Québec City YQB (YQB) limo and car service

The walled city's airport

Québec City Jean Lesage International in Sainte-Foy is sixteen kilometres west of the walls of Old Quebec, twenty minutes off-peak, and its ground transportation is organised around a single, recently expanded terminal: a taxi rank with a flat rate to the city, ride-app zones, a city bus, no rail link, and the pre-arranged commercial curb where a chauffeur booked in advance waits with your name on a phone, a fixed fare on the confirmation and both official languages - and who knows which gate into the Old City is open on which day. This page is about that last option - where it is, how it works, what it costs to the addresses people book most, and when the taxi is the better choice. The airport transfers page covers the service in general; the Quebec City page covers the city.

The terminal, and how the pickup works

YQB is a single terminal with the domestic and international gates on one concourse: the CBSA hall for the international arrivals - Paris, the sun destinations, the seasonal European flights - with kiosks and officers, then the international carousels; the domestic carousels for the Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa flights and the US arrivals; and one arrivals level with a short walk from any carousel to the doors. The pre-arranged limousine and car-service curb is on the arrivals level outside, signed separately from the taxi rank and the ride-app zone; the chauffeur's text - in French or English, as you booked - names the door and the curb. With meet and greet added, the chauffeur is inside the hall with a name board. Sixty minutes of waiting are included from landing on an international arrival, thirty on a domestic or US one. The airport publishes the layout at aeroportdequebec.com.

Departures

The chauffeur is at your door at the time the engine suggests: three hours for international, two for domestic and US, plus the twenty-minute drive at that hour on the boulevard Laurier or the 40, plus a margin for the carnival's closures in February or a snowstorm on the 40. The drop is at the departures curb by the airline's check-in. From an Old City hotel the chauffeur enters by the gate the day allows and the pickup is at the hotel's door or the nearest legal stop, named on the confirmation.

Fixed fares from YQB: the destinations people book most

Figures are approximate; the engine prices the exact address. There are no road tolls on these routes.

The Old City, from the airport

A booking to an address inside the walls is confirmed with the gate and the stop: the Château's forecourt and most Upper Town hotel doors are reached by the Saint-Louis gate; the Lower Town's boutique hotels on the pedestrian streets are dropped on the boulevard with a two-minute walk and the chauffeur carrying the bags; in February the carnival's closures on the Grande Allée change the approach and the chauffeur knows it; on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day the whole city walks. A stretch limousine fits the Château's forecourt; a Sprinter or a coach drops on the Dufferin side.

The vehicle for YQB

The luggage decides it: an Executive Sedan takes three passengers with two large cases and two carry-ons; a family from Paris with four cases or the skis for Mont-Sainte-Anne needs the Luxury SUV; a conference delegation for the Centre des congrès is cheaper per seat in an Executive Sprinter. Winter tyres are the law from December 1 to March 15 and every vehicle runs them. The fleet page has the capacities.

YQB's other options, honestly

The taxi rank offers a flat rate to the city set by the municipality, a fair product with a queue on the carnival's arrival evenings and no flight tracking. The city bus runs to Sainte-Foy and downtown on a schedule and is the cheap option for a single traveller with a carry-on and time. The ride-app zone is on the airport with the fare estimated and subject to surge on the festival waves. There is no rail link. The pre-arranged chauffeur is the option for the group, the luggage, the Old City's gates, Lévis, the ski hills, Charlevoix, the fixed time and the company account; the comparison page sets them side by side.

Meet and greet at YQB

Curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area is included. Meet and greet - the chauffeur inside the hall with a bilingual name board - is the add-on, and at YQB it is the right choice for a first arrival from Paris, an elderly parent, an unaccompanied minor, a client the company is hosting, or a cruise passenger joining a ship at the Old Port the next morning.

The cruise terminal and the autumn ships

From May to October - the autumn-colour season is the peak - the ships dock at the Old Port's terminal at the foot of the Lower Town, and the transfer between YQB and the pier with the ship's schedule and the flight number on the booking is the season's run; the Port of Québec publishes the schedule and the autumn turnarounds are booked a month ahead.

