Many people visit Quebec City for its 400-year-old architecture and historic charm, but did you know it is an amazing outdoor adventure travel destination? You can hike Quebec’s hundreds of miles of trails, bike Quebec province for miles upon miles of dedicated trails (including the Blueberry Trail), you can paddle in Quebec’s stunning fjords plus challenge yourself on the via Ferrata. Quebec takes adventure seriously and has an amazing array of experiences for you to explore! The Quebec province is blessed with absolutely stunning landscapes and showcases them through its well maintained National Parks. Today’s guest is Jackie Nourse of the Budget Minded Traveler blog. She shares her favorite spots in Quebec, how to budget your time for each destination, and the challenges of facing her fears.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Hike, Bike, Paddle, Horseback Ride – even Climb a via Ferrata in Quebec Canada!

Many people visit Quebec City for its 400 year old architecture and historical charm, but did you know it is an amazing outdoor adventure travel destination?  You can hike Quebec’s hundreds of miles of trails, bike Quebec province for miles upon miles of dedicated trails (including the Blueberry Trail),  you can paddle in Quebec’s stunning fjords plus challenge yourself on the via Ferrata.  Quebec takes adventure seriously and has an amazing array of experiences for you to explore!

Multi-Sport Adventure Travel Quebec Province

Hike Quebec: Quebec province has HUNDREDS of miles of hiking trails in its STUNNING National Parks
Bike Quebec: North America’s longest cycling network with over 5000 km of bike trails and paths
Kayak Quebec: Sea kayak the Saint Lawrence river or through the Sagueney fjord
Whitewater Raft Quebec: Jacques Cartier river
Horeseback ride Quebec: on a ranch or even along the International Appalachian trail
Plus ALL the winter sports!

Quebec Province National Parks

The Quebec province is blessed with absolutely stunning landscapes and showcases them through its well maintained National Parks. Be sure to allot time to explore Jackie Nourse‘s (today’s guest interview on the podcast) favorite park:  Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park.  Here’s a link to more park info.

Quebec Adventure Travel Itinerary

Jackie recommends renting a car so you don’t waste precious time going back and forth each day from the city.  She suggests the following intineray:

Day One:  Explore Quebec City

Day Two:  Day trip from Quebec – bike to Mountmorency Falls

Day Three through Six:  Charlevoix 

Day Seven and Eight:  Saguenay National Park and the fjords

Montmorency Falls

Jackie recommends taking a day trip biking to Montmorency Falls from Quebec City. It’s a great place for a picnic! You can readily rent a bike, so no need to pack your own.

Jackie Tackles her Fear of Heights

Need an adrenaline rush? Consider one of the Quebec area’s eight via ferratas!

A via ferrata is a rock face that you climb using metal supports.  You are harnessed in, and use carbunkles so it’s pretty safe, even though your heart pounding will tell you otherwise.

Choose from beginner, intermediate or advanced via ferratas.

We first learned about via ferratas in our Dolomites episode of the Active Travel Adventures podcast.  

Check it out here.

Build Your “Grit Bone” in Quebec!

Here at Active Travel Adventures, I encourage you to push yourself…  to do a  “+1” of your previous experience to help grow your Grit Bone (and what  Jackie calls her Courage Muscle“).

Areas you can push yourself might include longer distances, slightly more challenging heights or elevation gains.  You can also challenge yourself by perhaps roughing it more than you are used to.

Every time your stretch yourself, you build your self confidence and feel an exhilerating empowerment, all while enjoying spectacular landscape and wildlife.

Quebec’s Annual Music Festival : July

If you love the music scene, Jackie recommends timing your visit to coincide with the hugely popular music festival held each summer.

Here’s a clip from the 2018 festival.

You’ll most often find Jackie hanging out on Instagram at Traveling Jackie, to coincide with her travel and lifestyle blog. Be sure to follow her incredible adventures!  @travelingjackie 

Jackie’s Budget Minded Traveler Facebook Community   Here’s a great place to ask questions and makes friends with other travelers.

