Western Québec Highlights

Thirteen nights in a motorhome out of Montreal, through the Laurentians to the Saguenay fjord and back. The whales at Tadoussac are the reason to go.

La Mauricie opens the driving, a park in the southern Laurentians with a sixty-three kilometre scenic parkway through it and kayaking on Lake Wapizagonke. Lac Saint-Jean follows, with the recreated 1920s mill town at Val-Jalbert and the seventy-two metre Ouiatchouan Falls, reached by cable car.

Saguenay Fjord National Park comes next. The fjord was cut by ice, runs more than a hundred kilometres inland and is walled by cliffs over three hundred metres high, explored by boat or kayak.

Tadoussac gets two nights where the Saguenay meets the St Lawrence, and the mixing of cold deep water with the river makes it one of the best whale-watching sites in the world. Minke, humpback, fin and blue whales all come to feed in summer, and a population of beluga lives there year round, though nothing about any particular trip is promised. Malbaie River High Gorge follows with beaver, moose and caribou, then two nights at Jacques-Cartier near Quebec City with a day trip into the old town, and finally Mont Tremblant with kayaking and an optional via ferrata across a cliff face above the Diable River. Canadian Affair include the flights, the motorhome and the listed attractions, with campground fees, fuel, insurance and meals separate. The price is per person. Tadoussac is the deciding factor on timing: the big baleen whales are there to feed from roughly June to October, so a trip outside that window gets the fjord and the belugas but not the rest.