Hello Fodorites!
I need some help on our late summer / early fall trip to Quebec. Looking at spending two months. Tentatively 2 weeks in Montreal, one week countryside between Montreal and Quebec City. Wife is exploring her roots via Ancestor.com info. Then at least two weeks in QC and then on to the Gaspé Peninsula.

Tentative time frame is August 15th - Oct 15th. Is the drop off charge for renting a car in Montreal dropping off in Quebec a lot? Would anyone recommend going right to the Gaspé Peninsula from Montreal after countryside. I’m how much difference there will be in the weather out on the Peninsula. Has anyone taken the ferry at Les Escoumins?

I’ve read many forums that say you only need X amount of days in either Montreal and QC, but we want get into a neighborhood and stay for awhile, feel the place. I’m sure I’ll have more questions but I welcome any and all suggestions!

I'm with you on QC... the difference in immersion between Montreal and QC is striking.

I could handle a couple of weeks in QC... I remember walking out of a restaurant (internet cafe) late in the evening when I went, and it was 7 degrees Farenheit... but even then it was a place I felt I could see again.

You raise a fair concern about the weather... and sadly I don't know the answers.

Brief Googling brought me to this:

https://www.tripsavvy.com/montreal-a...-guide-1481877


And as I am a weather lightweight, I think that would cause ME to start (your) trip with the Gaspe, and then come BACK...

(even if August weather in Gaspe is warm-ISH... you won't be around trillions of people, AND tiz only sightseeing and viewing (at your implied slow pace) that is on the schedule)

When September rolls around, then you'll be heading back down the St. Lawrence and toward the population bases.

Have you ever been to Nova Scotia??? That would certainly fill-up several days of your comfortable time allowance, and it, too, is more scenery and viewing from the car than battling with lots of other tourists in sweaty city environs.

No doubt October could get a tad chilly in any of the spots, but the way things have been in recent times, I'd lean toward ("most likely not" ).

But you have a luxury that most here don't have... and that is time... so maybe go east first, and then come back.

Thanks for the input, NM! One concern was the weather and the other was renting a car twice. Tripsavvy has a pretty nice road trip heading east out of Montreal to the Eastern Townships and then heading north toward QC. As it turns out many of the places my wife wants to check out are between Montreal and QC. Tripsavvy has you going on the north side of the St Lawrence to the fiord before crossing to the Peninsula, which I hadn’t thought about until I read their trip suggestion. As of now I’m leaning toward passing through Quebec City, doing Gaspé and then come back. If I’m going to be cold, I would rather be in a city with nice little cafes then out on the coast!