A Journey Through French Canada and the Maritimes

Discover Montréal on your own today. Begin at the Jean-Talon Market, the largest open-air market in North America, where the stalls in summer run deep with Québec strawberries, heritage tomatoes, and wheels of local cheese that carry the grassy richness of the province's dairy farms. In the afternoon, walk north into Mile End, a neighborhood of spiral staircases and duplexes painted in faded pastels. Here, wood-fired bagel bakeries operate around the clock and the smell of sesame and char drifts out onto the street at any hour. The bagels are smaller, denser, and sweeter than the New York version, and eating one warm from the oven on Saint-Viateur Street is why the neighborhood has become a pilgrimage for food lovers.

Venture out with your private guide on a walking tour of the city. Start at the Vieux-Port district in the morning, before the tourist traffic arrives. The cobblestones and 18th-century stone buildings along the waterfront face the broad grey sweep of the St. Lawrence. The river is wide enough to lose sight of the far shore on a hazy morning. Let your guide unfold tales of old as your eyes focus on the interior of the Notre-Dame Basilica, its deep blue and gold nave lit from above, with intricate hand-carved woodwork. At your pace this evening, discover Montréal's restaurant culture with long prix-fixe meals that run past midnight in the city's bistros and Québec's terroir arrives on the plate. Enjoy strong aged cheeses, rich heritage pork, and freshly foraged ingredients that the kitchen treats with a reverence borrowed from Paris and improved upon.

Your private driver will drop you off at the station in time for the Via Rail train from Montréal, which delivers you into the heart of Québec  City in under three hours, the St. Lawrence widening visibly from the window as you travel east. Québec is the only walled city north of Mexico, its ramparts opening a window to dramatic cliffs that divide the city into Upper and Lower Town, the river spreading vast and silver below, and the Château Frontenac rising in copper-roofed grandeur above everything. After a private transfer to your hotel, take some time to visit the Petit-Champlain district in the Lower Town, where the narrow lanes of the oldest commercial street in North America carry the smell of fresh crêpes and wood smoke, with artisan shops pressed close together in stone buildings that have stood since the 1600s. In the evening, savor rich and tender Québec duck along the Upper Town's rue Saint-Jean and sip crisp ice cider before retiring for the night.

On a private tour, discover the Plains of Abraham, now a broad and peaceful park above the river, where the 15-minute battle of 1759 between British and French forces decided the fate of a continent. Visit the Musée des Plaines d'Abraham, embracing the quiet, dimly lit space and a haunting atmosphere that pays tribute to the battle. In the afternoon, take the funicular down the cliff face to the Lower Town and spend the remaining hours at the water's edge, watching as heavy ocean-going vessels navigate the expansive river with gentle ease. With a bowl of Québec’s most exported comfort food, poutine, savor textures and flavors of crisp fries, squeaky cheese curds, and rich, dark gravy.

Your driver will transfer you to the Québec City Airport, in time for your flight to Charlottetown, birthplace of the Canadian Confederation and the capital of Prince Edward Island. Immediately, your eyes fix on an intimate landscape that’s small, green, and intensely rural. The red-clay soil is visible at every road cut and shoreline, the fields running down to water that turns blue-green and clear in the afternoon light. After your private transfer to your hotel, your afternoon is open to discovery as you amble through a town of Georgian buildings and compact tree-lined streets. The harbor front is where to spend the evening, with baskets of fresh lobster caught that morning and prepared to perfection. Enjoy them steamed and whole, the meat sweet and briny, served with drawn butter, and the boats that delivered your meal visible from your table.

Meet your private driver-guide after breakfast and head east along the island's north shore, where the red-clay cliffs drop straight into turquoise, shallow water, creating a contrast between the rust-red earth and the cold Atlantic light. Take narrow roads through small villages and stop at a working fishing community along the way, where stacked lobster traps resemble a modern-art installation. The island's farm stands sell ripe strawberries, golden-brown potatoes, and fresh-baked goods from the same families who have been working this land for generations. Enjoy lunch from a roadside stand, eaten in the car with the windows down and the sea just visible between the fields. Then return to your hotel for an afternoon at leisure.

A ferry transfer today connects you to Nova Scotia as your journey continues to Halifax. The city announces itself through its harbor. The waterfront boardwalk runs the length of downtown, with the working port always present to one side. This afternoon, step into the past with your entrance tickets to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Take your time as you explore the most complete collection of Titanic artifacts outside of Belfast, recovered by the Halifax ships sent to the site in 1912. Uncover the story of the Halifax Explosion of 1917 through an exhibition that recounts the largest man-made explosion before the atomic age, one that leveled the city's north end and reshaped everything that followed.

Enjoy your morning at leisure with a walk in the Halifax Public Gardens, the oldest formal Victorian gardens in North America. Wind along gravel paths set between formal flower beds as cast-iron fountains catch the morning light, the city noise held just outside the iron fence. Walk north afterward through the city's residential streets, where the wooden clapboard houses in deep reds and blues carry the particular character of a Maritime city shaped by cold winters. Save the afternoon for a long, unhurried lunch at one of the restaurants in the north end that takes Nova Scotia's seafood and farmland produce as seriously as any kitchen in Montréal. Dive into a bowl of thick, creamy chowder or enjoy plump, buttery scallops with warm, soft bread.

Your journey ends in Halifax this morning. Before your driver arrives, take a last walk down to the harbor, the salt air sharp and cool, the water grey-green and restless, and the working port already busy. Your driver will collect you for the transfer to Halifax Stanfield International Airport, where your flight home departs with the Maritime coast still visible from the window, the sea holding its color long after the land has disappeared.