Limo service in Quebec City

The walled city

Quebec City is the only walled city north of Mexico and its chauffeur bookings are shaped by the walls: the Old City's streets are narrow, cobbled, one-way and partly pedestrian, a sedan may stop where a Sprinter cannot, and a chauffeur who knows which gate is open on which day - and speaks the language the city speaks - is the difference between arriving at the Château Frontenac and circling it. Beyond the walls the city books chauffeurs for the reasons a capital and a resort town do: the National Assembly's calendar, the university and the hospitals, the cruise ships at the Old Port from May to October, the winter carnival in February, the Festival d'été in July, and the drives to Montmorency, the Île d'Orléans and Charlevoix. We run the full service across Quebec City, Lévis, Sainte-Foy and the Côte-de-Beaupré with bilingual chauffeurs as standard: the YQB transfers, the corporate account, the hourly chauffeur, the cruise runs and the weddings.

Jean Lesage, and how the pickup works

Québec City Jean Lesage International is in Sainte-Foy, sixteen kilometres west of the Old City, twenty minutes off-peak on the 540 and the 40 or the boulevard Laurier, thirty-five in the evening rush. It is a single terminal, rebuilt and expanded, with the Montreal, Toronto, Paris and sun flights, a short walk from any carousel to the curb. The pre-arranged limousine pickup is at the arrivals level, signed separately from the taxi rank; the chauffeur texts the curb and the plate before landing - in French or English, as you prefer - meet and greet inside the hall is the add-on, and thirty minutes of waiting are included on a domestic arrival and sixty on an international one. The airport's site at aeroportdequebec.com publishes the layout; the Québec City airport page has the full guide.

Old Quebec, Sainte-Foy, Lévis and the neighbourhoods

The Upper Town inside the walls holds the Château Frontenac, the Dufferin Terrace, the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham; the Lower Town below the funicular holds the Petit-Champlain, the Place Royale and the Old Port with its cruise terminal and market; Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste outside the walls hold the restaurants and the newer city; Montcalm and Sillery the older houses; Sainte-Foy the university, the hospitals, the shopping and the airport; Lévis across the river by the ferry or the bridges. Beauport and the Côte-de-Beaupré east, Cap-Rouge west and the Île d'Orléans across its bridge price on the same engine, and the Quebec page covers the province beyond.

The Old City's rules

A pre-arranged car may enter the walls by the Saint-Louis and Kent gates and stop at the Château's forecourt and at a few hotel doors; in summer the Petit-Champlain and parts of the Rue Saint-Jean are pedestrian and the drop is on the boulevard with a short walk; in February the carnival closes the Grande Allée and the Plains; on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in June the whole city walks. The chauffeurs know the gates and the days, and a booking to an Old City address is confirmed with the nearest legal stop named. A stretch limousine fits the Château's forecourt for a wedding; a Sprinter or a coach drops on the Dufferin side.

The cruise terminal and the Old Port

From May to October - the autumn-colour season is the peak - the cruise 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 on the booking, or the hourly chauffeur for the ship's day in port, is the season's booking. The terminal's pre-arranged pickup is at its commercial curb; the Port of Québec publishes the schedule.

Montmorency, the Île d'Orléans, Charlevoix and the day out

Montmorency Falls - higher than Niagara - is fifteen minutes east; the Île d'Orléans's farms, cideries and strawberry stands across the bridge twenty; the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré basilica thirty; Mont-Sainte-Anne and Le Massif for the skiing forty-five and seventy-five; Baie-Saint-Paul and the Charlevoix's whale-watching at Tadoussac ninety minutes and three hours along the river's north shore, the province's most beautiful drive. The hourly chauffeur does the island and the falls in an afternoon; the city-to-city service prices Charlevoix, Montreal in two and a half hours and Ottawa in five as fixed fares with the return built in. The Quebec page covers the winter roads.

The carnival, the Festival d'été and the calendar

The Carnaval de Québec across the first two weeks of February - Bonhomme, the ice palace on the Plains, the night parades on the Grande Allée at minus twenty - is the winter's event and the city's most-closed fortnight; the Festival d'été on the Plains across eleven days in July fills every hotel; the Grands Feux fireworks over the river in August; the New France Festival in the Old City in August; Saint-Jean-Baptiste on June 24; the German Christmas market in December. Each closes streets and each has a pre-arranged pickup the chauffeurs know; the nights out page covers the approach, and Québec Cité's calendar the dates.

