As a frequent visitor to Québec, I keep select pleasures on heavy seasonal rotation. My warm-weather favorites include cycling along the Lachine Canal, outdoor shows at Montréal circus collective Le Monastère and visits to Eastern Townships wineries such as family-owned Vignoble Pigeon Hill. But if that home-away-from-home familiarity ranks among travel’s cozier joys, it’s also best leavened by occasional fresh discoveries — and the coming months usher in a long list of new reasons to cross the border.
Making their Québec debuts this summer are beginner-friendly bikepacking routes on quiet gravel roads, immersive digital art in Montréal’s 17th-century Old Port and exhibits exploring Abenaki identities. Farther afield, in the Charlevoix region that hugs the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, there’s a first-in-North America trail-running station inspired by high-mountain hubs in France and Spain. And in the province’s dimly lit wine bars and big-name eateries, newly announced stars by the tastemaking Michelin Guide are generating both buzz and controversy.
Here, find some of the best new excuses to visit Québec this summer, whether you’re day-tripping across the border or taking a long weekend getaway. Wondering if Americans are even welcome in Canada right now? Read on for one traveler’s take (mine). If you’re already planning your own escape, share your adventures, questions and ideas with us at quebec@sevendaysvt.com.
Beginner-Friendly Bike Travel in the Eastern Townships
Three multiday dirt-road routes by veteran adventure cyclist Dominick Menard launch this year, designed as approachable introductions to overnight bicycle travel through the laid-back villages and low mountains just north of the border.
“Gravel is huge right now in the Eastern Townships,” said Menard, who lives in cycling hub Bromont, explaining that the longtime mountain-bike town is now drawing many travelers keen to explore its back roads instead. “It’s the best place in Québec, for sure, with hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of riding.”
Last week, Menard released a map for the first of the three rides, a 146-mile route in partnership with regional tourism organization Tourisme Cantons de l’Est. The gourmet-themed loop, which begins and ends in Sutton, could be completed in two days, three days or more, and it passes a series of rural restaurants, cheesemakers, microbreweries and cideries.
The next two routes are due this summer — one with a focus on nature and stargazing, the other an exploration of the region’s extensive Anglophone culture and heritage. While the rides require a certain level of fitness, Menard said they’re nevertheless welcoming to beginners, with options to camp or stay in small inns.
“For someone who has never tried bike touring, you can just take your food and clothes and rent a place to sleep,” he said. For cyclists hoping to camp but lacking the necessary gear — or bicycle bags to carry it in — Menard recommended visiting the Bromont National Cycling Center. The velodrome and sports center has cyclist-focused lodging called Auberge Sportive (basic double rooms with bunk beds from CA$90 a night) and rents equipment including bike bags, tents and camp stoves.
Québec’s Michelin Moment
Michelin stars are the currency of status in dining rooms from Sonoma, Calif., to Singapore — no matter the strangeness of culinary plaudits doled out by a French tire company. To be a “starred” restaurant is big news; earning the maximum of three Michelin stars vaults a kitchen to the fine-dining firmament. For the first time, the Michelin Guide‘s undercover inspectors have come to Québec, the latest destination in Canada to be evaluated, after Vancouver and Toronto. (Generally, cities and regions foot the bill for this process, in hopes of elevating their international culinary profiles. The Montréal Gazette reported that several tourism entities chipped in.)
Last week, the Michelin Guide finally released its restaurant picks. Make your reservations now if you hope to dine at Québec City’s boreal-inspired Tanière³ (CA$275-300 per person for food), which tops the list as the sole Québécois restaurant with two Michelin stars. The provincial capital also has an impressive lineup of one-starred restaurants, including Kebec Club Privé (tasting menu CA$160), Laurie Raphaël (set menus CA$140-185), Légende (tasting menu CA$115) and ARVI (tasting menu CA$98).
Recent Michelin debuts have sparked controversy, and this batch is likely to be no exception. Larger and more cosmopolitan Montréal, which generally outshines Québec City on the foodie front, has fewer starred restaurants. Creative, locavore Mastard (set menu CA$90) earned a star, as insiders had widely predicted. More unexpected were the stars awarded to Montréal’s French-Québécois fusion restaurant Jérôme Ferrer Europea (mains CA$46-53) and cool kids’ 14-seat “micro restaurant” Sabayon (tasting menu CA$144) — while both are well loved, they weren’t common guesses circulated by Québec restaurant-industry types.
Another surprise: Little Italy superstar Mon Lapin (sharing plates CA$7-42), topped the prestigious Canada’s 100 Best list in both 2023 and 2024 but was left out of the Michelin constellation. (Co-owner Vanya Filipovic did earn a sommelier award.) Maybe that’s a bright point for diners, who might otherwise despair of getting a table again. The real dark horse? In the small Bas-Saint-Laurent city of Rimouski, relatively low-key Narval (tasting menu CA$98) earned a star — a serious coup for chef Norman St-Pierre.
