1000 Islands, Montreal, Quebec Road Trip w/Kids
 

Hello,
We are considering taking our first road trip with the kids (8 and 4 yo) this April to Montreal and Quebec w/stop over at the 1000 Islands, heading out of NYC... We'll have 10 days all together
I am looking for recommendations on how to best split the days between Montreal and Quebec (the 1000 Islands will be 1 or 2 nights tops). Also, which attractions are a must with the kids?
Thank you!

April can be a tricky month in this part of the world. Early April can still be quite wintery, and may limit your outdoor activities. Late April can be fairly pleasant, but still cool.
With 8 days, you may want to do 5 in Montreal and 3 in Quebec City (which is much smaller). Realize that some outdoor things may still be closed, but in Montreal you can visit the Biodome, possibly do a boat ride, rent a family pedal cart at the old port, and visit the Imax theater.If the weather is nice, the street entertainers may be out in Old Montreal and on Prince Arthur Street. About 40 minutes east of Montreal is the Granby Zoo.
In Quebec City, you can watch the changing of the guard, ride the ferry, visit the Museum of Civilization (very interesting for children) and ride out to Montmorency Falls.

Quebec City should thrill kids as a Disney animated picture of ye olde Europe sprung to life, complete with stone walls and a fairy-tale castle, actually the Chateau Frontenac Hotel. Sadly for your kids, the Citadel guards ceremony doesn't start until late in June. But they might like the museum tour of the Citadel, still the working home of the Royal 22nd Regiment, beloved as les Vandoos. http://www.lacitadelle.qc.ca/en/la-c...formation.html
They can gawk at the horses labouring to pull buggy-loads of tourists through hilly streets. The ferry is fun although there's nothing for kids on the south shore of the river (or for adults either, except for a brewpub near the dock). And there is a neat, though brief, elevator from the old city to the old port. The entrance is on the boardwalk in front of the Frontenac, looking like a souvenir shop.
Children, by the way, are permitted in pubs although some managements prefer only adults later in the eveng.

"evening", sorry.

Definitely go to the Biodome in Montreal. Nothing could be nicer on a chilly
April day than a little bit of rainforest. (See if you can spot the sloths.)

I highly recommend the Biosphere (different from the Biodome), a museum of the environment
http://www.ec.gc.ca/biosphere/
Your kids would probably also enjoy the science museum in Monteal

Walking the walls in old Quebec and the Plains of Abraham are fun if the weather cooperates.

I would spend more time in Montreal than in Quebec.