For an inspirational solo epsidoe on the Budget Minded Traveler, check out Jackie’s Episode 63 here.

Other Resources:

Here are some other good resources to help plan your trip.

 Quebec Tourism Board [Quebec Region]

 Quebec Province Tourism Board

 Quebec Adventure Outdoor

Adventure Travel Quebec

My mission is to bring you epic but doable adventures from around the world. If you’re like me, you don’t want to live an ordinary life. You want to live a kick-ass life. One way to do so, is to add adventure travel to your life. I find adventure travel brings out the best in me. It challenges me, it encourages me, it enlightens me and inspires me to live a bigger life. On this program, you’ll learn about amazing adventures from around the world plus get the tools and information you need so you could do these adventures with confidence. You’ll come home feeling empowered with amazing memories and stories you can relive forever. Don’t worry, the bar is such, that my relatively fit 58-year old body particular was in training can do these adventures and you can, too.

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We’re heading to the strikingly beautiful province of Québec in Canada. If you like culture, amazing landscapes and adventure opportunists of all kinds, this is an adventure for you. While I’ve been to Québec, I did not have the opportunity to do some of the adventures our guest is going to talk about that. In the whole region, it’s an adventure’s paradise. There are hundreds of miles of trails including eight long distance trails that go from easy, immediate all the way up to very difficult. They have a natural trail that’s over 1,000 kilometers and there’s about 200 trails in the national parks in that area. If you’re not in the hiking, you can also cycle. They are big bikers out there there’s literally hundreds of miles. In fact, it’s the largest network of biking paths in North America. Over 5,000 kilometers worth. You can rent up bikes there. If you’re flying in and don’t want to bring a bike, it’s easy to rent a bike both in the city or to rent one in the parks.

You could do regular road cycling or path cycling. There’re also mountain bikes in opportunities as well. In addition to hiking and cycling, there’s also paddling opportunities. If you love to kayak, you can kayak in the fjords or in the Saint Lawrence River, which runs right through Québec City. There are also some white-water rafting opportunities. In addition to that, the via ferrata which we first came across when we went to the Dolomites. There are eight via ferratas and this is where your harnessed and perfectly safe, but you’re climbing up a rock face. For those who need a little bit of adrenaline rush, that’s for you as well. If that’s not enough for you, there’s also horseback riding opportunities and if you go on the winter, there’s winter sports galore. Our guest is one of my favorite bloggers and podcasters and I’m thrilled to have her on the show. She’s a big fan of Québec. Can you start please by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Jackie Nourse. I started traveling when I was eighteen. I went to study abroad in Costa Rica and used language to continue leading me all over the world. Studying abroad and traveling and seeing these places kick-started this lifestyle for me that has led to where I am now. I started as a blogger and podcaster and now I’m leading my own trips. I do lots of brand ambassador work and some. I do a lot of different things but I’m a full-time professional traveler. We could put it like that.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to follow in your coattails. One thing I like about and one reason I follow you, Jackie is because you do a lot of adventure travel. What is it about adventure travel that appeals to you?

I got to a point in my travels where, when you start traveling, so many people want to see Rome and Paris and there’s nothing wrong with that. That was me, too. I’ve seen all these places and covering much ground. I got to a point where I didn’t even pack running shoes in my luggage. I’m sitting in a city, and wait a second, “Who am I? What is this? What am I doing?” Travel is not enough for me. It’s not I am deep down. I’m not a city person at all. What I love about adventure travel is it gets me into my elements. I’m from the mountains and I need the mountains. I love nature and adventure travel takes me to those places where A. I could connect to nature and B. I can push myself and that’s where I feel the most personal growth coming. That’s what I love about travel, the growth side of it. There’s so much to learn about the world and about yourself. Adventure travel specifically expedites and balances all of that for me.

We’re going to talk about your adventures in Québec and the Québec area. Can you give us a brief overview of Québec city and a little bit about the countryside around it?

