I am slowly posting past trip reports at days when I am actually traveling myself. Presently in Charlotte, NC for a conference and trying desperately to keep up with it all! Please note the date on top of each trip report! I think some things have changed….a little lol.
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September 2 -5, 2011
We like to travel somewhere to say goodbye to the summer right before school starts. Since using Delta Skymiles for award tickets is notoriously difficult…we usually wait until the very last minute to book trips using miles..when, magically, Delta gives up efforts to sell these seats and opens up the award seats open wide! In 2010 we booked 4 tickets to Honolulu the day before we flew! This year we wanted to go somewhere where we can stay at a Fairmont hotel (more on that later). We tried Calgary but no go. So we then saw availability to Quebec wide open and bingo 100k miles and out of pocket cash cost of only about $35 dollars! Booked on Wednesday night we flew out on Friday to spend Labor Day weekend in Quebec City. Que magnifique:-)
It was weird flying internationally on a small CRJet plane out of the small terminal of Detroit. Walking through the tunnel is always a treat for the kids:-)
Took some time to relax in the Delta Skylounge of course:
Approaching Quebec. Lots of green and…surprisingly, LOTS of swimming pools!
Quebec’s airport is very nice. Small, very clean w/ large hallways…impressed.
Taxi rides to the city are a flat fee of $32.50 CAD. On the highway to the city:
Views from the taxi:
We got in to Quebec about 6 pm and we made it to our hotel around 7 pm. We decided to spend 35k Hilton Honor points and stay at the very nice Hilton just outside the walls of the Old City. As Hilton Gold, we got upgraded to a nice room with a nice view, access to the magnificent lounge on the 23rd floor, and 4 certs for breakfast the next morning!
This is the view from the Hilton lounge on the 23rd floor:
This is the view from our room, the Parliament Building:
In our room in the Hilton:
Of course we had to try the outdoor swimming pool:
Took a short walk at night, here is our high school freshman planking…apparently is the new craze of people taking pics standing face down….What can I say, whoever thought of that must be brilliant:-)
The breakfast was fantastic!
View from our room again, this time during the day:
Visited the lounge once more:
Checking out of the Hilton:
Dad taking care of the bill…it was almost $10 CAD only:-)
We all had carry on bags of course and we rolled them to our next hotel. We passed by the Fontaine du Tourny:
About to enter the Old City:
Porte Saint-Louis:
Walking down Rue Saint Louis:
Just outside the spectacular Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac
Why here when the smallest rooms cost $250 and up per night and suites over $500 per night? Are we that loaded? Of course not…We stayed here on complimentary nights Dad had as a Fairmont Lifetime Platinum member of Fairmont’s President Club. There was a promo earlier this year that about 100 of us “miles addicts” got in that offered lifetime status…it even made national news before it was pulled! So, we are truly looking forward to a lifetime of experiences in these hotels!!
We got upgraded to a nice junior suite that regularly goes for $549 per night and up! This is our living room:
and this is our bedroom:
and this is the view from our room!
We always try the swimming pools in the hotel, this is the first thing that kids ask for!
A benefit to the guests is the free use of BMW bikes. We loved taking a bike ride with my son!
on the boardwalk, our hotel in the background:
Biking up Terrase Dufferin:
Son asked for a BMW bike. “Son, you need to wait for our next Fairmont stay”
The preserved architecture is just beautiful:
Biking around La Citadelle:
Still biking….we ran into this funky looking car:
Parliament building again:
The hotel was built almost 120 years ago by the local railroad company that kept expanding it and now has 600 rooms! They are working on restoring the roof presently. Lots of history in this castle!!
Planking…again….shaking my head
After parking our bikes, we had to take a pic in front of this Mercedes:
Fairmont hallway:
The elevators are old and kind of slow…it adds to the “feel” of the space!
Walking around Quebec…Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate at all as it kept raining all weekend long, except on Friday the day we arrived!
Artist street:
Can’t remember which church is this as we kept walking:
We went to the last Cirque de Soleil (sp?) performance of the summer held in an open space parking lot. I did not know they are originally from Quebec and these free shows is a way of giving back to the city we were told. It was UNFORGETTABLE…BREATHTAKING…especially the finale was something we will always remember! One of those priceless moments in life!
We took a tour of the hotel as the kids stayed in the room. Here is a tour guide dressed..in character:
Our group had guests from China, Australia, Toronto, Germany and New Jersey:
Showing us how the hotel is separated into different wings, its size is massive:
Yep, they do have lots of weddings in this castle, 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday!
