Montreal & Quebec City - June/July
 

My DH and I are planning to visit Montreal and Quebec City this summer while DD is off on her own month long travels. While we enjoy cities, I'm not sure visiting either during the Jazz Fest or FEQ makes sense for us... lots of extra people and I would expect hotels are harder to come by and/or more expensive and restaurants will be packed. Thoughts?

We are thinking of splitting the time equally between each city but not sure best way to get from one to the other... train? Rent a car? Although I can't imagine it makes any sense to have a car in either city.

Any favorite hotels, inns or B&Bs - Frontenac is a bit pricey for us! Probably looking in the $200-300 CAD/night range. Would prefer somewhere in the heart of town where we can easily walk to restaurants, etc.

When we tried to plan this trip, it was easier to book a tour that included bus,train, hotel, some meals, and city tours... there are several companies and I can't recall which we used... but we went from Toronto Via rail to Montreal and bus to and from Quebec City... hotels were available in three categories and we chose mid price... sorry I can't be more specific...

Easy enough to book the train between QC and Montreal on the Via Rail website. I found a guidebook perfectly adequate, no need for a guide. I preferred Montreal, I found QC overly touristy. You might consider Ottawa as well. It's often overlooked but I enjoyed a couple of days there - also by train.

I've stayed here twice in Montreal:

http://www.aubergelejardindantoine.com/index_en.php

Not in the center of the historic district, but plenty of options for eating and handy metro stops. You may want something more expensive but I can recommend the area.

For Ottawa see https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...9/okay-ottawa/

In Montreal, getting a room in the downtown will be more difficult during the jazz fest. However, Montreal is a huge city, so once you get into other neighborhoods you should be fine. Try some of the hotels and b&b's on the Plateau like the Auberge de La Fontaine. The plateau is in my opinion the nicest area of the city to stay. Just FYI, the jazz fest is fabulous, with lots of free outdoor performances. Quebec city is much smaller, so you may have more trouble finding something during a large event. We stayed at the b&b James Thompson many years ago and enjoyed it - great location.

Auberge de la Fontaine is another nice B & B in the Plateau neighborhood of Montreal.
In Quebec City we liked Hotel Marie-Rollet in the Upper Town.

You don't say how long the total trip would be so it is hard to say whether splitting the time evenly makes sense. Montreal is the bigger city so I would tend to give it more time.

This is reminding me I have to look for a place to stay in Quebec City while the tall ships are there. I hope I am not too late.

I was able to book a hotel in Quebec City for 3 nights July 17-20 but many are already full. The tall ships will be there July 18 to 23.
We are going to stay at Le Chateau de Pierre in the upper city. It gets good reviews and is within your price range.