Welcome back to Beautiful Spaces—a series of posts in which I talk about the places where I stay during my travels. It all started in 2013 when I realized that my contentment on the road is directly connected to how much I love where I’m living…and so made a commitment to find beautiful spaces to call home along the way. These hotels were kind enough to provide complimentary stays in exchange for this review, but as always, opinions are my own.
Quebec City.
I’d been told again and again that I’d love it there.
It’s so European! Friends gushed.
It’s clean and beautiful and easy to navigate, they said.
And so I took them at their word and booked four nights in the city, which was everything everyone said it would be, charming, clean, French-speaking, the most European-feeling city in North America.
For those four lovely nights, we stayed in two spaces.
The first was a comfortable mid- to upper-range space called Hotel Bellevue, located in a row of brownstones across from a well-kept park and only a block from the towering, majestic Fairmont.
The Bellevue’s highlights included gorgeous exposed stone walls, a comfortable bed, a wonderful view out the front windows over the park (where we ate our lunch of fresh market finds and drank glasses of wine), a wine machine in the lobby, and a location within easy walking distance of everything we wanted to see in the city.
I also really loved being across from the park and on a quiet street full of brownstones.
The one trouble spot here was that the Wi-Fi was a bit spotty. So for my workday, I went down the street to the absolutely lovely Maison Smith for a maple-milk coffee (OMG) and work.
The second space we stayed in was a more budget-friendly option: the HI hostel in town, located in a sprawling couple buildings inside the walls of old town.
The hostel was nice and clean, though the buildings were a bit older and the furnishings simple. I particularly liked being in room 8-300 (ask for it if you go). It’s exceptionally quiet, tucked away at the end of the building, up a set of stairs. It has its own large bathroom and you’ll walk through a cute indoor bridge with glass walls to get to the building from the main hostel.
The hostel also has a huge kitchen (which is always a plus), a quirky little basement bar (though we never made it down there for more than a glimpse), and a few common spaces where Chad spent some time working. Wi-Fi was good.
The only downside here is that, as with many budget options, the bed wasn’t especially comfortable. Still, I slept fine, mostly because it was so unexpectedly and wonderfully quiet.
Hotel Bellevue rooms start at about 189 CAD per night. The space is pet-friendly, though pets cost an extra $25 per night, there is a size restriction (of about 75 lbs), and only one pet is allowed per room. Continental breakfast is included. And valet parking is available for an additional fee.
Auberge Internationale de Quebec is a hostel. Private rooms with en suite bathrooms like ours start at 104.50 CAD per night. Shared dorm space starts around 25 CAD per night. Only service animals are allowed at this time. Self-parking is available in a nearby garage for about 17 CAD per night.
* Three of the Hotel Bellevue photos above were provided by the hotel, as mine didn’t turn out very nice and wouldn’t have done the place justice.
Looking for more places to stay? You can see all the beautiful spaces I’ve reviewed here.
1 comment
A wine machine in the lobby. Checkity check. Added that place to my bucket list for sure!!!