Quebec Self Drive Holiday, Canada

Twelve nights between Quebec City and Montreal, self-guided and tailor-made, along the St Lawrence and into the Saguenay fjord.

The whales are the reason to do this route rather than the reverse. The St Lawrence estuary is one of the few places where the cold Labrador current meets a river, which draws humpbacks, blue whales and a resident beluga population into water close enough to shore to watch from land.

Quebec City opens it, with Montmorency Falls just outside, higher than Niagara though far narrower. The Route du Fleuve follows along the river, with whale watching from Pointe de l’Islet at Tadoussac. La Baie and Saguenay Fjord National Park come next, with kayaking and walking along one of the longest fjords in the world, cut by ice and walled with granite. Tadoussac and La Malbaie follow, then Baie St Paul with more paddling available, and Montreal at the end, with the Notre-Dame basilica and the old port.

The itinerary is tailor-made and the inclusions are not itemised in detail on the operator’s page, so the accommodation, the car and the activities are worth settling at booking; flights are not included. One of the stays is at a First Nations-owned lodge. The price shown is per person excluding flights. June to October is the window for the whales, with the best of it in August and September. No sighting can be promised. The autumn colour in late September and early October is the other reason to go, since the maple forest along the St Lawrence turns all at once and the fjord country with it. Thirteen days is a comfortable pace for the distance involved, with time to stop rather than drive through.