BIG and beautiful Canada, with some 90 per cent of its land being uninhabitable, is mostly empty. Stepping outdoors into such a vast wilderness could be scary but, when the wide open spaces allow for an outdoor spa in Québec Province, the largest of its kind anywhere in North America, concerns begin to be assuaged. As further surprises follow, the outdoor attractions of Québec Province begin to feel irresistible.
Access to and getting around in Québec Province is a breeze and the variety of outdoor activities suits all types of visitors, from seasoned outdoorsy ones to wimpish, non-skiing folk like myself who shun hyper-activity and lack elementary survival skills for coping with raw nature.
Captivating serenity of Auberge Du Lac Morency
A direct flight to Montreal and less than an hour’s driving nestles you in The Laurentians, gazing across a tranquil lake from the wooden verandah of Auberge du Lac Morency. The only disturbance to my new found-tranquillity came from woodpeckers in the grounds and one in particular, heard and then tracked to the door of a chalet where it was tapping insistently as if impatient to gain entry. In winter, there’s a skating rink surrounded by forest trees, lit up at night, plus skating and snowshoeing on the lake’s one-metre cladding of ice. Outside of winter months, plunging into the lake is a daredevil’s delight and there’s an indoor pool and spa twelve months of the year. Throw in the ready-to-hand chapel for marriages and most eventualities can be catered for.
Long walks with a man’s best friend, surrounded by the beautiful Canadian nature
The Laurentians, named after a chain of mountains to the north of Montreal, is part of a province with more lakes than any other in Canada, and activity centres like Aventures Plein Air handle fun things to do outdoors whatever the season: canicross with huskies in the woods, dog sledding, watersports, snowshoeing and snowmobiling.
Dog sledding through Canadian snowey woods
Small towns, like Saint-Sauveur, have a small number of bijou boutiques, numerous restaurants and invariably a good coffee shop but holidaying in the Laurentians is generally an antidote to compulsive buying: the focus is on getting outdoors. A ski resort in winter, the larger town of Mont Tremblant provides a good base for activities throughout the year. It boasts a Fairmont Hotel which looks unprepossessing from the outside but its spacious lobby with a log fire, a convivial bar area, spa and pool all combine to make it one of the best of the many five-star hotels in Mont Tremblant.
Taking it easy in Tremblant National Park
It only takes thirty minutes to reach Mont Tremblant National Park and settle into a kayak, with or without a naturalist guide, for a meandering ride on the Rivière du Diable. Calling it the Devil’s River is misleading – missionaries changed the name given it by First Nations people to Christianize their spiritual beliefs – for there are no raging currents or the like. Instead, you gently zigzag down a calm river through virgin forests of fir and spruce. Impressively large beaver dams are to be seen, only blue jays and woodpeckers break the silence and vultures glide overhead. Sightings from the river of via ferrata climbers, looking perilously posed on the bare rock face high above, are there to tempt you into more adventurous undertakings.
Québec Province seems most of the time to be a vast forest interspersed with small pockets of human settlement. If it’s true that about 500 trees will absorb the carbon dioxide produced by a car driven for a year, driving the not-huge distance from Mont Tremblant to the region of Outaouais is no guilt trip. Heading south, the journey takes less than two hours and brings you very close to Ottawa. This makes the national capital a convenient city for flights home instead of returning north to Montreal.
The grand lobby of Fairmont Le Château Montebello
The two-hour journey can be interrupted half way with a visit to Fairmont Le Château Montebello, another reminder of the super abundance of trees in Canada. A stupendous timber structure, it was constructed in the 1930s as a private club but is now a hotel open to all. Its claims to be the largest log cabin the world, built from 10,000 red cedar logs which laid end-to-end would stretch for 40 miles, feels justified after stepping through the entrance. You feel dwarfed by the vast space of its three-storey lobby, dominated by a hexagonal stone fireplace ascending to the rafters above. The grounds of the hotel have more hiking trails than you could ever complete plus myriad activities and, best of all, creature comforts to relax the body and mind. The heated, 75-ft indoor pool is another architectural delight – like no other hotel pool you’ll see – and there’s a superb restaurant and bar.
A walk in the park at Gatineau Park
The attractions of Outaouais are epitomized by the 138 square miles of nature that make up the conservation and outdoor recreation area of Gatineau Park. The twin cities of Gatineau and Ottawa, divided only by a river, are only fifteen minutes away and yet the Park has hiking and biking trails galore, canoes to hire on some of its fifty lakes and as many species of trees and of mammals. A Black bear (not to be confused with the Grizzly bear which is not in the Park) is unlikely to be seen as it avoids humans and especially places like the popular Pink Lake. This oddly named meromictic lake – composed of layers of water that do not mix – is actually green in colour and the encompassing walking trail follows the Goldilocks principle by taking just the right amount of time to complete, about 40 minutes.
At the northern tip of Gatineau Park, bucolic vibes can be enjoyed by spending a night at Wakefield Mill – built in 1838 and now a charming boutique hotel – and enjoying breakfast with views of a fast-flowing river and waterfall. And, between Wakefield village and downtown Gatineau and Ottawa, what will draw you in like a black bear to a salt lick is the aforementioned largest spa in North America: Nordic – Spa Nature. Besides offering an outstanding spa experience, it captures the spirit of Québec Province and what it offers discerning travellers: being outdoors, feeling healthy and enjoying nature at its most benign and life-giving.
by Sean Sheehan
For more information on Québec, visit Québec Original; for the Laurentians and Outaouais regions, Laurentians and Tourisme Outaouais. Air Canada and other airlines fly to Montreal and Ottawa from London