Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'd like to know what city is best to visit around the holidays (Christmas) as far as sights to see or holiday activities.
Montreal and/or Quebec City. They go all out for the holidays with plenty of activities, festivals, and displays. If you are going for at least a week or ten days, you can do them both. Take a train from Montreal to Quebec City, then back to Montreal. You will be able to walk everywhere so no need for a car.
Then I would suggest that you could do both Quebec City and Montreal easily in that time frame, it is easy without car as well as there are several trains a day.
I have a few friends living in Toronto, not a bad place to go. We also went to the winery area close the Niagara Falls. That's a nice spot to go. I've heard a lot of good things about Montreal and Quebec City, but you better be able to speak French if you want to visit the latter. My friend told me people living in Quebec City only speak French.
I have a few friends living in Toronto, not a bad place to go. We also went to the winery area close the Niagara Falls. That's a nice spot to go. I've heard a lot of good things about Montreal and Quebec City, but you better be able to speak French if you want to visit the latter. My friend told me people living in Quebec City only speak French.
Montreal was in my experience fully bilingual. Whichever of the two you chose to speak, that’s what they’d reply in. And nobody seemed to prefer one versus the other.
Quebec City was different. They were in my experience more prone to prefer French there, and it’s not a bad idea to at least know a few words and phrases in that language.
If you are looking for a place not crowded, red sand beaches, great exchange rate, fanstatic seafood, lobster in particular, friendly locals, look at Prince Edward Island in Canada. We just love it, we have been to all 50 states, and 8 Canadian provinces but keep going back. Charlottetown is the province capital which is a small city perhaps 20k people. But it is really the outside towns, beautiful green rolling potato fields, wonderful views of the ocean are the attraction to the island.
Check out this post on TripAdvisor I detailed places we love to visit and do on the island.
I have a few friends living in Toronto, not a bad place to go. We also went to the winery area close the Niagara Falls. That's a nice spot to go. I've heard a lot of good things about Montreal and Quebec City, but you better be able to speak French if you want to visit the latter. My friend told me people living in Quebec City only speak French.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Quebec City every year without speaking more than a few words of French (bonjour, merci), and most people in the tourism industry (hotels, restaurants, most shops) speak good English. However if you wanted to strike a conversation with a random stranger in a bar, on the street or in a local mall, that could be hit or miss. But you definitely do not need to speak French to visit Quebec City any more than you need to speak Turkish to visit Istanbul.
As a Canadian who has visited all the provinces and had the joy to live in multiple provinces, I would suggest one of the two areas for your trip.
First Ottawa to Montreal to Quebec City. Ottawa is filled with museums and is quite beautiful. Montreal is an amazing city, one I never get tired of visiting and Quebec City is like being in Europe.
Second option would be Calgary to Vancouver. Start in Calgary and then do a trip through the Rockies, stopping in the Kootneys, Penticton etc. to hit a winery or two, before ending up in Vancouver. If you want a trip over to Victoria is also worth adding.
As a Canadian who has visited all the provinces and had the joy to live in multiple provinces, I would suggest one of the two areas for your trip.
First Ottawa to Montreal to Quebec City. Ottawa is filled with museums and is quite beautiful. Montreal is an amazing city, one I never get tired of visiting and Quebec City is like being in Europe.
Second option would be Calgary to Vancouver. Start in Calgary and then do a trip through the Rockies, stopping in the Kootneys, Penticton etc. to hit a winery or two, before ending up in Vancouver. If you want a trip over to Victoria is also worth adding.
These are good suggestions. If the OP is coming from Arkansas it's probably worthwhile to tie in Toronto-Niagara to the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City tour.
I had 2 nights and a full day in Charlottetown, before heading to Halifax for a few days, in early November 2015. Cruise ships seem to visit Charlottetown from around the end of April through to early November - outside of those months I would think some businesses will shut up shop, or reduce their opening hours. I found that some museums and other tourist attractions had closed at the end of October in Halifax. I wouldn't recommend Charlottetown, or Halifax, for a Christmas visit, although I would thoroughly recommend at least one day in Charlottetown during the summer months.
If you do go to PEI, I'd opt for a 2-day visit, spending one in Charlottetown, and one with a rental car driving round the island. From Halifax I drove a rental car to Cape Breton Island for a couple of days.
Charlottetown did nothing for me when I visited a few years ago. PEI as a whole was nice, but not overwhelming, especially compared to the other attractions in Canada. Take Nova Scotia, for example, with Halifax and the Bay of Fundy tides. Or Quebec City and surrounds like the Charlevoix coast (a visit to France with no air travel!). Further west, Montreal has its charms, but no more than Toronto or most large cities. Ottawa, OTOH, is in a class of its own.
None of these compare to Vancouver, though, and things get even better outside of Vancouver.
Note though that the real charms of Canada are outside the cities, IMHO. PEI countryside. Bay of Fundy. Cottage country north of Toronto. Canadian Rockies west of Calgary. Anywhere in British Columbia. Need I go on? Gaspe peninsula...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