I’ve been to Québec City a couple of times now and it fascinates me because it’s one of those places where you’ll feel transported. It’s literally you can drive your own car there because it’s right over the border. When you’re there, it feels like a different country completely. I love that about it. It’s very old, 400 years. Québec City celebrated 400 years. Which is crazy because last summer, I believe Canada celebrated 150. Québec City is way older than even the country. It has so much culture and tradition. It’s the only walled city in North America. It’s very rich in history and the city itself is a beautiful place to be. It’s right on St. Lawrence. There are fjords and boats and all these things that you can do there. Once you start going North of Québec City, it becomes very mountainous. There are fjords and you can do whale watching. It’s so incredible because I feel that you wouldn’t expect it. I don’t know why I think that but it seems unexpected adventure, beauty, and all the things right over the border, right there in Québec. That’s mind blowing and that’s what’s kept me coming back for lots of couple of years.

You almost feel like you’re in a little France there, too, because they speak French there, don’t they?

It’s the only province in Canada whose sole official language is French. I have run into places like small town, Québec, people don’t speak English and it blows my mind. These people are North Americans and living here in North America with the rest of us. They do not speak English and they cannot take your order in English. It doesn’t happen. It’s crazy but it’s true. They’re very proud of their history and tradition. They will stick to that so it makes sense that some of them aren’t learning their language. I don’t know.

I see that outside of Québec City, you’ve got several national parks. Can you tell us a little bit about those and in particular about the hiking? What kinds of things that you’ll see there?

I would recommend Charlevoix for hiking. The regions, North of Québec City, there are two that are directly north called Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean and the other one is called Charlevoix. I’ve traveled extensively with both of them and they are both incredible for different reasons. The hiking in Charlevoix is amazing. There’s a huge national park there. There are a couple of national parks right there that you can get up very quickly. 3,000 feet elevation gain in one or two miles. It’s straight up and you’re looking down to these rivers. It’s impressive mountain landscape right north of the flatlands. As you know, Québec City is hilly but it’s relatively flat. If you like mountains, get up into those national parks in Charlevoix. I’m not in the train to pronounce it for you, I suppose I could. I did go to France and study French. The accent is so different. If you go north of Malbaie in Charlevoix, you’ll find some good stuff up there. It’s not just hiking, you can go kayaking and river cruises, camping, canoeing and there’s skiing up there. It’s endless. You can do all sorts of things.

As I recall, you were recommending that people to rent a car? Is that still the case?

Absolutely. It’s not well connected for public transportation because these little towns are dotted all throughout the countryside and through the mountains. You got to be able to get there. There are some things that you can do on public transportation but there’s so much more you can do if you have your own car. I’ve rented a car on Québec before and it was super easy and not expensive. I spent $100 for four days. Everything was straightforward. It was through Hertz. They let me drive it over the border even. I had no problems at all. If you don’t bring your own vehicle there, if you fly there, rent a car. I’ve rented a car twice there in Hertz and it’s absolutely the way they go, for sure. There’s so much to see in the backcountry. You can’t get there unless you have a vehicle.

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Do you need four-wheel drive or a regular car is okay?

It depends on the season. The roads are good but it would depend, if you go there in the middle of winter, it’s very cold and it does snow a lot. If you feel more comfortable four-wheel drive but you don’t necessarily need it. Both times I rented. They were little Chevy cars. It was also both times during the summer. We didn’t go four-wheel or anything. The roads have good infrastructure.

Since I don’t like the cold, I generally cover spring, summer and fall places. However, you have lots of winter activities up there as well, correct?

Absolutely. Skiing, snow mobile, snow shoot and all that. There’re some cool seasonal places that they open on the winter. I have yet to explore the winter there. I would love to. There’s a place that I stayed once. That’s a bunch of yurts and it’s right up by this little ski area. I imagine it in the winter time because there’s a spa next door, ski area next door and it’ll be such a cool adventure to go. They’re nice yurts. The fireplace, go skiing, hit the spa and you’d be able to do that without a four-wheel drive, too.

