Our Road Trip to Canada

We recently had the chance to visit Québec City in Québec, Canada, and it was pretty amazing. I have an online Scentsy business and through my company I'm able to work toward earning an incentive trip each year. We have been blessed to travel all over the world because of these trips and this was trip #12 that we've earned since 2011. It's been incredible!

For this trip we decided to drive even though it was quite a long distance. I mean we travel full-time so why not? 😉

So we took off from the southern border of Oklahoma and spent about a week driving north to Québec City. We didn't stop to do too many activities or touristy things on the way up there because we didn't have an unlimited amount of time. We did enjoy a few things along the way though.

One place we tried to stop and visit was at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately we didn't make it there until about 10 minutes before closing time. lol! Whoops! Maybe next time.

One of the other places we enjoyed was actually just a rest area. We pulled off to take a little break and accidentally discovered a rest area that was just gorgeous with beautiful scenic views. We were in New York traveling east along Interstate 86 and stopped between Colburns and Belleview just west of Jamestown and got to see views overlooking Chautauqua Lake. If you're traveling that stretch of road, it's definitely a nice place to take a break.

We chose to drive up through Vermont to reach the Canadian border so that we could drive the Lake Champlain Scenic Byway and enjoy views of the lake as well as the mountains on both sides. It was so beautiful and a very enjoyable time. Because of the route we chose, we ended up driving through the Allegheny Mountains, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains. So amazing!

Another place we stopped was Burlington, Vermont. We'd actually considered stopping here for the night but the hotel prices were INSANELY high so we decided to keep moving. We did enjoy a nice break at Oakledge Park and Beach where we walked around on the walking path and along the beach, taking in the views of the lake and the mountains and enjoying the beautiful weather. It was kind of cool to be standing on the shore in Vermont and be looking across the water at the mountains in New York.

Once we left Burlington behind, it was on to the border! We've never driven across a border (at least not since passports started being required) and have always flown so going through border control was a little intimidating just because we didn't really know what to expect.

It was a breeze though - we just answered a few questions, showed our passports of course, and we went on our way.

Hello, Québec! Our first time to visit this province of Canada. :)

Once we made it into Canada we stopped over in Drummondville to spend a night before traveling on to Québec City. Driving into Québec City was very cool. We got to see great views of the St. Lawrence River and the city itself - including the city wall. Did you know that Québec City is a walled city dating back to the 17th century and it's the only fortified city in North America north of Mexico? So cool!

As I mentioned above, this was a Scentsy incentive trip and they always go all out for the places they choose for us - this was no different.

We stayed at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac - a national historic site and the most photographed hotel in the world. It's like a huge castle and it's definitely beautiful!

We managed to get assigned a room on the very top floor of the hotel - the 18th floor. To get to our room we had to go up a specific elevator to the 17th floor and then switch to a different elevator that went to the 18th floor. It was pretty wild being all the way up at the top!

The room was very spacious and really comfortable. We enjoyed the space and enjoyed our stay. If we're being honest though, this isn't a place we would ever choose to stay on our own. It's WAY too expensive for our tastes. 😜 But we sure enjoyed it for this week!

The thing I loved most about our room was the view. We saw some incredible sunsets from our room and we enjoyed looking out over the city and the river beyond. We had a pretty awesome view of the square out in front of the hotel too.

The outside of the hotel was just stunning. We had a lot of fun figuring out which windows were ours. haha! We stood out in the courtyard a couple of times looking at the windows and then we'd look from the inside to figure out exactly where we were. I've got a pic here with an arrow pointing to them. And the next pic - with the front view looking down the sidewalk - the windows at the top are ours. :)

The hotel is just massive and looks like a huge castle! It was definitely a sight to enjoy. And seeing it at night was just amazing. It was so beautiful all lit up.

The town itself was very walkable and a great place to explore. There were tons of little shops, lots of restaurants and bars, and plenty of historical things and beautiful architecture to see. I loved seeing the beautiful streets, the war memorial statue, the fountains in front of Hôtel de Ville, the statue of Samuel de Champlain, the St. Lawrence River, and the Fontaine de Tourney - all shown below.

As for the food, poutine is apparently THE thing to eat in Québec so we gave that a try. We weren't a big fan so we figured maybe we just didn't get one that was all that great and we'd give it another try. We tried it three different times and we weren't a fan of any of them. haha! We decided poutine is not for us. We did find some great food though. Our favorite place was Le Chic Shack where we had the best burgers and fries - maybe some of the best we've ever had anywhere! It was right across from the hotel and a place with a very cool vibe. We loved it there!

Another place we loved was an Irish Pub called Pizzeria Chez Murphy's. They had fantastic pizza and some delicious drinks. It was on Rue Saint-Jean which is a street that's closed off to traffic so people can walk around, sit outside and eat, and not worry about any cars to watch out for.

There is so much more to share about our time in Québec. Not only did we explore the area on our own, we also had a couple of days of excursions where we got to go out and see things beyond the city as well.

I'll be sharing more about our adventures we had. If you want to know more, be sure to subscribe to Life from the Road! 👍🏼