Here’s Why Canada Is the Best Place for a Magical Winter Holiday
There’s nowhere quite like Eastern Canada in the cold season. With shorter days, cities such as Ottawa and Québec City are abuzz, welcoming immersive after-dark celebrations of French-Canadian and First Nations culture. Scale frozen cliffs, sleep in an igloo and watch the night sky transform into a kaleidoscope of colour – this wintry landscape is the ultimate playground.
Plus, all the major cities are connected by train with VIA Rail Canada with up to five departures daily, making your itinerary easy to navigate.
Ottawa
Beneath a canopy of roofs and spires cloaked in snow, Ottawa – Canada’s capital, located in the southern province of Ontario – is home to the country’s most significant museums and a packed calendar of events.
Glide past icons
Historic hotel Fairmont Château Laurier and the Gothic Revival-style buildings of Ottawa’s Parliament sit on opposite sides of the Rideau Canal, which transforms into the world’s largest natural ice rink when the temperature drops. Skate between iconic landmarks and be sure to stop at one of the canal-side vendors for a cup of warming hot chocolate.
Chill out at the fest
Each year during the first three weekends of February, Winterlude takes over the city with elaborate ice sculptures, live music and frosty fun in the form of giant snow mazes and slides. Enter a snowman-building competition or cheer on the racers at the BeaverTails Ice Dragon Boat Festival, which is part of the festivities.
Explore a food hotspot
Ottawa’s ByWard Market district is a gastronomic hub, just a short stroll from Rideau Canal. On a tour with C’est Bon Ottawa, a local guide will share stories as you weave through the buzzing precinct, sampling maple-infused treats or the famous BeaverTail fried pastries that were invented just outside the city. You’ll also encounter striking Indigenous artefacts such as the Totem Pole of Canada, which was carved by students outside the Ottawa School of Art, and Dancing Bear, a bronze sculpture by the late Inuit artist Pauta Saila.
Take a stroll through the ages
Ottawa is home to seven of Canada’s nine national museums and galleries. Dive into the country’s diverse cultural heritage at the National Gallery of Canada, about a 10-minute walk from ByWard Market. Highlights include First Nations artist Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawings depicting Inuit life in literal and sometimes fantastical ways (such as a polar bear sketching humans) and works by the “French Rembrandt”, Jean-Jacques de Boissieu. At the Canadian Museum of Nature, you can explore four storeys of exhibits and see everything from life-size dinosaur skeletons to fascinating photographs capturing Arctic life. Museum entry is free on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm.
Snowshoe along scenic trails
Nature is never far away in or around Ottawa, where forests, rivers and farmland intertwine. A 20-minute drive from Downtown, Indigenous-owned Mādahòkì Farm delivers its own Winterlude events, including a powwow – an Indigenous gathering with feasting, dancing and singing – and the chance to try traditional food, such as fried bannock bread. You can also hire snowshoes and trek the trails around the 66-hectare property.
Step off the plane and into a winter wonderland in Canada’s magical city. Book your flights now.
Québec
Follow the Ottawa River to Québec, which ups the ante on winter fun – from lively celebrations in charming Frenchified cities and towns to exhilarating Arctic tundra adventures.
Commune with wolves
Come face to face with bison, elk, bears and wolves along a 12-kilometre safari route at drive-through wildlife sanctuary Parc Oméga. Spend the night in a Wolf Lodge, where floor-to-ceiling windows – and an evening soundtrack of lupine howls – will make you feel like you’re sleeping with the pack.
Marvel at bright lights
Québec’s largest city glows in winter. Mount Royal, the mountain at Montréal’s heart, offers plenty of outdoor activities, such as cross-country skiing, tobogganing and ice skating. From late November until early March, the Luminothérapie festival lights up the Quartier des Spectacles – the city’s major cultural district – with interactive art installations and immersive displays. During the Aura Experience at the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal, watch as the walls, vaulted ceilings and ornate altar of the church are transformed by a mesmerising showcase of projections and sound.
Hit the slopes
Destination resort Tremblant, set within the Laurentian Mountains region north-west of Montréal, provides an icy escape that can be as exhilarating or relaxing as you choose. Ski across 305 hectares of terrain spread over four distinct slopes, strap on a pair of snowshoes and hike through a coniferous forest or scale a frozen cliff face on an adrenaline-pumping ice climb. Then head to Scandinave Spa Mont-Tremblant to soak off the day in a thermal bath surrounded by serene woodland.
Step into a storybook
Come winter, Québec City becomes a living postcard composed of shimmering snow-white cobblestones and old-world architecture. For those seeking adventure, ice canoeing along the Saint Lawrence River delivers a special kind of thrill. The Québec Winter Carnival, held annually in February, brings glittering parades, festive night-time music and massive, museum-worthy ice sculptures to the grounds of Old Québec. Complete your winter getaway with a stay at the Hôtel de Glace, sculpted entirely from snow.
See the famous Sugarloaf
The streets of Québec City are just a 10-minute drive from the thundering Montmorency Falls which, at 83 metres, are taller than Niagara. The waterfalls freeze in winter, creating the “Sugarloaf” ‒ a massive ice cone formed from the splashes at its base. You can admire this phenomenon on snowshoes, from a cable car or, for thrillseekers, by climbing the cliff face beside the cascade.
Learn the Wendat way of life
The Wendat people have inhabited Québec City and its surrounds for thousands of years and the Huron-Wendat Museum, a 25-minute drive north-west of the city centre, is a celebration of this nation’s traditions. The exhibition includes intricately crafted clothing, centuries-old tools and dioramas of historic villages, and you’ll even have the opportunity to join a talking-stick or necklace-making workshop. Afterwards, check in to the onsite boutique hotel – rooms facing the Akiawenrahk River are decked out with Indigenous-inspired décor.
In-house restaurant La Traite offers a seasonal menu that champions local ingredients and cooking techniques, with dishes such as carpaccio of walleye (a freshwater fish native to North America), accompanied by root vegetable and cedar tartare, and deer loin served with wild fruit sauce.
Sleep under the stars
North-east of Québec City along the Saint Lawrence River, Charlevoix is an arboreous paradise with more than 600 kilometres of hiking trails, many of which are best experienced in the colder months. If you’d prefer to enjoy the wild splendour at a slower pace, Dômes Charlevoix invites you to unwind inside an eco-luxe geodesic dome tucked in a forest of frosted trees. Enjoy a celestial show through panoramic windows as you lie in bed next to a crackling fire or through the rising steam of your private outdoor hot tub.
Journey to the Arctic
While Québec is synonymous with French Canada, nearly one-third of the province is a sublime Arctic wilderness known as Nunavik, with a population of more than 13,000 Inuit. The area is remote but Inuit Adventures can create an itinerary that will see you cross vast stretches of tundra by snowmobile or dog sled, spend a night in an igloo, be entranced by rhythmic throat singing and witness the aurora dance across the starry sky.
Getting around by train
Ottawa, Montréal and Québec are connected by train with VIA Rail Canada, with up to five departures daily.
Extend your journey
If you like winter, you’ll love how Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba (and just a two-hour flight from Ottawa), embraces the season, whether it’s a fireplace sculpted from ice or a giant snowy corn maze. Take a sneak peek.
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