Quebec and Vermont Ski Tour - CanaDream

Fifteen nights and 1,725 kilometres in a loop from Montreal in a motorhome, in winter, using the vehicle as a ski base rather than a touring van.

Mont Tremblant comes first in the Laurentians, which gets a stay day, then Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City, where the old town sits above the St Lawrence behind its ramparts and the winter carnival runs in February.

Mont-Sainte-Anne follows east of the city, then Le Massif de Charlevoix, which has the greatest vertical drop in eastern Canada and looks straight down onto the frozen St Lawrence, with another stay day there. Riviere-du-Loup and the Eastern Townships come next, then Mont Orford, and the crossing into Vermont for Sugarbush, where the terrain is steeper and the trees are tighter than most of Quebec offers, with a third stay day.

The motorhome and the day-by-day plan come from CanaDream, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with insurance options priced at booking. Sixteen days on snow in a motorhome is an unusual proposition and needs the vehicle checked for winter use: not every unit in the fleet is winterised, and the water system, heating and power draw all matter more in February than in July. Serviced winter campsites are far fewer than summer ones and need booking. Crossing into Vermont needs the hire terms checked for cross-border cover. Lift passes are bought separately, and the Quebec resorts generally hold snow from December into April.