Help please with stop over Quebec City to Niagara Falls
 

Hi all, thanks to qantas re-scheduling the A380 I have two extra days on my holiday and can now fit in Niagara Falls! Will be leaving QC on the Thursday morning and have booked Embassy Suites in NF on the Friday. Where should we stop on the way please?

Will be leaving NF on the Saturday to depart Boston Sunday afternoon at 5pm so any advice for the stopover NF to Boston much appreciated also!

I would recommend Lunch in Montreal... Dinner in Toronto and you will be in NF for the Fireworks on Friday at 10pm...

For Saturday consider stopping at either Lake George NY or Saratoga Springs NY, North of Albany... both are quaint and interesting, and especially the right distance...

I am guessing you are renting a car in QC for this trip.
If I am wrong please let us know. You will not be able to rent a car in Canada and return it in Boston.
My suggestion: Morning ViaRail train from QC to Montreal have lunch between trains. Next train to Toronto where you spend Thursday night. Friday morning take the Amtrak "Maple Leaf" to Niagara Falls Ontario or Niagara Falls New York depending on which side of the border your hotel is on.
You can continue east to Boston by plane from Buffalo or ride the Amtrak train if you have the time and like train travel.
The midpoint if you take the train from NF would be Albany NY.
http://www.viarail.ca/en www.amtrak.com

I agree with Tom. The ViaRail train from QC to Toronto is a good idea and I like the rest of the plan too.
IF you decide to fly from Buffalo to Boston, there are some very reasonable flights. Check www.kayak.com

Hi guys, thank you for your advice. Gary are you suggesting we do the whole trip in a day? Google maps suggests about 10 hours for this trip so I thought we would need to stop somewhere? (lunch in Montreal sounds feasible though.)
Tom and Kodi, whilst the train is a great idea we will have picked up the car in Boston a month earlier and must return there unfortunately.

OK with returning rental car where you picked it up. Be sure they are OK with travel in Canada with their rental cars, ie. insurance and other rules.
You should be able to drive from Montreal to Toronto in an afternoon.
Be aware that Amtrak also has a train into Montreal.

It is 3 hours from QC to Montreal and 5 1/2 from montreal to Toronto... I assumed you meant by rental car... and then 1 1/2 from toronto to Niagara Falls..

With 1 1/2 hours for food stops in Mtl and Tor, its a total 13 hour day... certainly doable with the rest stops...

With an overnight on Thursday, stay in Toronto, enjoy your dinner, rest up and spend Friday morning in Toronto... you could leave after Lunch or catch an amazing lunch in the Niagara Wine Region before check in... you decide, then we can give you specifics...

Thank you again. Toronto Thursday night sounds like an option. If we did too much sight seeing on the way (or long lunches!) where would you suggest before Toronto?
Yes, the wine region is definitely of interest ? Friday morning - we come from a wine growing region in South Australia. If we can arrive in NF sometime Friday we will then leave Saturday afternoon to perhaps make half way back to Boston, leaving 4 hours or so for Sunday. (Flight is not until 5pm but allowing plenty of time.)
That will mean about 24 hours in NF - would like to fit in NOTL, is that possible do you think?

If you would rather not have the very long day to Toronto on Thursday, Kingston would be a good place to stop. It is a very historical city... small and very doable to wander around the downtown area.
I have to admit, I would not want to drive from QC to Toronto , and I have stopped at Kinston to break up the trip.
Have a good time.

It's never been clear to me how people manage to drive from city to city at the speeds they suggest.

I've only driven from Montreal to Toronto, or the reverse, perhaps 200 times, so I'm not expert.

But downtown to downtown is about 360 miles, and gthe speed limit is 60 miles an hour, and that works out to 6 hours.

Take some time off for exceeding the speed limit, and add some time on for buying gas and stopping for a break... and it certainly is a long "afternoon."

And Montreal and Toronto are big cities with big traffic, so the time of day really matters.

It is a long,long day to drive from Quebec City to Toronto, and on to Niagara Falls.

There are lots of options for leaving QC Thursday morning and getting to NF Friday afternoon.

