Québec/Ontario
Canadian Odyssey: Québec City to Toronto
Program No. 3734RJ
Discover the beauty and history of Eastern Canada’s great cities — Québec City and its Old Town, cosmopolitan Montréal, national capital Ottawa and Toronto, the largest city in Canada.
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Price will update based on selection
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DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Sep 30 - Oct 10, 2024
Starting at
4,149DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Sep 30 - Oct 10, 2024
Starting at
5,499Not seeing the date you're looking for?
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11 days
10 nights
23 meals
10B 8L 5D
1
Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Quebec City, Québec
2
Québec History, Walking in Old Québec, Ursuline Museum
Quebec City, Québec
3
Quebec's Evolution, Plains of Abraham, Musée des Beaux Arts
Quebec City, Québec
4
Transfer to Montréal, Pointe-a-Calliere, McCord Museum
Montréal, Québec
5
Organ Recital at Notre Dame, Explore Old Montréal
Montréal, Québec
6
Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa Highlights
Ottawa, Ontario
7
Ottawa Walking Exploration, Free Time
Ottawa, Ontario
8
Transfer to Kingston, Study Cruise, Walk Downtown Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
9
Transfer to Toronto, Old Town Toronto, Market
Toronto, Ontario
10
Discover Vibrant Toronto, Free Time
Toronto, Ontario
11
Program Concludes
Toronto, Ontario
At a Glance
Discover the grand beauty and historical significance of some of the great cities of Eastern Canada: Québec City, the last walled city in the Americas north of Mexico; Montréal, a cosmopolitan center of culture; Ottawa, the national capital; and Toronto, the largest city in Canada. Compare the distinctive architecture and mood of each city. Explore grand cathedrals, stroll cobblestone streets and visit world-class museums. And enjoy discussions with local experts on the history, culture and art of Canada.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to two miles per day; uneven surfaces, cobblestones; some hills and stairs encountered. Some standing in museums/historic sites.
What You'll Learn
- Visit the magnificent Notre Dame Basilica, a masterpiece of Gothic revival architecture.
- Discover upper and lower town in Old Québec, exploring fortifications that date from 1745.
- Journey from Ottawa's Parliament Hill to Old Town Toronto and the historic St. Lawrence Market.
General Notes
Select dates are designated for small groups and are limited to 24 participants or less.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Bruce Bell
Bruce Bell — journalist, author, playwright, actor, curator — brings an incredible passion and enthusiasm for the history of Toronto and its architecture. He has been the monthly history columnist for Canada’s largest community newspaper since 1999 and has also been appointed as historian for many famed Toronto sites. Bruce is the author of “Amazing Tales of St. Lawrence Neighbourhood” and “Toronto: A Pictorial Celebration.” His mission is to tell Toronto’s history through his writings and lectures, including his sold-out shows at Toronto’s famed Winter Garden Theatre.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Bruce Bell
View biography
Bruce Bell — journalist, author, playwright, actor, curator — brings an incredible passion and enthusiasm for the history of Toronto and its architecture. He has been the monthly history columnist for Canada’s largest community newspaper since 1999 and has also been appointed as historian for many famed Toronto sites. Bruce is the author of “Amazing Tales of St. Lawrence Neighbourhood” and “Toronto: A Pictorial Celebration.” His mission is to tell Toronto’s history through his writings and lectures, including his sold-out shows at Toronto’s famed Winter Garden Theatre.
Jason Kucherawy
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With his colleague Steve Woodall, Jason Kucherawy starting offering expert-led walking explorations of Toronto ten years ago, as an outgrowth of their previous experience together as leaders for educational organizations. Both men have extensive experience working with teenagers, students of English as a second language, and international travelers of all ages. Jason, Steve and the others they work with combine deep knowledge of the Toronto area with wit, energy, enthusiasm and their genuine enjoyment of meeting people from around the world.
David Jeanes
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David Jeanes is a retired professional engineer. He is vice-president of Heritage Ottawa, which is committed to the preservation of heritage architecture, and president of Transport 2000 Canada, which is devoted to sustainable public transportation. A native of Britain, David has lived in Ottawa much of his working life and spent 32 years in the high-tech industry on the design, standardization and marketing of global data-communication networks.
Patricia Brown
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Patricia Brown has traveled across Canada and the USA with numerous groups, allowing her to discover many wonderful places and meet equally wonderful people. Patricia is also bilingual in French and English which certainly makes navigating the province of Quebec easier! She studied Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, as well as Travel in Quebec. Currently, she’s made her home in Montreal with her partner and dog, where she indulges in her other passions, cooking and entertaining.
Clarisse Fréchette
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Clarisse Frechette’s family arrived in Québec back in 1677 as shipbuilders. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and worked as a research agent for Québec’s Department of Education before taking on the role of a field manager for Statistics Quebec. Becoming an educational interpreter was second nature for Clarisse, with her love of history and certainly her love of Québec! She has explored the old streets of Québec for over 20 years. It is always her pleasure to help people discover this area.
