kamouraska, then Parc national du Bic and Rimouski

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rimouski
   Day 2 details

   We leave Quebec City at about 8:30 am down the south shore of the St. Lawrence, where the river widens into an estuary and the farms run in long thin strips to the water, a pattern left from the French seigneuries. After about two hours we stop in Kamouraska, one of the oldest villages on the shore, for a walk past its old houses and the eel weirs on the mudflats, and lunch in the village with smoked fish from the river. In the afternoon we continue past Rivière-du-Loup to Parc national du Bic, a coast of coves, headlands and small islands. Our first choice is this afternoon's low tide, when harbour seals and grey seals haul out on the rocks off Pointe-aux-Épinettes and we watch them from the shore path with binoculars. If low water falls too late, we walk the coast now and the seals move to 8 am tomorrow. Then 20 minutes on to Rimouski, a waterfront town, for an evening free.

   Included

   • Walk through Kamouraska village
   • Lunch in Kamouraska
   • Parc national du Bic entry
   • Seal watching at low tide from the Bic shore path, with binoculars provided

   Easier option: Watch the seals from the level path near the car park.

   More active option: Walk the coast trail round the Bic headlands, about 5 km.

   Free time: Evening free in Rimouski on the waterfront promenade

   Activity: Seals are wild and the tide moves about 50 minutes later each day. The afternoon low tide is the first choice; an 8 am visit on day 3 is the fallback.

   

3. Day 3: Reford Gardens to the Chic-Chocs

   Rimouski (Le Bic at 8 am if the tide suits) to Reford Gardens at Grand-Métis, along the coast by Matane to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, then Parc national de la Gaspésie

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
   Day 3 details

   If yesterday's tide was wrong, we start at 8 am back at Le Bic for the seals; otherwise we leave Rimouski at 8:30 am. Our first stop is Reford Gardens at Grand-Métis, laid out by Elsie Reford from the 1920s, where a warm pocket of the coast lets blue poppies and other plants grow far north of their usual range; we arrive at opening and have about 90 minutes. Then the shore becomes the Gaspé proper: route 132 runs between the river, now so wide the far side disappears, and the first hills. We pass Matane and reach Sainte-Anne-des-Monts for a late lunch. In the afternoon we drive 40 km inland into Parc national de la Gaspésie, the Chic-Choc Mountains, for an easy first walk to the Sainte-Anne waterfall and round Lac aux Américains, a lake in a glacial bowl. On the way back at dusk we watch for moose along the road. Dinner is together in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, where restaurants are few.

   Included

   • Reford Gardens (Jardins de Métis)
   • Lunch in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
   • Parc national de la Gaspésie entry
   • Guided walks to the Sainte-Anne waterfall and round Lac aux Américains
   • Dinner in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts

   Easier option: The waterfall viewpoint and the level lakeside path only.

   More active option: Add the short climb to a lookout above Lac aux Américains with your guide.

   Free time: An hour free in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts before dinner

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot in the park on easy trails. June brings black flies; bring repellent.

4. Day 4: A Chic-Choc summit, then the north coast to Forillon

   Parc national de la Gaspésie for a morning hike, then route 132 along the north coast by Mont-Saint-Pierre and Grande-Vallée to Cap-des-Rosiers and Gaspé

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Gaspé
   Day 4 details

   This is the full day of the trip. At 8 am we are back in the park for the morning hike, before the cloud builds on the summits. The active group climbs with your guide on the summit trail the park has open that season: Mont Jacques-Cartier, about 1,268 m, by the park shuttle, where the endangered Gaspésie caribou are sometimes seen above the tree line, or the plateau of Mont Albert, both about 4 hours return. The easy group walks the valley trails and the visitor centre exhibit on the caribou with a park naturalist. After a packed lunch we drive the most dramatic stretch of route 132, where the road hugs the foot of the mountains and drops into fishing villages in each valley. It is about 300 km and just over four hours of driving, slightly over our cap, because there is no shorter way round; we break it with stops at Mont-Saint-Pierre and Grande-Vallée. We enter Forillon at Cap-des-Rosiers, where the lighthouse is given as the tallest in Canada, then drive the last half-hour to Gaspé.

   Included

   • Guided summit hike in Parc national de la Gaspésie (Mont Jacques-Cartier by park shuttle or Mont Albert), or valley trails and the park visitor centre
   • Packed lunch
   • The north coast of the Gaspé by route 132
   • Cap-des-Rosiers lighthouse

   Easier option: Valley trails of about 1 hour and the visitor centre, then the coast drive.

   More active option: The summit hike, about 4 hours return with 450 to 600 m of climb on rocky trail.

   Free time: Evening free in Gaspé

   Activity: Summit trails can close for caribou protection or weather; the guide confirms the trail the week before. Bring a warm, windproof layer for the summit.

   

5. Day 5: Forillon: Land's End and the whales

   Gaspé to Forillon National Park for the walk to Cap Gaspé and Grande-Grave, a whale cruise, then Percé

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Percé
   Day 5 details

   Forillon, created in 1970, is the end of the Appalachians: forested ridges that stop at sea cliffs. We start at 8:30 am at Anse-aux-Amérindiens and walk the old track towards Cap Gaspé, the tip of the peninsula the French called the land's end, about 4 km each way through forest above the sea, to the lighthouse on the cliff. The easy group walks the shorter shore path and the restored fishing settlement of Grande-Grave, where a 19th-century store still stands on the beach. Lunch is together near the wharf. In the early afternoon a local boat takes us out for about two and a half hours into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where minke, humpback and fin whales feed off the cliffs in summer and grey seals rest on the ledges. Then we drive south about an hour and a quarter to Percé and see the rock for the first time in the evening light. Dinner tonight is in the village.

