Fodor's Montreal & Quebec City 2013

by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.

Montreal and Quebec City are treasured destinations for American a corner of France in North America. This guide, with rich color photographs throughout, captures the French-speaking cities’ universal appeal, from sidewalk cafés to winter sports and traditional French cuisine. 

Competitive   This guide outscores the competition in key areas, including deeper coverage of Montreal’s renowned shopping and nightlife scenes, and Quebec City’s historic sights.

Expanded New hotel and restaurant recommendations have been added throughout Montreal and Quebec City, as well as their surrounding regions, including the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships (les Cantons de l’Est), and Charlevoix.
 
Illustrated Several photo-driven features are woven throughout the guide. Look for top attractions that cover monuments such as Parc du Mont-Royal and the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac; boxed features on neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Underground City that bring their personalities into focus; and spotlights on the regional cuisine in Old Montréal and the Plateau that lay out all of the city’s fantastic local fare.

Indispensable Trip Planning Tools : City walks provide visitors with thematic tours of Montreal and Quebec City.  Itineraries cover step-by-step day trips or multi-destination visits to surrounding regions.  Hotel and restaurant Best Bets guide travelers to the top places to stay and eat by price, style and/or cuisine.

Discerning   Fodor’s Montreal and Quebec City offers savvy advice and recommendations from expert and local writers to help travelers make the most of their time. Fodor’s Choice designates our best picks, from hotels to nightlife. “Word of Mouth” quotes from fellow travelers provide valuable insights.

Free A handy pull-out Montreal and Quebec City map provides added value.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Canada, Reference

360 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 1990

About the author

Fodor's Travel Publications is a United States-based producer of English-language travel guides and online tourism information. It was founded by Hungarian Eugene Fodor in 1936.
Fodor’s was acquired by Random House in 1986 and sold to Internet Brands in 2016.

Reviews

[Johnny G.]

A useful guide, complete with a tear-out map in the back!

[CC]

Would have been 4 stars because they’re some really good restaurant recs. But they lose a star for their overuse of the word “hipster” - I counted at least 50, I think.

[Jill S. Mongold]

Just skimmed most of this book. Not much of the info I was look for.

[Colin]

Not a bad guide - I used it to help plan my trip, but did not take it with me.

[Lauren Davis]

Great overview - more details on some of the entries would be helpful.

[Kristin]

Between this book and the Lonely Planet guide of the same name, we got great info that we used on our trip to Montreal and Quebec City.

Montreal:
Hiking Mt. Royal, including a stop at the lookout at the Chalet du Mont-Royal.
Exploring Old Montreal, where people were out dancing on the square and we got ice cream. Visiting McGill University. We saw the football stadium on our way up toward the Mt. Royal hike. We also loved the nearby breakfast restaurant called The Pigeon.
Biking across the bridge to Ile St Helene, where we saw the Biosphere
Exploring the Mile End neighborhood, where we tossed a ball in a park, went to thrift shops, and spotted the bookstore Joie de Livres.
Staying at the Hotel Bonaventure, which was not far from Old Montreal and which had a great outdoor pool (open year round!). It was also across the street from the train station and from rental car companies, where we picked up our car to drive to Quebec City.

Quebec City: Exploring Old Quebec City (including the Citadel, Chateau Frontenac, and Basilique Notre Dame)
Walking across the bridge over Montmorency Falls (and taking the steps up/down)
Exploring Ile d'Orleans (where we bought fresh strawberries on a strawberry farm)
Walking across the Plains of Abraham on our way to the Citadel
Exploring the neighborhood St Jean-Baptiste, where I saw the prettiest public library in a converted church and we had great brick oven pizza on a patio and amazing ice cream
Staying at the Hotel le Concorde, where we had dinner at the restaurant on the top floor that rotates once every 90 minutes.

