Tours can include Montmorency Falls, whale-watching, and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré in addition to sights in Québec City. Combination city and harbor-cruise tours are also available. Québec City tours operate year-round; excursions to outlying areas may operate only in summer.

Boat Tours

Croisières AML has day and evening cruises, some of which include dinner, on the St. Lawrence River aboard the MV Louis-Jolliet. The 1½- to 3-hour cruises run from May through mid-October and start at C$33 plus tax.

Contact

Croisières AML (Pier Chouinard, 10 rue Dalhousie, beside the Québec-Lévis ferry terminal, Lower Town. 418/692-1159 or 800/563-4643. www.croisieresaml.com).

Bus Tours

Autocar Dupont-Gray Line bus tours of Québec City depart across the square from the Hôtel Château Laurier (1230 place Georges V); you can purchase tickets at most major hotels. The company also runs guided tours in a minibus as well as tours of Côte de Beaupré and Île d'Orléans, and for whale-watching. Tours run year-round and cost C$34-C$125. Call for a reservation and the company will pick you up at your hotel.

Contact

Autocar Dupont-Gray Line (418/649-9226 or 888/558-7668).

Calèche Tours

You can hire a calèche, a horse-drawn carriage, at Place d'Armes near the Château Frontenac, at the St-Louis Gate, or on rue d'Auteuil between the St-Louis and Kent gates. Balades en Les Calèches de la Nouvelle-France, Les Calèches Royales du Vieux-Québec, and Les Calèches du Vieux-Québec are three calèche companies. If you call ahead, some companies can also pick you up at your hotel. Some drivers talk about Québec's history and others don't; if you want a storyteller, ask for one in advance. The cost is about C$80 including all taxes for a 40-minute tour of Vieux-Québec.

Contacts

Les Calèches de La Nouvelle-France (418/692-0068). Les Calèches Royales du Vieux-Québec (418/687-6653). Les Calèches du Vieux-Québec (418/683-9222).

Walking Tours

Les Tours Voir Québec leads English-language walking tours of the Old City through the narrow streets that buses cannot enter. A two-hour tour costs C$19.50.

Ghost Tours of Québec gives ghoulish 90-minute evening tours of Québec City murders, executions, and ghost sightings. Costumed actors lead the C$17.50 tours, in English or French, from May through October. Ghost Tours now offers Witchcraft on Tour as well, which is a reenactment of a trial in English, held indoors.

Le Promenade des Écrivains (Writers' Walk) takes you through the Old City, where guide Marc Rochette, a local writer, stops to read passages about Québec City from the works of famous writers that include Melville, Thoreau, Camus, Ferron, and others. The two-hour tours cost C$15 and are given Wednesday and Saturday.

La Compagnie des Six-Associés gives several historical theme-driven walking tours year-round, starting at C$12. A tour-ending drink is included. The themes cover such timeless topics as "Killers and Beggars," "The Lily and the Lion," and "Lust and Drunkenness."

Contacts

La Compagnie des Six-Associés (381 des Franciscains, Upper Town. 418/692-3033. www.sixassocies.com). Ghost Tours of Québec (85 rue St-Louis, Upper Town. 418/692-9770. www.ghosttoursofquebec.com). Le Promenade des Écrivains (1588 av. Bergemont, Upper Town. 418/264-2772). Les Tours Voir Québec (12 rue St-Anne, Upper Town. 418/694-2001. www.toursvoirquebec.com).