A UNESCO Heritage site with a unique history, Quebec City has secrets waiting to be explored.
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Quebec City is often described as romantic—and it is. The only walled city in Canada, with its cobblestone streets and French “je ne sais quoi.” But don’t let that reputation stop you from taking a solo trip to Quebec City or visiting with a friend. World-class art museums, lively street festival and patios, vibrant Indigenous culture, and loads of history await the independent guest.
The city is small, with a population of around 400,000, which means it doesn’t have an abundance of urban oddities but it’s still got an offbeat side. And as an expert in the unique and unusual I’ve put together this list of weirder things to do in Quebec City beyond the classic postcard views. Some involve tours, others are places you might stumble into and want to linger for a while, and a few are an easy quick peak. Most of the activities are clustered around the Old City, so you can pack a lot into a long weekend trip. On y va!
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Old Quebec City with a Costumed Guide
Quebec True Crime Walking Tour
Crypt and Holy Door at Notre-Dame Basilica
Onhwa’ Lumina Indigenous Forest Walk
Plains of Abraham Museum Punishments
Monastery Museum of Medical History
Some Tips for first-time Quebec City
How French is it? Very French! I was suspired to meet someone who didn’t know that Canada had a French-speaking province before visiting. If that’s you too, now you know! One of the best reasons to visit Quebec City is to hear the French language, and to speak it if you can. Staff at most hotels, restaurants and other tourist businesses also do speak English to some degree. I recommend planning to treat them with respect and ask first before assuming. And if you are taking any kind of tour, check in advance what language it’s running in as many alternate between French and English at different times of the day. Signage in museums is generally in both languages.
How hilly is it? Quite. On my visit I saw a race around the city called “challenge of the stairs” and while the locals seemed to enjoy that, I preferred using the local buses and taxis/Uber to get back up the hill after my days of sightseeing. There’s also one fun funicular (see below). If you or your travel companions have any kind of mobility or breathing challenges, adjust your expectations of how much you’ll depend on walking everywhere and budget for rides.
How vegetarian friendly is it? Not much. Honestly, I felt like I’d travelled back in time—not to the 1800s but around 2002, when it was tougher to find plant-based food outside of vegetarian specific places. I’ve eaten poutine made with mushroom gravy and even vegan cheese all over Canada but nothing like that is available here. (One popular place uses veal in the gravy. WHY?) Vegetarian burger? “What’s that?” say the pubs of Quebec City. I can recommend one excellent restaurant, Don Vegan, which was both delicious and affordable. And that if you have a restricted diet, pack protein bars with you.
OK, now onto the list of things to do in Quebec City!
My Picks for Fantastic and Unusual Things to Do in Quebec City
Go Inside the Château Frontenac
You’re absolutely going to end up in front of the Chateau Frontenac. The world’s “most photographed hotel” is a famous landmark in the city and makes a great backdrop for your postcard from Quebec. So why not go inside? The luxury property can be accessed by non-guests—you can visit the lobby during some daytime hours or book a table at one of their restaurants and bars. But if you want to learn about the history and see into spaces most tourists can’t go, sign up for a guided walking tour.
Led by a local guide in historical costume, the one-hour tour covers both the exterior architecture and interior of the hotel, which has hosted a long list of political figures, artists, and dignitaries during some truly world-changing events. Yes, I said historical costume. This is a theatrical experience! Of all the walking tours in Quebec City this one is probably the friendliest to those who can’t climb a lot of stairs. Book your preferred timeslot in advance here.
Walk Old Quebec City with a Costumed Guide
If you want to spend even more time with a local history expert wearing frills, this is the walking tour of the city for you. Led by a guide in period costume, it leads you through the old city’s pretty cobblestone streets around the Chateau, Basilica and Place Royale. Rather than focusing only on architecture or battle dates, the tour emphasizes human stories—the traders, settlers, priests who colonialized the place. I like to take tours like this on my first day to get oriented with a place. Book your preferred timeslot in advance here
Ride a 150-year-old Funicular
I like to imagine the kinds of fights that start at the ticket wicket for the Old Quebec Funicular. The attraction, built in 1879, isn’t just a pretty view. It’s a life saver if you can’t walk up the steep steps from “Lower Town” back up to “Upper Town.” It’s also cash only. Lucky for me, I almost always carry cash. But I know a lot of people don’t. So don’t be the person who arrives, exhausted, without $6 for admission. There’s an ATM conveniently located nearby at the bottom, for a fee of course, but what if it’s busted that day!? Carry cash.