And now this is the most important room of the hotel. In this room Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met to plan the Normandy invasion. It was a top secret meeting; all guests were told to leave and I am guessing they were walked to other hotels nearby. We were all in awe and looking up and around the room and all the frescoes and art was quite something:
Lobby areas:
Front entrance of the hotel:
I just love this pic of the hotel in all its glory and the Canadian flag flowing in the wind:
We did a lot of walking the next day in the rain:
To the Citadel again on foot this time:
Somebody smack this kid!
OMG, what is this thing??
What a view!
Can’t remember who but he is French too!
The oldest US Consulate:
Walking at night, very beautiful streets!
Our kids specialize in domestic terrorism, here is proof:
Oh…puulease, for God’s sake, can we move on now?
Cozying up to mommy, I wonder what they are up to:-)
I think this is a hospital?
Wine definitely goes well when you walk these narrow streets…uphill!
Too much rain…so back to the swimming pool:
2nd buffet lunch at the restaurant, Platinums are treated very very well:-)
Aren’t they cute?
Dad always manages to screw up the picture, he never saw a camera he got along with!!!
Thanks Dad for letting us see the world with your miles and staying at the best hotels with your points, we love you!
The bill at checkout was again only $10 CAD…Science or Art, how does he do it? Actually, the two taxi rides cost more out of pocket cash than the 4 plane tickets and 3 hotel nights!!
Wow!!!!
I really like this airport:
We could enter the VIP lounge and we did…small but elegant!
Very nice food and wine selection:
Hanging out by our gate, great views of the planes:
Sometimes when you fly you take some amazing pics of the sun setting…
and the cloud formations:
We landed safely on Monday night. And on Tuesday morning off to the first day of school.
I wish we had more time to do more things in Quebec but the weather did not help at all. Oh well, we really enjoyed our hotel stay and we are very impressed with Fairmont and are looking forward to more stays over the years!
If you read this far, thank you and we hope you enjoyed reading about another travel adventure. My favorite quote of all time is:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
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I think I finally got all that Do off my shoes.
Silver? lol
Also — great report. I have only been to the Quebec airport (very nice) and an airport area hotel, but that Hilton looks amazing. Also a great reminder to BURN any existing SkyMiles… BTW, will be in your neck of the woods, tomorrow. Taking advantage of the double MVP miles to go to CLE via way of DTW… and the local Hertz HLE in Canton said they could possibly pick me up at the Holiday Inn! If not, I guess I can burn some Uber or Lyft credits in order go save about
… Whoops, battery died and I forgot to complete my comment. Anyhow, the FAIRMONT looks gorgeous! Will be in Michigan briefly to take advantage of Alaska’s double MVP promo to DTW and making my way to the Canton Hertz HLE to save some $$$ on my way to CLE.
Anyhow, sorry for the string of comments and have fun in Charlotte!
Bronze
Did you get multiple free nights at the Fairmont or just 1 night? I assume you get 1 free night a year for being Platinum, but was curious if you somehow got more than that. Since you were at the Hilton, I assume it was just 1 night at the Fairmont.
I love Fairmont hotels! I’m a Platinum (from traveling for work) and they treat Platinums very well at most hotels.
Dude. Your kids are cute and all. But your trip reports really blow.
Maybe you could jazz it up with some pictures of toilets and some big red arrows.
this comment above is not by me.
Troubling posts from Drew in yesterdays thread
And boy, i had no idea he gets so sensitive about things
He even took offense to the praises I had of him.
Bottom line, he posed a question in his post title. The answer to that question was obvious. And yet he tries to deflect when people point out the answer to that questions is obvious.
Hi from Charlotte Westin where wifi is not permitted in my laptop! Only Ethernet in my room and on my phone.It kind of sucks.
Full day today…so just a few comments.
The first year I earned the LifetimePlatinumFaimont status somehow our benefits were doubled!! That meant double everything, two nights instead of one, all food certs doubled…It was unbelievably epic score! Have no idea how it happened but I did not call to complain! It was only one day at the Hilton which we loved, especially the lounge and its views.
Like I said, I was speechless and disappointed by Drew’s post and his reaction to it. And I thought the “don’t want to stick around your crowd so I am leaving” kind of ridiculous. For a moment I thought it was FTG railing against the “angries”, WTF! I hope he listens to our advice we so graciously shared and just do what he has to do to make blogging a viable operation. And I think he will…soon.
Never has a blogger been praised so much and reacted this way, wow!
Maybe I should write a post about “The struggles of surviving in blogging doing things right while all the big commercial pumping blogs full of bad content make all the dough”. It has to be rough. There are times I get a little angry myself because it is not fair. And then I come to my senses, life is not fair. Hope he finds his groove and he learned from the feedback. Life is about learning and moving on.
