Quebec City: Photo Spots
Quebec City’s Best Photo Spots
Old Quebec is compact enough that most of its best photo spots sit within a 15-minute walk of each other, which means a single morning covers nearly everything on this list.
Dufferin Terrace and Chateau Frontenac
The 425-meter wooden boardwalk in front of the Chateau Frontenac is the classic shot: the hotel’s copper roof and towers against the St. Lawrence, six gazebos along the way for a different angle each time. Early morning avoids both the crowds and the harshest midday light on the hotel’s pale stone.
The Breakneck Stairs
The oldest stairway in the city, connecting Upper Town near Cote de la Montagne down to Rue du Petit-Champlain, gives a foreshortened view down into Lower Town’s rooftops that the funicular’s glass car can’t replicate. Go early; it narrows fast once Petit-Champlain’s shops open.
Place Royale
The square where Samuel de Champlain built his first settlement in 1608 is small, cobblestoned, and ringed by 17th- and 18th-century stone houses, with the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church anchoring one end. Late afternoon light angles nicely across the stone facades.
Quartier Petit-Champlain
Billed as the oldest commercial district in North America, the narrow street works for both wide shots of the colorful row houses and close-in street photography once the cruise crowds arrive by mid-morning. For a fuller day-trip plan that pairs Old Quebec with the falls below, see Quebec City’s Best Day Trips .
Montmorency Falls
Fifteen minutes from downtown, the 83-meter falls, taller than Niagara, photograph well from the free boardwalk at the top or from the base of the 487-step staircase, where the spray catches the light differently depending on the hour.
The Governors’ Promenade
Past the far end of Dufferin Terrace, this quieter stretch runs along the Citadelle toward the Plains of Abraham and offers the same river view as the Terrace with a fraction of the foot traffic in frame.
The city walls at Porte Saint-Louis
Old Quebec’s ramparts, part of the only fortified city wall system north of Mexico still standing, photograph best from just outside Porte Saint-Louis, where the gate and a stretch of wall sit together in one frame.