Marie Legroulx
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Marie is an eleventh-generation Quebecoise whose ancestors settled on the shores of the St. Lawrence River in the mid-17th century. She has a BA in history and an MA in Quebec literature from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Marie draws on both fields in her Road Scholar learning adventures as well as within her life more broadly. She taught French and Quebec literature for 25 years at the university level. Marie has been leading groups in Quebec City and the surrounding area since 2008.
Routes Adventures Mobile Phone
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Please call the toll free line at 1-866-745-1690 during regular business hours or for non-urgent matters (Mon - Fri 8:30 - 4:30 EST). The mobile phone #1-613-331-5777 is for after hours and weekends for emergency use only. The phone is carried by a staff member.
Thom Seivewright
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Thom Seivewright has been working as a local city expert in Montreal for over 6 years. He spends his days showing people around Montreal and connecting them with the city’s unique culture, history, architecture, and languages. His background is in communications, journalism, and hospitality, but sharing his passion for this cosmopolitan city is his favorite thing to do.
Suggested Reading List
(19 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Canadian Odyssey: Québec City to Toronto
Program Number: 3734
Arundel
The grand historical novel of Colonel Benedict Arnold's doomed march on Quebec in 1775, told through the eyes of a soldier in the Continental Army. Rich in historical detail.
Champlain's Dream
In this stunningly researched and engaging biography, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hackett Fischer weaves together the epic story of soldier and explorer Samuel de Champlain, a colonizer of North America who spent 30 years bringing his vision of a New France to life.
Canoe Lake
troubled American woman travels to a small Ontario town, determined to find the mother she has never known. As she searches through dusty records and stirs up old memories among those around her, three young people emerge from the mists of the past…a beautiful woman named Jenny, a shy local boy named Russell, and a dark-eyed painter named Tom, who changes the course of Jenny and Russell’s lives. Historical reality and conjecture are skillfully interwoven with intrigue and suspense as these three move unwittingly toward tragedy.
Ottawa: the Unknown City
A quirky and practical guide to the history and attractions of the Canadian capital. Ottawa may be our capital city but it's also a place of contradictions—the official version offers numerous, beneficent historic sites, institutions, museums, and galleries, but there are other stories to be told. In this latest edition of Arsenal's Unknown City series of alternative city guides for both locals and tourists, Ottawa comes alive as a diverse, quirky town that may look like a government city on the surface but boasts a small-town charm. The book charts a course through the city's hidden landmarks, shopping, dining, and nightlife hot spots, as well as secret histories that will come as a surprise even to life-long locals.
Lost Toronto
An intriguing portrait of the 19th- and early 20th-century city, Lost Toronto fills in the gaps of architectural history. Using almost 150 archival photographs, William Dendy identifies and discusses buildings destroyed or significantly defaced as the 20th century progressed. Not just an architectural history, Lost Toronto is a plea for more stringent regulations to preserve historic buildings. Lost Toronto and Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons, and History (1986) won Toronto book awards.
Toronto: A Pictorial Celebration
Bruce Bell's latest book on Toronto, including fantastic photography. A look at the top 100 sites in Toronto. Bruce is a noted historian, journalist, author, playwright, actor, and curator and is part of this program experience.
Shadows on the Rock
Set at the end of the 17th century in rural Quebec, this beautifully realized novel highlights the struggles of the Parisian widower Auclair and his young daughter to adapt to their new land.
The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760
A popular, groundbreaking academic history of New France in the colonial era.
Lullabies for Little Criminals
O'Neill's tragicomedy of coming of age in Montreal in the 1980s was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.
Wolfe at Quebec, The Man Who Won the French and Indian War
Hibbert brings the campaigns, life at Louisborg and dramatic capture of Quebec in 1759 to life in this tale of the neurotic, complex British general.
Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories
An in-depth look at Canada-Quebec relations through interviews with prominent Canadian figures.
Varieties of Exile
Wonderful stories set mostly in Gallant's native Montreal, a city starkly divided between working-class French Catholics and genteel English Protestants.
Quebec, 1759, The Siege and the Battle
Originally published in 1959, this definitive account of the fall of Quebec, a key battle in British dominance in North America, is revised by Donald Graves for this new edition.
Toronto: A Short Illustrated History of Its First 1,200 Years
The War That Made America, A Short History of the French and Indian War
Anderson (Crucible of War) illuminates relations between the Indians, French and British in 18th-century North America.
A Traveller's History of Canada
A readable and admirably concise march through Canadian history from prehistory to today, including a timeline.
Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been
Unbuilt Toronto explores never-realized building projects in and around Toronto, from the city's founding to the twenty-first century. Delving into unfulfilled and largely forgotten visions for grand public buildings, skyscrapers, highways, and subways, it outlines projects like St. Alban's Cathedral and the Queen subway line. Readers may lament the loss of some projects, be thankful for the disappearance of others, and marvel at the downtown that could have been. Featuring 147 images, Unbuilt Toronto casts a different light on a city you thought you knew.
Surfacing
One of Atwood's earliest novels, a suspenseful yarn where a young woman becomes entangled in affairs, mysteries and the haunting draw of nature as she searches for her missing father on an island off the coast of northern Quebec.
A People's History of Quebec
This swift overview of Quebec’s 450-year history by a leading historian covers everything from the earliest days of colonization to the province’s recent efforts to gain independence. Includes a helpful timeline.