The ski hills, the island and Charlevoix

Mont-Sainte-Anne is fifty minutes east on the 138 and Le Massif seventy-five, and the airport-to-hill transfer in a Luxury SUV with the skis in the back is the winter's booking; Montmorency Falls and the Île d'Orléans are thirty minutes and the hourly chauffeur's afternoon; Baie-Saint-Paul and the Charlevoix's inns ninety minutes and Tadoussac's whales three hours along the river's north shore, the province's most beautiful drive. All are city-to-city fixed fares with the return built in, and Québec 511 is what dispatch reads for the 138 in winter.

The carnival, the Festival d'été and the busy weeks

The Carnaval de Québec's first two weeks of February and the Festival d'été's eleven days in July fill the airport's waves and every hotel and car in the city; the carnival's night parades close the Grande Allée and the chauffeur's approach to the Old City changes, which is known and planned. The Quebec City page has the calendar and the nights out page the approach.

Delays, diversions and the winter

The flight number is watched from departure. Quebec City's winter is the province's deepest - snow from November to April, a January at minus twenty-five, a storm that closes the 40 for an afternoon - and a diversion to Montreal brings a call from dispatch and a chauffeur at Trudeau where the 20 allows. The engine's suggested pickup for a winter departure adds the margin, and the car is warm at the curb.

Airport hotels and the early flight

The hotels in Sainte-Foy five minutes from the terminal - along the boulevard Laurier and at the airport's exit - are the answer to the 6 am Montreal flight and the midnight arrival; the travel desk books the room. For the family that would rather sleep in the Old City, the twenty-minute transfer at 4:30 am is a certain booking and the car is warm.

Corporate accounts at YQB

The National Assembly's session, the ministries along the Grande Allée and in Sainte-Foy, the insurers and financial companies headquartered in the city, Université Laval and the CHU's hospitals set the account's profiles with the Hilton, the Château or a ministry as the default drop, the language preference on the traveller's profile, meet and greet for guests and one monthly invoice in either language. The corporate page covers the setup.

Two things YQB passengers ask the desk most

Can the chauffeur get us inside the walls? To the Château's forecourt and the Upper Town's hotel doors, yes; to the Lower Town's pedestrian streets, to the boulevard with a two-minute walk and the bags carried. Is the carnival worth a chauffeur? At minus twenty on a parade night with the Grande Allée closed and the taxis gone, it is the only warm car that will be there. A third, asked every September: the autumn cruise turnarounds at the Old Port sell the airport's morning cars a month ahead.

A Mont-Sainte-Anne ski transfer, worked through

A Saturday 11 am landing from Toronto on Air Canada in January, a family of four with skis, bound for a Mont-Sainte-Anne condo. The Luxury SUV was booked in November with the flight number and a booster seat noted; the aircraft is fifteen minutes late and the chauffeur's schedule moves with it. The domestic and ski bags take twenty-five minutes; at 11:40 the family is at YQB's pre-arranged curb, the skis are in the back, and the SUV is on the 40 east and the 138 by noon; the condo's road at Beaupré is reached at 12:50, one fixed fare, the return on the following Saturday on the same reservation. The chauffeur greeted the children in French and the parents in English, which is what bilingual as standard means; Québec 511 showed the 138 clear that morning and dispatch checked it again at 11.

Lévis and the south shore

Lévis across the river is reached by the Pierre-Laporte and the Québec bridges from Sainte-Foy, twenty-five minutes from the terminal, or by the ferry from the Old Port in summer; the south shore's addresses price by the distance, and the Chaudière-Appalaches beyond - Saint-Georges, Thetford Mines, the Beauce's factories - are corporate account fixed fares with the chauffeur waiting. The bridges back up at 5 pm and the chauffeur's choice between them is made on the live feed.

The Assembly's calendar

When the National Assembly sits, Monday's and Thursday's Montreal and Ottawa flights carry members, staff and the people who follow them, and the corporate account's YQB transfer with the Hilton beside the Assembly or the Château as the default drop is the capital's most-booked booking; the hourly chauffeur for the day between the Assembly and the ministries along the Grande Allée and in Sainte-Foy is the follow-on, and the invoice is issued in the language the account chose.

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