Montreal + Beyond: 4 Day Quebec Trip
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Four days keeps our 3-day itinerary (city core plus Quebec City) and adds Ottawa, a genuinely comfortable day trip at about two hours by VIA Rail. Two national capitals, sort of, one Canadian, one the historic French one, in a single trip.
Day-by-day at a glance
| Day | Focus | Est. spend (excl. hotel/travel) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old Montreal, Notre-Dame Basilica, downtown | ~$55-85 |
| 2 | Mount Royal, food crawl, RÉSO | ~$45-75 |
| 3 | Quebec City day trip | ~$60-100 |
| 4 | Ottawa day trip | ~$55-90 |
Book these before you go
- VIA Rail to Quebec City and Ottawa : both routes run from Gare Centrale, book the earliest departures.
- Notre-Dame Basilica ticket .
Day 1: The Montreal core, fast
Morning: Old Montreal, free to wander, then Notre-Dame Basilica (about $16 daytime).
Afternoon: Downtown, the RÉSO underground city and Sainte-Catherine Street.
Evening: Dinner, budget the 14.975% sales tax and 18-20% tip; Schwartz’s Deli for smoked meat.
Day 2: Mount Royal and a food crawl
Morning: Mount Royal, Kondiaronk Belvedere, St Joseph’s Oratory nearby.
Afternoon: The Museum of Fine Arts (about $31, free for 25 and under).
Evening: Fairmount Bagel, St-Viateur Bagel, and La Banquise for poutine.
Day 3: Quebec City
Morning: VIA Rail from Gare Centrale or a drive, about three hours, to Old Québec, the UNESCO World Heritage Site Montreal itself is not.
Afternoon: The Château Frontenac and the walled old city, on foot.
Evening: The return trip, about three hours, an honest travel-heavy day with a real payoff in the middle.
Day 4: Ottawa
Morning: VIA Rail from Gare Centrale to Ottawa, about two hours, noticeably easier than the Quebec City run.
Afternoon: Parliament Hill and Canada’s capital museums, a full day trip that doesn’t feel as rushed as Quebec City’s.
Evening: Return to Montreal by rail, and a final dinner back in the city, this is the one day trip on the list you could genuinely repeat without exhausting yourself.
Is 4 days enough for Montreal, Quebec City, and Ottawa?
Four days works if you accept that two of them are mostly travel days, an honest trade for seeing both Quebec City and Ottawa alongside the Montreal core. Our 5-day itinerary adds the Eastern Townships as a true day trip, one that isn’t mostly transit time.