In-between: We stopped at Trois Rivieres, which was a cute town to stop for a meal. If we'd had the time, it would have been fun to explore their interesting museums, one in an old prison and one in an old paper mill. One of the books suggested taking the scenice route (King's Highway) from Montreal to Quebec City and stopping through Trois Rivieres. The scenic route was a good idea, but the prettiest part of the drive is between Trois Rivieres and Quebec City. For the sake of time, I'd suggest taking the fast route from Montreal to Trois Rivieres and then switching to the scenic route from there.

[J. Michael Smith]

We used this guide on a fall 2025 trip to Montreal and Quebec City—our first visit. It was a free download with Kindle Unlimited and worth a try. We found the list of “major” things to see somewhat helpful. The “walks” suggested for both cities were duds. The sections on places to eat were not for anyone who was trying to keep meals reasonable. We got more help from Yelp on that account. The maps were marginally helpful—we used the ones from the visitors’ centers more. But—for a free book—it was okay.

[Todd Smith]

Montréal and Québec City is a corner of France in North America.

Major sights such as Basilique Notre-Dame-de-Montreal, Parc du Mont-Royal, Mont-Tremblant, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal, La Citadelle, Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac, Tadoussac, and Plains of Abraham are included in the book.

Montreal side trips include the Laurentians, the Outaouais, and the Eastern Townships.

Quebec City side trips include Cote-de-Beaupre, Ile d'Orleans, and Charlevoix.

I like the handy maps throughout the book to help me figure out where historic sites and restaurants are located.

This is definitely a book to turn to for in-depth information on Montreal and Quebec City.

[Pete Gachot]

I agree with a previous reviewer that this Fodor's guide uses the terms "hip" and "hipster" a few too many times. That minor detail aside, I found the guide to be extremely informative. I have not yet taken my trip, but regarding basic facts and figures and geography, I have been hugely educated. What makes this travel guide worth reading: it's full of information that is either useful, interesting, or both.

[Anne]

Definitely not a fun, lighthearted guide (You say prosaic, I say fuddy-duddy) but the basic information I needed was there. Had to remove a star for some factual errors (like, everybody took my credit card, even the [random restaurants I went to - good luck figuring out which ones!] restaurants that they listed as not doing so) and the crushingly horrible index.

[Kalei]

For having gone to Montreal several times over the last few years, there's still a number of places the book highlighted that peaked my interest. Caution that some have since permanently closed, a couple I was most wanting to visit. I do wish I read this when I had a weekend so I could do some of the side trips!

[Michelle Romero]

A good travel guide that correctly lays out how to see the city on a limited time frame. The map was awful though. Stop at the tourist center near Dorchester Square for a decent map and more detailed information on Montreal.

[Beth Hartnett]

How have I never visited Quebec City before this? The weekend before Thanksgiving saw us driving the 5 1/2 hours up to this winter wonderland. Fodor's helped us make the most of it and we will be back!

[Valerie Reid]

Excellent compact travel guide for Quebec City. Includes history and background information about both cities, as well as hotel and restaurant recommendations. Lovely photos and maps detailing the sites to see.

[Aharon]

Would have worked better if it had been set in Paris.

[Aaron]

great for info and suggested itineraries/walks

[Lisa]

We bought this and the Frommer's version for our upcoming trip to Quebec City this New Years. I prefer the Frommer's edition just slightly over this one; but it was still excellent!

[Laura]

Technically I read the 2014 edition. It wasn't bad, maybe I just expected a bit more?

[Laura Grow-Nyberg]

It did the job well.

[Linda]

Destination cities in Canada. This book describes the attractions and suggests places to visit, places to eat, and has nice color pictures of the cities and their areas around them. very nice book.

[Marguerite Gray]

Excellent! I'll take this with me to Quebec. Lots of notes!

[Agnes]

Great highlights and food recommendations; mostly accurate re seasonal openings/closings.

[E G Melby]

Hated the mixed layout and the map is a joke

[Christine Boehm]

Moderately helpful but will be nice on hand with limited internet. 🫡🇨🇦

[Trever]

Didn't have a ton Quebec City which is the city where we are going. Good for smaller information.