Are there visitor’s centers out there and guides and all that, or there’s something that they should be doing their research ahead of time before they head up there?

It would be best if they look in advance because everything is spread out. You could hit by the tourism office when you get up to Québec City or even the Saguenay. They do a good job of keeping everything online up to date. If you look at QuebecRegion.com, you can find everything you need because that’s the umbrella of all the tourism out there in Québec region.

Let’s talk a minute about kayaking. You’ve kayaked in the national park of Le Fjord-du-Saguenay?

That’s a cool experience because you kayak in the fjord and it also depends on the weather. The day that we went is rainy and it doesn’t bother you. You’re just out there even it’s too windy. Kayaking on fjord was cool because the water was black. Because of where the saltwater and the freshwater hit each other. It was totally black underneath. It was so surreal. We saw a couple of sea lions out there. You can see whales and dolphins right straight from your kayak if you head out right. Kayaking that park has also has an Intimidating via ferrata. If you want some adventure, that’s one of the parks that you should check out. There’s a via ferrata that has a bridge that’s way up there. You’re walking over the fjord and it’s very exposed. If you want a cool via ferrata, on a fjord, that’s your park.

Long time readers would know what via ferrata is from we covered that in episode 21 on the Dolomites. For those who aren’t familiar with that, could you explain what a via ferrata is?

Literally in Italian, it means an iron way. Meaning, it’s a hiking-climbing route built with iron. Rebar and cables that guides you up along a certain route on some cliff or mountain side. It’s perfectly safe because your harnessed in, you’re using carabiners to clip in and clip out like that if you’re going on climbing. I’ve done a few of them, two in Québec and one in Kosovo. They’re certainly a rush if you are afraid of heights like I am but I do it because I know that I’m safe and it’s very much an adventure. The one that I mentioned, I have not done because I need to harness more courage before I do that one. It’s big and exposed.

There’re various difficulty ratings, as I recall your Kosovo via ferrata is more difficult than the Québec one. Is that correct?

Absolutely. Every route is different. Like a hiking trail or mountain, no one is the same as the next one over. That’s why if you do one and you think it’s easy, the next one could be hard or if you one and it’s hard, try again. The next one might be better. They’re so different and it depends on where you are physically on the mountain.

The way I understood it, you used the via ferrata as a way to conquer your fear of heights?

Conquer is a strong word. I do it because it challenges me. That’s going back to what I’m saying about adventure travel. That is where you grow. The hard times, that is where you grow. That is why these via ferratas have this temptation to me because I know it will scare me and I know I will get through it. I know that somehow, it will be a good and positive experience for me because I’ll be challenging myself. I’m forcing myself to get through something that I could easily be, “I don’t feel trying that.” Instead, it secures an opportunity to test your limits. There you go. You know you’re safe so it’s okay.

Are you able to use that feeling of empowerment in your everyday life?

Traveling to places that challenge your fears will be a good and positive experience. Click To Tweet

That’s what it’s all about. Absolutely. I do things all the time that scare me. As an entrepreneur, as a troop leader, as in the place that I’m in, everything is unknown. These physical activities help strengthen these courage muscles that I use all the time.

I refer to this as building your grit bone. In addition to the hiking and kayaking, you could also do a lot of cycling up there. Can you talk a little bit about that please?

The biking is so cool. They have put so much work into bike trails. In Québec, they have what they call the Blueberry Trail, that’s the English word. I can’t remember how many but it’s like hundreds of miles of biking that you could do in a small region. It’s easy to rent up bikes. There’re bike rental places are all over because it’s very popular. If you are into cycling in any kind of level, that’s definitely something that you should look into. I’ve been on the Blueberry Trail and on the countryside where we stopped at farmhouses to try some cheese curds. We stopped at Barberies to try the local brews and I’ve also been a more established track that goes straight from Québec City up to Montmorency Falls which is a popular park right outside of Québec City with a big, huge waterfall. It’s only eleven kilometers to bike that. That’s a cool day trip to ride out there, maybe do zipline or hiking even there’s a couple via ferratas up there, have lunch. Check out the falls and ride back to town. That could be a great day trip.