Once you’ve handed over your $6 for a one-way trip, you’ll glide up in a small railcar at a 45-degree angle and enjoy sweeping views of the city and St. Lawrence river below. Better still, you’ve saved your knees. Stops running at 9pm so don’t count on it to get you home from that cute bar at the bottom of the hill late at night.
Quebec Crime Walking Tour
You want it darker? Take an evening walking tour with (yet more) costumed guides, this time playing the roles of an 18th-century executioner and his wife. Wander the Old Quebec’s streets hearing of the crimes, trials, and public executions that once took place there. This isn’t a haunted tour – the stories are real. The 90-minute walk is a good fit if you’re interested in the city’s social history—especially how law, morality, and spectacle shaped public life in early New France. Sign up for a tour here.
The Crypt and Holy Door of Notre-Dame Basilica
The majority of Quebec City’s population is Catholic. And their heart is Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec (“Our Lady of Quebec City”)—the first Catholic parish in North America and the oldest church in Canada, dating back to a mission chapel first put here in 1647.
As with most such basilicas, the interior is impressive, with stained glass, sculpted angels, gold-leaf and massive organs. But Notre-Dame has some fascinating and more unusual things to discover. Like a crypt! And funeral relics of a saint! And a Holy Door!
First, look for the funeral chapel of François de Laval, which you can identify by the bronze recumbent statue of his body at rest. Laval was the first bishop of Quebec, who died in 1708 and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2014.
A piece of Laval’s bones is on display beside his tomb, a small relic inside a gold and glass case. Our guide could (or would?) not specify the bone but my smart friends tell me appears to be part of a femur.
To see the Notre-Dame Basilica crypt, you can take a short guided tour for $8, Friday to Sunday only, between 1:30 to 3:30, alternating between English and French. It holds the remains of about 900 religious men, including several bishops, cardinals and governors of New France. It’s not a scary or dark crypt—it was built in 1993. Our guide was very pleasant and informed and happy to answer questions about the church history and even show us other areas of the basilica we may have missed. Like…the Holy Door!
Do you know about Roman Catholic Holy Doors? A ceremonial door in certain sacred basilicas that is opened only during Jubilee years by decree of the Pope, when pilgrims walk though symbolizing a passage to spiritual renewal and the remission of sins. There are only seven Holy Doors in the world, and the only one outside of Europe is here at Notre-Dame in Quebec, opened in 2014. You can find see it from both the outside and the inside, but it’s closed up tight – with a red ribbon and a glass case protecting the lock. You can touch it though, and a small line of faithful formed behind us to do so.
Onhwa’ Lumina Indigenous Forest Walk
All this French history is cute and all, but also fiercely colonialist. I don’t believe you’ve truly seen Quebec City without learning about the Indigenous history as well. And despite many Catholic church attempts to destroy it, local First Nations culture continues to thrive on this land.
A short drive from Old Quebec City is Wendake, an Indigenous community with its own museums, restaurants, artisans, and one of the most extraordinary attractions in the area.
Onhwa’ Lumina is beautiful, inspiring nighttime walk through the forest, surrounded by a sound and light show that tells the story of the Wendat Nation. That might sound like something you’ve seen before, but I bet you it’s not. It’s uniquely amazing. The 1km loop is easy walking, and the visuals and music will stay with you long after you’ve left. Even if you have just one night in Quebec City, find a way to fit this in, perhaps by staying at the nearby Indigenous-owned hotel (see below).
Eat Maple Taffy on Snow
I grew up tossing hot maple syrup made on my family’s property onto a snowbank and waiting for it to turn into taffy. Such a treat! In winter in Quebec City, you can do this on real snow at a festival like Carnival, or a nearby sugar shack. But some shops offer a version of this taffy experience year-round. Check out the Petite Cabane which sells all kinds of maple products, or La Buche, a popular Quebec-themed restaurant that has it on their desert menu and also serves an infamous local maple-and-amaretto liqueur, Courreur de Bois. Warning, this is super, super sweet.