   Included

   • Forillon National Park entry
   • Guided walk to Land's End at Cap Gaspé, or the shore path and Grande-Grave
   • Lunch near Grande-Grave or in Gaspé
   • Whale-watching cruise off Forillon, about 2.5 hours
   • Dinner in Percé

   Easier option: The level shore path and Grande-Grave heritage buildings instead of the walk to the cape.

   More active option: The full track to the Cap Gaspé lighthouse and back, about 8 km with some hills.

   Free time: Evening free in Percé after dinner

   Activity: Whale sightings are likely in summer but never certain. If the sea is too rough, the cruise moves to the spare morning in Percé or the money for it is refunded.

6. Day 6: Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island

   Percé by boat round the rock to Bonaventure Island and its gannet colony, then the géoparc platform

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Percé
   Day 6 details

   We take the first boat of the morning from Percé's wharf, before the day visitors arrive. It runs close along Percé Rock, a wall of limestone about 88 m high with an arch worn through it, then crosses to Bonaventure Island, a national park and one of the largest northern gannet colonies in the world. From the landing we walk about 3 km uphill through the island's woods and old fishing homesteads to the cliff top, where tens of thousands of gannets nest packed together a few metres from the fence: the noise and the smell arrive first. We have time to sit and watch them come and go, then lunch on the island or back in the village. The afternoon is free. Later, those who like take the shuttle up Mont Sainte-Anne to the géoparc glass platform, about 200 m above the sea, for the view over the rock, the island and the village. The evening is yours in Percé.

   Included

   • Boat round Percé Rock to Bonaventure Island
   • Parc national de l'Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé entry
   • Guided walk to the northern gannet colony
   • Lunch on the island or in Percé
   • Géoparc de Percé glass platform

   Optional experiences

   • Sea kayaking off Percé with a local outfitter
   • A second boat trip out to the rock at sunset

   Easier option: Stay on the boat for the tour round the rock and the island without landing, or take the shortest island trail.

   More active option: Walk the longer trail round the island back to the landing, about 6 km in all.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Percé

   Activity: If wind cancels the boat, it moves to tomorrow morning and we leave Percé later.

   

7. Day 7: The Baie des Chaleurs to Carleton-sur-Mer

   Percé along the Baie des Chaleurs by Chandler and Bonaventure to Carleton-sur-Mer and Mont Saint-Joseph

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Carleton-sur-Mer
   Day 7 details

   A slower morning in Percé, kept free as the spare slot if wind moved the boat or the whales; otherwise walk the beach at low tide out towards the rock, or have a long breakfast facing it. We leave at about 10:30 am round the southern corner of the peninsula onto the Baie des Chaleurs, a warmer, gentler shore of beaches and farms with New Brunswick on the far side. This coast was settled by Acadians after the deportation of 1755, and in Bonaventure we have lunch and visit the Musée acadien du Québec, which tells that story. Then on through New Richmond to Carleton-sur-Mer, about 245 km and three and a quarter hours in all with the stops. Before dinner the van climbs the road up Mont Saint-Joseph, about 555 m, to the stone oratory at the top, where the whole bay, the barrier beach and the New Brunswick shore spread out in the evening light. Farewell dinner tonight in Carleton.

   Included

   • Lunch in Bonaventure
   • Musée acadien du Québec, Bonaventure
   • Mont Saint-Joseph lookout and oratory
   • Farewell dinner in Carleton-sur-Mer

   More active option: Walk down from Mont Saint-Joseph by the forest trail, about 1.5 hours, while the van takes the bags.

   Free time: Morning free in Percé, and an hour on the Carleton barrier beach before dinner

   Activity: The morning is the weather spare for the Bonaventure boat and the whale cruise.

8. Day 8: Miguasha, the Matapédia valley and home

   Carleton-sur-Mer to Parc national de Miguasha, up the Matapédia valley by Matapédia and Amqui to Mont-Joli Airport

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 8 details

   We leave at 8:30 am for Parc national de Miguasha, 20 minutes west, a cliff of grey shale on the bay listed by UNESCO in 1999 for its fossils of fish from about 380 million years ago, among them species close to the first animals that walked on land. A park naturalist shows the museum's fossils and walks us down to the cliff. Then the road turns inland at Matapédia, where the Restigouche and Matapédia rivers meet, both known for Atlantic salmon, and climbs the long green valley north past fishing camps and farms. We stop for lunch in Amqui, by the river and its covered bridge, then reach Mont-Joli Airport (YYY) by about 3 pm, about 250 km and three and a quarter hours of driving in the day. Your guide checks your flight and says goodbye at the terminal. Flights from Mont-Joli go to Quebec City or Montreal (Saint-Hubert); we confirm the current schedule with you before you book.

   Included

   • Parc national de Miguasha museum and cliff walk with a park naturalist
   • The Matapédia valley by road
   • Lunch in Amqui
   • Transfer to Mont-Joli Airport (YYY)

   Activity: Flights from Mont-Joli (YYY) go to Quebec City or Montreal (Saint-Hubert); we confirm the current schedule before you book flights. On request, on the evenings VIA Rail's Ocean runs, we drop you at a station on its line for the overnight train instead, at your own cost.

   

Wildlife and weather: June brings long days, wildflowers and black flies in the parks; gannets are on Bonaventure Island from spring to autumn and their chicks hatch around early summer. July and August are warmest and busiest, especially in Percé. Whales are present from about June, and July to September is the most reliable window for humpbacks and fin whales off Forillon. September is quieter, with cooler nights and the first autumn colour in the Chic-Chocs. Sea fog and wind can cancel a boat on any date, which is why Percé has a spare morning.

• Quebec City1 night
• Rimouski1 night
• Sainte-Anne-des-Monts1 night
• Gaspé1 night
• Percé2 nights
• Carleton-sur-Mer1 night