I want to backtrack to something you said that you mentioned about the cheese curds. Isn’t that one of their national dishes? I know that I totally mispronounce that. Why don’t you go ahead and talk about it?

I was talking about cheese curds specifically but you’re talking about poutine. The poutine originated in Québec. If you don’t know what poutine is, it’s essentially French fries, gravy and cheese curds but that doesn’t seem to do it justice. It’s like a mouth-watering, gut-bombingly, amazingly, indulgently delicious.

Poutine, is that a meal or the way we treat French fries as a side dish?

It’s a meal. In most cases, you can have it as a side dish if it’s small but in a lot of cases, you can order a poutine as a meal. They have different styles of it. You can go to a poutine restaurant or cafe. It comes with vegetables or meat in it or bacon. Something that’s added to it and it’s not the same every time. There are so many combinations of different types of poutine that you can get. It originated there and they know how to do it best. Eat all the poutine when you’re in Québec. Plan on it. It’s amazing.

I’m definitely going to try that. I put together a travel planner that corresponds with each episode that I do. I try to offer folks not just the self-panning, itinerary and the information they need to do that but I also try to give them a trusted tour company option. If they don’t want to go to the hassle of planning it themselves, they can push a button of a company that I recommend. It doesn’t sound like there’s a good resource for that currently in the Québec area so with that in mind. What other recommendations that you have for people that are planning this trip in addition to the link that you gave us earlier.

That’s a good question. I would recommend doing a big loop on your own. Start in Québec City. I’m not talking about Montreal at all and I won’t because we’re going to stick with the north here. It would be nice to do a big loop. If you’re starting in Québec City, definitely hit Saguenay and the fjords. There’s a lot to do right around Saguenay and then also you could do that up on your way back. If you go along the river, through Charlevoix, you could do one big circle with your own vehicle. I would also recommend bringing camp gear if you want to do that. It’s so outdoor and there’s plenty of places to camp. It would keep the accommodations low although, it’s not that expensive up there. You can find some unique places to stay. It’s up to you where you sleep at night but I would say, move along. Make a consistent road trip out of it. Instead of staying base for example in Québec City, you could do that but it would mean a lot of driving if you want to get out to these places.

Let’s try to break that down a little further. We would come up to recommendations like, “How many days in Québec?” “How many days here and there?” Give people an idea of what they can do, let’s say a week to ten days?

You could do that in a week. For example, from Québec City up to Saguenay, I think it’s about a 2.5-hour drive so it’s not far. You can cover a lot of area in a short time. If you’d do a day in Québec City proper then you can even do a walking tour of the old city. You could do a boat tour down in the river there. You can get some good poutine. Check out the city. You needed to that. There are markets and stores and good restaurants and stuff. It’s worth spending a day in the city itself. If you’re going to spend another day, that’s where I would recommend going up to the Montmorency Falls even taking the bikes there if you wanted to.

From there, head out in the little spots like in Charlevoix, you could spend three different nights in three different places. During the days, you could do hiking, kayaking, beehive experiences, fishing or whale watching. All of these activities. You could cut in, there’s a ghost village in there. There used to be a lot of paper mills in Québec. There’s a lot of history in paper mills. You’ll see a lot of these on the rivers. There are some that’s converted into hotels where you can co-stay. There are little gems along the way. You could pick a different spot and sleep each night with different activities. Head over the Saguenay do a couple of days there. I would say, two days in Québec City, three throughout Charlevoix and a couple in Saguenay on the way back.

Is there anything else about Québec or the province that we should know about before you move on?

