A Taste of Quebec & the Magical Fjord

Eleven nights by hire car along the St Lawrence and up into the Saguenay, which is the part of Quebec most visitors never reach and the better part of the province for scenery.

Montreal opens it, then Quebec City on the river, and from there the route turns inland and north. Chambord is reached by way of the Saint-Felicien zoo, where the animals have large natural enclosures and visitors are driven through on a train rather than the other way round, which is the sensible arrangement. Admission and the train are included.

Pointe-Taillon National Park follows on Lac Saint-Jean, and the lake is the surprise: it is shallow enough to warm up properly in summer, so the beaches there are genuinely swimmable, which is not something most people expect this far north. Long cycling trails run through the park.

Saguenay Fjord National Park is the destination. The fjord was cut by ice, runs more than a hundred kilometres inland from the St Lawrence and is walled by cliffs several hundred metres high, which makes it one of the longest and most dramatic in the world outside Norway. The route then works back through Charlevoix, a landscape of rolling farmland above the river that sits inside an ancient meteorite crater. Canadian Affair include the flights, the hire car, the hotels and the listed attractions, with fuel, insurance and meals separate. The price is per person. For a second trip to eastern Canada this is a considerably better proposition than repeating the Montreal to Quebec corridor.