Quebec City With Kids: Europe Without the Flight, and a Toboggan in Winter

By Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel · Updated September 2026

Quebec City is a walled town on a cliff above the St Lawrence river, with a castle hotel on top, cobbled streets, French on every sign and a bakery on every corner. It is the closest a family can get to Europe without crossing the ocean, and it is a short flight from the east coast.

Summer is the old town on foot. The Chateau Frontenac is the hotel on the postcard, and even if you do not sleep there, the boardwalk in front of it, the Dufferin terrace, is where the kids run and the street performers work. The funicular goes down to the lower town, Petit Champlain, the oldest shopping street in North America, with the murals and the ice cream.

The Plains of Abraham is the park where the battle for Canada was fought, and it is a big lawn for a picnic and a kite. Montmorency Falls is fifteen minutes out, higher than Niagara, with a suspension bridge across the top and a cable car. The aquarium has polar bears and walruses.

Winter

Winter in Quebec City is the version I would pick. The old town under snow, the toboggan run on the Dufferin terrace, three lanes of wooden sleds down a slope at forty miles an hour, for a few dollars. The Carnaval in February with the ice palace, the snow sculptures and Bonhomme the snowman mascot. The ice hotel outside town, which you can visit for a day and sleep in for a night if you are braver than me.

Dog sledding an hour from town. Skiing at Mont Sainte Anne. Skating on the rink by the parliament. Then hot chocolate and a maple taffy pulled on snow, which is the thing the kids will ask for every afternoon.

Three nights in either season. Montreal is three hours by train, and the two cities together are a week that feels like a trip to France.

Planning Canada with kids? Start with the full Canada family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.