Throw away your expectations of what French speaking Canada is and enjoy the glamour, history, beauty and culture of what Quebec has to offer. A delightful journey can be easily accessible through coach tours such as The Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches five day excursion.

Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches: Montreal and Quebec City Tour

By: Kindah Mardam Bey

The Stats

October 21^st -25^th 2007, 5 Day Trip

Cost: Twin $725.00/Triple $650.00/Quad $625.00/Single $895.00

Price Includes: Luxury motor coach transportation, dinner in Old Montreal, 4 Nights Accommodation, Dinner and Entertainment at an authentic Quebec Sugar Shack, Guided Tours of both Montreal and Quebec City, Admission into Notre Dame Basilica, A visit to an Outdoor Bread Oven, an Excursion to Ile D’Orleans, Montmorency Falls, St. Anne de Beaupre Shrine and taxes are included.

The Itinerary

Day One – Montreal - Arrive in Montreal late afternoon, then check-in to Hotel Cantlie for a quick change and then dinner in Old Montreal at the Vieux Port (dinner included).

Day Two – Montreal – A morning guided tour of Montreal, historic Westmount, St. Joseph’s Oratory, Mont Royal, and Notre Dame Basilica. The afternoon is left for you to explore the city, museums, Botanical Gardens, Biodome, or shopping!

Day Three – Quebec City – Take the short 2 ½ hour trip along the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Quebec City. Arrive in time for lunch in Old Quebec City. Then a guided tour of Quebec City with its rich history of upper and lower town and the Plains Of Abraham. Check-In to Chateau Laurier and a quick change for dinner at an authentic Sugar Shack (dinner included).

Day Four – The morning and early afternoon consists of a tour of Ile D’Orleans, an outdoor bread oven, St. Anne de Beaupre Shrine and Montmorency Falls. Then afternoon allows you to wander around upper and lower Quebec City and some time alone to discover the history of Canada within this walled city.

Day Five – Return home, with a bag full of fond memories.

Great Canadian Holidays And Coaches

Throw away your expectations of what French speaking Canada is and enjoy the glamour, history, beauty and culture of what the core cities of Montreal and Quebec City, from the province of Quebec, have to offer. A delightful journey can be easily accessible through coach tours such as The Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches five day excursion.

The Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches was founded in 1998 by Lorna and Larry Hundt. They are based out of Kitchener, Ontario, but do tours of both Canada and across the United States as well. You can rent the coaches out for groups, or go on one of their many trips, getaways and even one day excursions. One of the best reasons to travel by coach is the ‘no hassle’ factor; no figuring out road maps, no getting lost, no aimlessly searching for hotels, no suitcase handling, and finding out all the best parts the areas you are travelling to has to offer with ease and enjoyment. Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches are great for any age, or any person looking to travel without the hassles of organizing it. Simply book trip, pack bags and arrive for pickup on time!

Plus, one of the added benefits for travelling with Great Canadian Holidays is the Eco-friendly approach they take to travel as all the coaches are fuelled by bio-diesel, all the buildings they have for offices and garage facilities are designed to be as energy efficient as possible, the coaches are specially equipped with fuel-saving devices and a no-idling coach policy. Plus one vehicle is more environmentally friendly then many people driving separate vehicles bound for the same destination.

The coaches seat a little over fifty people and are clean, quiet, air conditioned, have TVs and are each fitted with a bathroom at the back of the bus. As a ‘proud to be Canadian’ badge, all the Great Canadian Holiday coaches are painted on the outside with stunning murals depicting montages of Great Canadians in History (artwork by Dave Sopha). The trip was incredibly easy to book and the brochure is all the information you will need to know about your excursion and Great Canadian policies. No surprises lurked within the price of the holiday and the value far outweighed the easily economical prices charged for the trip. The hotels were superior, spacious, clean, and full of facilities like kitchenettes/Fridges/TVs and so on.

Matt, our highly efficient and skilled driver was amiable and had a nice gentleman’s quality to his service throughout the entire journey. He had chauffeurs’ sensibilities about the open road and downtown traffic as well. We always arrived on time, or a head of schedule.

Lisa, our tour guide was dynamic as she seemed to exude friendliness, and was incredibly efficient and good at her job. A virtual textbook of historical information and fun facts about the places we were visiting and driving passed, Lisa took the time to know all the details about the journey and her customer’s needs. You felt confident that she could both run an empire and solve world peace just as easily as she was coordinating hotel rooms and keeping her community of travellers on schedule.

It is the people that make up a company and Great Canadian Holidays seemed to be full of courteous and helpful people, from the person picking you up and driving you to the coach, to the owner pouring you coffee and welcoming you on your journey that first morning. Old school values make Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches an exemplary company.

Two additional tour guides showed us around the cities. Peggy was the specialist for Montreal and PJ was the guide for Quebec City. We seemed to sweep through Montreal with Peggy and only had a short visit in the most beautiful Church in Canada, Notre Dame Basilica. It was the tour of Quebec City that had the most to offer as a personable Tour Guide can go a very long way and PJ was informative, witty and enthused about his city. It was a delight to get fully informed about where I was visiting before venturing on my own exploration of the cities on my own. You can learn great tidbits about your destinations from the guides, such as Montreal is indeed an island, and 95% of Quebec are Francophones while only 54% of Montreal is. Or that Quebec City is 99% crime free. You learn about the history of the buildings and the cities perceptions towards events like last years FIFA World Cup games held in Montreal (It was well received by the way!). Montreal and Quebec City are party to some great mythology from robust battles between the English and French, from the cross that was carried and still stands as the highest landmark in Montreal to the saintly healings by a devoutly Roman Catholic community now fading away. You hear from the tour guides about the intense desire for both Montreal and Quebec City to keep the façade of their historical buildings. Overall, the Guides can be one of those features thought to be thrown into the tour that actually end up adding great value to the experience.

To read about the sites seen on the Montreal and Quebec City Tour By Great Canadian Holidays And Coaches and to read about my perceptions of these Canadian cultural communities read the articles:

Cosmopolitan Montreal and Historical Quebec City and go to the Great Canadian Holidays and Coaches website here.