8 Things to Do in Quebec City in Winter

Québec City’s streets fill with thousands at the world’s largest winter street party, held each January and February. With live music concerts, visitors quite literally dance in the streets. And crazy outdoor recreation – like snow baths and ice canoeing – keeps enthusiasm high. Other highlights include fireworks, night parades, snow sculptures and sleigh races at this annual celebration of winter.

The Place d’Youville comes alive with music and skaters in winter, when this Quebec City square is transformed into a bustling ice rink. Visitors rent skates, then swirl, glide or just try to stay upright in one of the world’s prettiest skating venues – alongside the Saint-Jean gate of the 18th-century city walls, within view of the regal Parliament buildings.

In a country known for winter sports, Quebec City goes beyond the ordinary. Visitors try their hand at new winter adventures, mushing along behind dog sleds and treading on top of a meter of snow in snowshoes at Aventure Nord-Bec. Meanwhile, lovers glide side-by-side through Battlefields Park on Nordic skis, within sight of the St. Lawrence River and the Citadel, on winter vacations in Quebec City.

Snuggle beneath thick feather duvets in romantic winter hotels in Quebec City. The Château Frontenac sits in the heart of Old Quebec City, its turrets towering overhead, its sumptuous crystalline- and tapestry-adorned lobby greeting guests as they arrive. Smaller historic inns also lie along the rue Saint-Jean and rue Saint-Anne.

Embrace the cold at the Hôtel de Glace, an adventurous winter Quebec City hotel. Rebuilt each year from ice – and never according to the same plan – the ice hotel welcomes overnight guests who snuggle inside downy sleeping bags to spend the night and earn bragging rights. Less adventurous visitors can tour the hotel’s guestrooms and wedding chapel before sipping cocktails from carved ice mugs at the Ice Bar. 

Adventurers of all ages head to the Terrasse Dufferin in Old Quebec when the temperatures drop, eager to toboggan down the Glissades de la Terrasse ice slide. Set beneath the towering Château Frontenac hotel, the 215-meter-long snow slide launches riders down its wooden chute at speeds up to 70 kilometers an hour, squealing all the way. 

When winter snows slow the rhythm of carriage wheels, the calèches of Old Québec replace their wheels with blades, converting them to winter sleighs. Cuddle under thick, woolen blankets on evening rides through the city, and soak up the views of evergreen garlands, streetlamps glowing under layers of snow and the horse’s breath turning to frost in the night air.