Orientation

Almost all of a visit to Québec City can be spent on foot in the old Lower Town -- which hugs the river below the bluff -- and in the old Upper Town -- atop the Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond) -- because many accommodations, restaurants, and tourist-oriented services are based there. The colonial city was first built right down by the St. Lawrence; it was here that the earliest merchants, traders, and boatmen earned their livelihoods. Unfriendly fire from the British and Amerindians in the 1700s moved residents to safer houses atop the cliffs that form the rim of the Cap.

Basse-Ville (Lower Town) became primarily a district of wharves and warehouses. That trend has been reversed, with new auberges (inns) and small hotels and many attractive bistros and shops bringing new life to the area. The area maintains the architectural feel of its origins, with narrow cobbled streets.

Haute-Ville (Upper Town) turned out to not be immune to cannon fire either, as the British General James Wolfe was to prove in 1759 when he took the city from the French. Nevertheless, the division into Upper and Lower Towns persisted for obvious topographical reasons. The Upper Town remains enclosed by fortification walls, with a cliff-side elevator (funiculaire) and several steep streets connecting it to Lower Town.

Visitor Information

The Greater Québec Area Tourism and Convention Bureau operates two useful provincial information centers in and near the city. The most convenient is in the Discovery Pavilion at 835 av. Wilfrid-Laurier (tel. 877/783-1608 or 418/641-6290), near La Citadelle, just outside the walls of the old city. There's another in suburban Ste-Foy, at 3300 av. des Hôtels (tel. 877/783-1608 or 418/641-6290). They have rack after rack of brochures and attendants who can answer questions and make hotel reservations. Both offices are open daily 8:30am to 7:30pm from June 24 to Labour Day; 8:30am to 6:30pm Labour Day to mid-October; the rest of the year 9am to 5pm Monday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm Sunday. The website for the bureau is www.quebecregion.com.

The Québec Government's tourism department operates a Centre Infotouriste de Québec on Place d'Armes, across from the Château Frontenac, at 12 rue Ste-Anne (tel. 877/266-5687; www.bonjourquebec.com). It's open from 8:30am to 7:30pm daily from June 21 to early September, and from 9am to 5pm the rest of the year. The office has brochures, information about cruise and bus tour operators, a 24-hour ATM (guichet automatique), a currency-exchange office, and a free lodging reservation service. Also in front of the Château is the independent Kiosque Frontenac (tel. 418/692-5483), which sells walking, bus, and boat tours and does currency exchange. It's open daily from 9am until 8 or 9pm in summer.

From early June to Labour Day, student staff of the tourist office pilot motor scooters through the tourist districts of the Upper and Lower Towns, making themselves available for questions. (They are also in force on foot during the Winter Carnival season.) In French, they're called the service mobile, and their blue mopeds bear flags with a large "?". Just hail them as they approach; they're bilingual.

City Layout

Main Avenues & Streets -- Within the walls of the Haute-Ville (Upper Town), the principal streets are rues St-Louis (which becomes the Grande-Allée outside the city walls), Ste-Anne, and St-Jean, and the pedestrians-only Terrasse Dufferin, which overlooks the river in front of the Château Frontenac. In the Basse-Ville (Lower Town), major streets are St-Pierre, Dalhousie, St-Paul, and, parallel to St-Paul, St-André. There are good maps of the Upper and Lower Towns and the metropolitan area available at any tourist office.

Finding an Address -- If it were larger, the historic district, with its winding and plunging streets, might be confusing to negotiate. However, it's very compact, so most visitors have little difficulty finding their way around. Most streets are only a few blocks long, making it is fairly easy to find a specific address.