The "most tourism" route would be QC to Mtl to Ottawwa, Canada's capital and a city with museums and beautiful buildings.

Overnight, and next morning your choice of west and south, or south and west.

West and south takes you past Algonquin Park to Huntsville, trhough vacation country, and then to the top of Toronto, and follow the suburban highways, skipping the city, on to NF.

Sout and west takes you from Ottawa down to the St. Lawrence River through a different kind of vacation country, gives you a quick look at some nice parts of tghe St. Lawrence River, and then big highway to Toronto, across the top of the city and down the other side, and on to NF.

Or... oncve you hit the outskirts of Toronto, you can take a big highway south (Don Valley Parkway) and then across the bottom of the city still on a highway but able to see downtown, and continue on to Niagara Falls.

MORE DIRECT, SKIPPING OTTAWA (much more practical,. but you see less)

Quebec City to Montreal, figure out if you want to see much of Montreal or skirt the city, and along highway 401 to Kingston.

Former capital of Canada, small historic city, decent hotels, good restaurants, worth wandering around in inthe evening.

Next day to Toronto, through the city, and on to NF.

NF to Boston is not as interesting as you might think.

That said... Leave NF and take the New York Thruway (toll highway, also called Interstgate 90) to Albany and then stay on Interstate 90 into Mass. Turns into the Mass Turnpike

Youèll bein the Berkshuire Mountains,near the town of Stockbridge. Familiar with painter Norman RockwellÉ He lived there. James Taylor sings about The Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston in Sweet Baby James. The small towns are tourist favorites. Next day is a pretty quick drive to Bosoton.

BAK

Hey Bak, thanks for taking the time to put together such comprehensive advice - exactly what we're after!
I have to admit, I do feel the big cities are time consumers with traffic etc. even though nice to say 'we've been there.' Lol.
Kingston seems to be a popular choice so might investigate there as a likely stopover and also have a search around the Stockbridge etc.
That's given me something to do on my day off, thanks again.

Hi ozgirl,

I'd second BAK's advice. If your decide not to take in Ottawa, you might also consider doing the Loyalist Parkway from Kingston to Trenton.

http://pec.on.ca/lpa/

Not the fastest route but certainly scenic. This'll have the side benefit of taking you through Prince Edward County and the VQA wineries to the west of the Glenora Ferry.

http://www.winesofontario.org/Prince...-and-Rice-Lake

Also, between Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls, there's the Niagara Parkway which is another beautiful drive with a number of wineries large (Peller and Inniskillin) and small (Lailey, Reif, Riverview, etc) right along the route. You get a better sense of the sudden change in geography that is the Niagara Escarpment and it also takes you through Queenston and by Brock's Monument if you're of a historic bent

HTH
U

Thanks Utour, I am going to start looking up those wineries right now! My son is currently doing vintage here in Oz and is working with a young man from the Niagara region so I think I'll have to have him round for dinner and pick his brains as well!

If you decide on Kingston, you may get to the area early enough to do a Boat Tour of the famous Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. There are tours out of Kingston, but it's situated on the lake and you have to take the longest tour to get as far as the Islands. However enroute to Kingston you can swing off the Highway 401 onto the scenic Thousand Islands Parkway and take a shorter tour out of Rockport or Gananaoque. Here is one of several websites to check out: http://www.1000islandsinfo.com/boat_tours.htm

I've done the drive from Quebec City to Toronto in one day a number of times and it is a rather long drive (sometimes made longer by traffic) but doable if necessary. However you'd arrive in Toronto late afternoon at the earliest and possibly too tired to do much sightseeing. Still, being in Toronto would allow you to take your time driving to Niagara Falls the next day, visit some of the wineries mentioned, and have lunch either in a winery or in the historic town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Go to http://winesofontario.org/ and click on the 2 links for Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Escarpment and Area.

Mat and Utour, love that winesofontario website - will spending a while checking that out I think!

Pleasure, ozgirl. It's a great resource and there's an embarrassment of riches for you to choose from along your route. Of course, you'll just have to do another trip to Canada so you can sample the Lake Erie wineries and complete the oenophile's trifecta! :)