I must admit the “your crowd” bugs me…I have no control of what people post here. Please keep it respectful and keep it on the blogsbusinesses and not personal.By you commenting here it does not mean I agree with you but I do respect the time you take to comment and express yourself.
Ok, Tax Developments session next! Exciting stuff!
“I must admit the “your crowd” bugs me…I have no control of what people post here. Please keep it respectful and keep it on the blogsbusinesses and not personal”
That’s exactly what Drew is complaining about
We talk about the blogs, you critique the blogs.
He wants us to stop criticizing the incessant credit card pumping, the censoring, the shady disclosure policies, the stealing of other peoples work…. because they’re nice people.
Sorry Drew, I like your blog. But my commentary on TBB won’t change, and neither should your content Buzz. You review blogs, not bowties.
For some reason that I can’t explain, I’m fascinated by the “blurring of lines” between blogger and blog content. Maybe because I’m old and I didn’t grow up with social media, where people share their bowel movement success…and chicken wing consumption (wing by wing!). 😉
Anyway, there was a time when the author was a little more “unknown” but that is certainly out the window these days, especially with our hobby. Bloggers foster these weird “relationships” by sharing personal pics, etc. Some exception exist, like “The Flight Deal” but most push their “personality” as much as their content.
I think it comes down to this: from Drew’s vantage point, as a fellow blogger, the two worlds (real life and blogger content) are distinct. From our perspective, they are nearly one in the same.
Anyway, interesting psychological study (to me, at least)
I don’t think anyone here cares about the bloggers personal lives except when it relates to the blog content
i.e. people will talk about the mother in law rule, make fun of the 1000 Emily pics per post or MP’s family because those are components of the respective blogs. By contrast, any discussion here of Lucky’s “personal life” is minimal to none, because it is never really discussed on the blogs
“No one cares about their personal lives” …. maybe you’re right. Could be just me reaching—reaching too far—to find a reason why Drew’s viewpoint could be different than mine.
>>>>>>>I’m fascinated by the “blurring of lines” between blogger and blog content.
It IS fascinating! Such blurry lines.
“No one cares about their personal lives” ….
I don’t know… Though I’d be curious to find out if Lucky got “Lucky” with that SQ FA he posted about 🙂 That interests me more than pajamas… smile
Travelbloggerbuzz.com 10/21/2014…Now that’s entertainment!………………………………………..With you out of town yesterday w/o wifi, while all hell is breaking loose at TBB, it kind of reminded me of Geo. W. Bush reading MY Pet Goat to 3rd graders will 9/11 erupted….. http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushvideos/v/bushpetgoat.htm
while not will
Not my favorite President, not even close, but I would still have a beer with him before I have a beer with Obama.
Oh man, TBB and his angry crowd again LOL
Loved the review. Always wanted to go there. Was speaking French necessary? Or did you start up with someone in English right away?
“Thanks Dad for letting us see the world with your miles and staying at the best hotels with your points, we love you!” Laughed at that one! And I hope to hear that one day too! 🙂
Speaking French was not necessary at all imho.
@bluecat – French was necessary until sometime in the 90’s. We were in Montreal and Quebec city in 1980. In Montreal, people would respond to us when we spoke English – but they were NOT happy about it. In Quebec City, they pointedly ignored us – even the RCMP at La Citadelle. We went back in 2000, and everything had changed! They embraced tourists, menus were written in French and English and the we had no problems communicating. I think that the cruise industry had quite an impact on this dynamic.
Glad to see Drew’s 2 most recent posts are much more in line with the TIF we know
He would be well served sticking to the content that is head and shoulders above the garbage other bloggers produce instead of writing posts defending the people behind said garbage
Wouldn’t have minded one bit if he put Chase links in either of those posts
The angries are basically telling him it is ok to pimp some cards and we get get assigned the “angries” label….Sometimes life is weird like that, and not fair 🙂
Would “fair” be holding back your thoughts because someone is nice to you, regardless of how you feel they treat others? Saying nothing to defend someone you feel needs it, because you yourself weren’t criticized?
I can see how you feel hurt or confused, but isn’t sticking up for others despite one’s own popularity at least a bit admirable?
Are you addressing this question to me? I am sorry I am not following you or I have been way too busy here and a bit out of it with not much sleep.
Also stayed in a suite at Frontenac during the winter Carnival two years ago. Gorgeous! Our suite had a slightly different layout–they told me there weren’t two suites alike. George, you have to visit during the winter Carnival, The city is completely different, the kids will be thrilled, and it’s like you’re in a fairy tale! And they have that famous Ice Hotel that is totally worth visiting. Gorgeous medieval city with great food and less than a 2-hour flight away from NYC. If you are in the mood for old Europe, a short weekend trip will do the trick just fine!
Yes I agree, we really liked Quebec City!