Running Wild in Charlevoix
Trail runners have long packed their shoes and stamina for trips to running “stations” in Europe, where they can tackle lengthy — and sometimes multiday — runs while making use of trailhead shuttles and mountain refuges. This summer, the model comes closer to home with the July opening of the Station Trail Grand-Fonds in Malbaie, within the UNESCO-listed Charlevoix Biosphere Reserve.
“It’s like a ski resort for trail running,” said Samuel Matte-Thibault, director of the annual trail running event Ultra-Trail Harricana of Canada, which is behind the new running station. The website and prices for the project haven’t gone live, but Matte-Thibault said it will include hundreds of kilometers of trail, shuttles, guiding services and basic accommodations for athletes carrying food and sleeping bags.
“Runners can do their run but stop in a little camp and sleep there for the night,” Matte-Thibault said. While he described the terrain as adventurous, it sounds like experienced Vermont trail runners will feel right at home. “It’s very technical — lots of roots, mud and rock,” he said.
He also noted that this summer’s opening is just one step in a bigger plan. “We think that in the near future the Olympic Games will have trail running,” he said. “This is the first phase of the project, but we hope to make a place where elite athletes can go to train.”
A New Venue for Digital Art in Montréal
Even casual Montréal visitors may already have seen the intriguing digital artwork that’s become one of the city’s creative signatures. Combining music, narration and projected images, the ongoing Cité Mémoire, launched in 2016, recounts local history at a series of sites that comprise one of the world’s largest outdoor video-projection installations.
Montréal arts studio and longtime Phish collaborator Moment Factory is behind trippy sound-and-light show AURA (CA$22-37) inside the 1829 Notre-Dame Basilica. And digital culture incubator Society for Arts and Technology (CA$14-20) has its 360-degree immersive theater Satosphère, where this summer’s offerings include a show by Montréal’s Normal Studio setting the works of Canadian painter Jacques Hurtubise to a musical tribute by psychedelic band Hippie Hourrah.
This summer brings a noteworthy new addition: 36-room “immersive art hotel” Sonolux (rooms from CA$395) opens next month in the city’s historic center, with plans to put digital installations front and center. You don’t have to stay the night to see twice-annual exhibitions that will be in common areas. The inaugural one, “Seeds of R/Evolution,” showcases digital works by artists Katherine Melançon, Santiago Tamayo Soler and Skawennati, among others; in the lobby and LUMI restaurant will be LiDAR-equipped generative art installation “The Cosmic Code.”
Also in June is the new edition of the ELEKTRA biennale (June 18-25, ticket prices not yet announced), billed as the largest digital art exhibition in North America. And blending digital art with electronic music is the upcoming 26th edition of MUTEK Montréal (August 19-24, weekend passes CA$210), featuring artists from Al Wootton to Yu Su.
Telling Québec’s Indigenous Stories
For Vermonters, the name “Odanak” might sound familiar. Members of Odanak First Nation, located just under three hours north of Burlington on the east bank of Québec’s St. François River, have been prominent in ongoing disputes over tribal recognition in Vermont. But there’s far more to their community than that.
Founded by Abenaki people around 1670, the town of Odanak is also home to Québec’s first Indigenous museum, Musée des Abénakis (tickets CA$6-12), where the new, permanent “W8banakiak” exhibition explores the history and heritage of the Abenaki Nation. (“W8banakiak” is a plural form of the ethnonym “W8banaki,” preferred by some to the colonial administrator-coined “Abenaki.”) Installations — all including English text or subtitles as necessary — range from short films to exhibits on the Western Abenaki language and local use of medicinal plants.
It’s a long drive unless you’re already en route to Québec City, so make it count by planning your visit to coincide with the exquisite dances, regalia and traditions on display at the long-running Odanak Pow Wow (July 19-20, free).
Closer to home is the new permanent exhibition “Nanualuk — Northern Expedition” at the riverfront Montréal Science Centre (tickets CA$26.50-39.50), which highlights Indigenous cultures of far northern Québec. Exhibits feature a series of hands-on “missions” that invite kids to explore Inuit traditions and Arctic ecosystems.
This article is part of a travel series on Québec. The province’s destination marketing organization, Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec, under the Bonjour Québec brand, is a financial underwriter of the project but has no influence over story selection or content. Find the complete series plus travel tips at sevendaysvt.com/quebec.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Points North | New reasons to head to Québec this summer range from Michelin picks to a Euro-style trail-running station”
This article appears in The Summer Preview 2025.
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