The National Assembly, Laval and the corporate account

The National Assembly's session, the ministries along the Grande Allée and in Sainte-Foy, the insurers and the financial companies headquartered in the city, Université Laval's campus in Sainte-Foy and the CHU de Québec's hospitals: the corporate accounts book the YQB transfer, the hourly chauffeur for the day between the Assembly and the ministries, and the Montreal corridor. The university's September move-in and its convocations, and the proms - the bal des finissants - of the region's schools in June are the family bookings. Bilingual as standard; one monthly invoice.

Videotron Centre, the Grand Théâtre and the venues

The Centre Vidéotron in Limoilou for the Remparts and the arena concerts, with the pre-arranged pickup at the arena's commercial curb; the Grand Théâtre on the Grande Allée for the symphony and the opera; the Palais Montcalm; the Centre des congrès de Québec beside the Assembly for the conferences; the Plains of Abraham for the summer's outdoor concerts. The sporting events and trade shows pages cover the arrangements.

Traffic, weather and the honest drive times

The 40 and the 440 across the north of the city, the boulevard Laurier and the Grande Allée into the walls, the two bridges to Lévis and the 20 on the south shore: the rush hours are shorter than Montreal's and the Old City's streets are the bottleneck at any hour in summer. The winter is the province's deepest: snow that stays from November to April, the winter-tyre law from December 1, and a carnival that celebrates minus twenty. Québec 511 is what dispatch reads. The honest figures: YQB to the Château in twenty minutes at 6 am and thirty-five at 5 pm; the Château to Montmorency in fifteen; to Montreal in two and a half hours.

Hotels and the drop-off

The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac above everything, the Auberge Saint-Antoine and the Hôtel Le Germain in the Lower Town, the Hilton and the Delta beside the Assembly, the Hôtel Clarendon inside the walls, the Manoir Victoria, the Hôtel Universel and the airport's hotels in Sainte-Foy for the 6 am flight, and the Manoir Richelieu in Charlevoix for the weekend: the chauffeurs know each forecourt and each gate, and the travel desk books the room.

What a limo costs in Quebec City

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. YQB to the Old City in an Executive Sedan is the most-booked transfer; Montreal and Charlevoix are corridor fares; the island-and-falls afternoon and the carnival evening are priced by the hour with a minimum. No surge on a carnival night, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Weddings at the Château and in the Old City

The Château Frontenac's ballroom, the Notre-Dame basilica, the chapels of the Old City, the Île d'Orléans's vineyards and the Charlevoix's inns: Quebec City's weddings are the province's destination weddings and the summer Saturdays book a year ahead; the stretch limousine at the Château's forecourt and the guests' coach on the Dufferin side are the wedding page's plan.

Two questions Quebec City visitors ask the desk

Can the car get to our hotel inside the walls? To the Château and most of the Upper Town's hotel doors, yes, by the Saint-Louis gate; to the Lower Town's boutique hotels the drop is on the boulevard with a two-minute walk, and the chauffeur carries the bags. 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-colour cruise season fills the Old Port's mornings, and the ship's schedule should be on the booking the week before.

A carnival arrival, worked through

A Friday 6 pm landing from Toronto on Air Canada in the first week of February, a couple for the carnival weekend, two cases. The Executive Sedan was booked in December with the flight number and the Château Frontenac as the drop-off; the aircraft is on time, the bags take fifteen minutes, and at 6:20 the couple is at Jean Lesage's pre-arranged curb in a car that has been warm since the descent began. The boulevard Laurier at 6:30 is slow with the carnival's arrivals; the Grande Allée is closed for the night parade, so the chauffeur enters by the Saint-Louis gate from the other side, which he knew he would, and the Château's forecourt is reached at 7:05. The fare is December's; the bilingual chauffeur has told them, in the language they answered in, where the parade is best watched. Sunday's return is the same reservation's second leg.

The Île d'Orléans and the Côte-de-Beaupré, in detail

The island across its bridge is six villages of farms, cideries, chocolatiers and strawberry stands on a sixty-kilometre loop, and an afternoon with an hourly chauffeur does the loop with the SUV taking the purchases; Montmorency Falls at the bridge's foot is the first stop and the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré basilica, the Canyon Sainte-Anne and Mont-Sainte-Anne's ski hill the east's. In autumn the island's colour is the province's most photographed and the Sunday traffic on the bridge is the chauffeur's business. The Quebec page covers the winter roads and Québec Cité's guide the island's farms.

The university, the hospitals and the Assembly's week

Université Laval's campus in Sainte-Foy - forty thousand students, the province's oldest university - brings the September move-in and the convocations through Jean Lesage, and its research hospitals and the CHU's sites bring the medical day; the National Assembly's session fills Monday's and Thursday's flights with members and the people who follow them. The corporate account profiles for the ministries, the insurers and the associations have the Hilton or the Château as the default drop, and the prom and graduation page covers the bal des finissants in June.

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