I will mention one thing. If you like music, Québec has been doing a summer festival. They celebrated 50 years doing this. It’s a cool opportunity to see a whole bunch of big-name bands and it’s not expensive. It’s eleven nights of music or something. There are stages all over the city so that is a fun time to be in the city. It’s a big festival and giant party but you can still find quiet hotels if you want to. If you like music, that’s a good time to go because you could hit one of the great bands coming in and out of Québec City. The summer festival is one of their longest standing traditions and that would be the last thing that I would mention if that piques your fancy to hit the summer festival while you’re there. It’s in the middle of July and it’s a beautiful time to be there.

That sounds wonderful. I love how this area has such a huge diversity of different activities that you can do so you can customize your trip to exactly what you’d like to do. They’re all fairly close to each other so you don’t spend to commend this some other time travelling. Plus, I like that it’s a lot more economical than a lot of adventure trips can be. After talking to you Jackie, I’m definitely moving this higher on my bucket list. Jackie, you gave us tons of great information and content on your blogs and podcasts and you also do some tours. You are a busy woman. Can you tell us a little bit about how people could reach out to you and to follow along in your adventures?

The first blog that I started is called TheBudgetMindedTraveler.com and that one is designed to be a practical guide. Most of the things you’ll find on there are how-tos like, “What to pack,” “How to use my phone overseas?” The things that’s super practically helpful. There’s a community there, too on Facebook, The Budget-Minded Traveler. It’s a community where everybody can come together to ask those questions that will help them get there sooner like, “Where do you guys stay in Pamplona?” The community is great for that. The podcast has the same name, The Budget-Minded Traveler. You’ll find the same content on there. A lot of guest interviews. People telling their stories about travel relating to my audience. They’re always, “How did you do it?” “What did you spend?” “How can other people do this?” I know people find a lot of inspiration in that.

Traveling Jackie is a bit turning on the road because I had to turn in my road a few years to go. I needed something different outside of the realm of budget travel to share my creativity so I started Traveling Jackie which is an adventure travel/personal lifestyle blog. It’s my home and anything that I want to say and need a platform to say it. That is where I have also started leading trips for my readers and listeners. That is magic and it’s my absolute favorite thing in the world. Leading group trips with my people. It’s moving towards going forwards. I have some guest contributors on The Budget-Minded Traveler and we’re going to keep this social media rolling like a community style. Traveling Jackie is more like my home. That’s me. If you want to find me on Instagram, you can find me @TravelingJackie.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our readers?

The only thing that I will add, because this is the thing that my guests always add at the end of our talks is that, “Go and don’t be afraid.” I don’t think you’re going to regret choosing to travel solo. You’re going to learn something and that’s time well-spent. Getting out and seeing the world going to Québec, any of these things. These are adventures. This is our one life and we get one shot so go do it. I think you’ll find that you’re more resourceful than you realize. You’re going to be the one that has a story to tell afterwards. I encourage you to try it, trust yourself and get out there. Make it happen.

When I was interviewing her about her Quebec adventures, I asked her a few questions about solo travel that ended up being quite the extensive part of the interview as well. You’ll be able to read that segment in our next episode on solo travel. Don’t forget that there’re a lot of photos and videos of this adventure at ActiveTravelAdventures.com, plus there’s more detailed information there as well. You can download the free corresponding travel planner on the website, or you can get it automatically for free in my once a month email. Sign up for it on the website or email me at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventure.com. The free travel planners give you all the links that you need in order to plan your adventure. I’ll be back with another exciting adventure. Until then, adventure on.

Important Links:

• Jackie Nourse
• QuebecRegion.com
• episode 21 – previous episode
• TheBudgetMindedTraveler.com
• The Budget-Minded Traveler – Facebook
• The Budget-Minded Traveler – Podcast
• @TravelingJackie – Instagram
• ActiveTravelAdventures.com
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventure.com

• Here’s How »

• activetraveladventures.com
• Active Travel Adventures Facebook Page
• Active Travel Adventures Facebook Group
• Active Travel Adventures Twitter
• Active Travel Adventures Instagram
• Active Travel Adventures YouTube
• Kit Parks LinkedIn