Pay your respects at Quebec’s oldest grave
Between 1772 and 1860, more than 6,000 Anglicans and Presbyterians were buried at St. Matthew’s Cemetery. Today you can walk past and almost not notice it! The small park in the Faubourg Saint-Jean neighbourhood has about 300 tombstones today, including a well-worn marker for Captain Alexander Cameron, who died of fever while serving during the Seven Years’ War in Quebec. This gravestone is the oldest in the cemetery and likely the “oldest preserved tombstone in Canada.” A QR code on the entrance sign takes you to a podcast so you can listen to the stories of other people buried here.
Visit the Chocolate Museum
I love a quirky niche museum and this tiny one is a surprise tucked inside the artisanal chocolate shop Erico Chocolatier near the cemetery on Rue Saint-Jean—a street which also has good grocery shops and boutiques. It seems meant for kids, to learn the history of chocolate and how it’s made, with some fun quizzes and more than 200 objects. Grown-ups may enjoy artifacts from the Laura Secord Chocolate Company, named for the Canadian War of 1812 heroine. I think everyone can appreciate the working clock made out of chocolate though. Free to enter when shop is open. Check hours for the Chocolate Museum here.
Morrin Room
This former jail is now a library you can tour with a guide. Morrin Room is filled with Victorian-era antique wooden shelves and thousands of English-language books—one of the few places in the city where Anglophone literary history is preserved and celebrated. Walk the former jail cells or just browse the stacks.
Plains of Abraham Museum Punishments
I don’t know what I expected from the Plains of Abraham Museum, dedicated to the famous battle between the English and French that led to the end of French colonial rule in North America. But it wasn’t a replica of stocks with “fun” signs to hang over your next for posing!
The crime and punishment section of this museum is wild and eye-opening. (And interactive!) I learned how during the battle, prisons weren’t used much, they went instead for corporeal punishment. Thieves were hung. At times, the French would settle using First Nations customs (gift giving, say) to keep the peace. There is also much more traditional stuff for military history buffs. But I say come for the quizzes about how many lashes you could get for being drunk at work.
Monastery Museum of Medical History
Quebec City was the site of the first modern hospital built on the continent. Today, it’s the Augustine Monastery where you can take a meditation class, attend a soundbath concert other wellness activity. The Augustinian Sisters also maintain a collection of artefacts from fields of healthcare (medical and pharmaceutical), agriculture, commerce, crafts, and traditional skill on display in Le Musée du Monastère.
Unique Hotels in Quebec City
These accommodations are not your average hotel room.
Augustine Monastery
Book a basic room in the ancient wings of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec monastery, which dates to the 17th century. This is for you if you want quiet contemplation and restorative activities like medication, gentle yoga, and a silent breakfast. Steps from the Basilica. Read the details. Check prices and book here.
Chateau Frontenac
The luxury hotel may or may not be haunted, but it’s definitely historic. In the heart of the Old City. Check prices and reserve a room here.
Monsieur Jean
A boutique hotel for the art and design crowd, member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Check prices and reserve a room here.
Le Manoir d’Auteuil
Art deco décor and one-of-a-kind rooms and suites including The Chapel Room, which began as a private chapel in the 1800s and has two single beds—good for two friends traveling together. Facing a large park. Check prices and reserve a room here.
Hotel Nomad
Each room is uniquely appointed with antiques and local design at this small Victorian style hotel where you can book a “thematic room” but don’t know the exact theme until check-in. Check prices and reserve a room here.
Traditional Longhouse Stay at Hotel Premieres Nation
Outside of Quebec City in the Indigenous community of Wendake you can overnight in a traditional Indigenous longhouse. It’s part of a package that includes the sleeping bag, blanket and pillow, room in the standard hotel (for your shower, use of the pool, etc), access to the museum, a Myths and Legends storytelling experience and breakfast. This one is best for small groups of friends or families. And it runs year-round! Details here.
Need a Quebec City hotel that’s more …ordinary? I can also recommend two hotels I’ve stayed at: the Hilton (rooftop pool views!) and the Chateau Laurier (perfect location near restaurants, museums, and parks).
I hope this this list of unusual things to do in Quebec City has been helpful. Want more travel inspiration for Canada?
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