Travel Talk

Saturday Night at Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada

Greetings,

I’m writing this on a Saturday night in the dead of winter from Chateau Mont-Sainte Anne just outside Quebec City, Canada. I took VIA Rail to get here and it as a very pleasant experience as always. Upon arrival in Quebec City, I took a quick cab to a car rental and in no time was on the highway. I don’t care how good or bad you are at directions, you can’t miss Mont Sainte-Anne and I didn’t even have to use my map, seriously. From car pickup to checking into the hotel it took about 45 minutes, unreal.

So it’s now 6:48pm and I’m getting settled in my room. I love this room and it has two queen size beds, Mountain View and a small kitchenette which naturally, I’ve changed into a small office. This hotel is located right at the base of the hill and the hot tub is right below me. It already seems like quite the “hot spot” and how could it not be? The lobby has some gent playing music and I can see random couples warming up by the fire, I’m out of the day to day life and back into the Winter Wonderland, quite thrilled.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss this place in further depth but for now here are some quick facts. Mont-Sainte-Anne first opened as a ski resort in 1966 with 4 lifts and 10 trails… Today it has over 66 trails, offers the highest elevation you can find for night skiing in Canada and is also well known for its cross country ski center. I’m only going to be doing downhill skiing while here but would be curious to know more about the cross country. As a kid I didn’t care for it, only wanted to do downhill but as I get older I really appreciate it. It’s like going hiking but in the winter and on skis so even a small decline is a good time.

I know I’ve said this before but it is small world my friends. Would you believe I met a friend at the train station? He was walking off in front of me and I was like “is that…” at which point he turned around. It helped kill the hour layover I had in Montreal by crushing some sushi and catching up. Hitting up the train station on a weekend is like a ghost town, during the week that whole area is hopping and quite the sight for those that like a little action in their weekday.

While on my way here I got a message from a friend who get this; lives in the area. So in an hour from now I’m off to meet a friend in the lobby where we’ll explore the town and see what’s cracking. It’s a Saturday night and I’m sure there are some fun things going on. Tomorrow I’m meeting a representative from Mont-Sainte Anne for some skiing at 10am which means I’m free to explore tonight, yes? I’ve already seen countless interesting creatures that you normally see in and around ski resorts in the winter; I’ll leave that up to your imagination though.

Thanks to Quebec City Tourism for making this happen, I’m in full on “winter vacation mode” and thrilled about it.

I’d love to continue but I have a ski resort to explore, stay tuned for more, MUCH more…

Tips hat,

P.S: All these photos are courtesy of Mont-Sainte-Anne, mine coming tomorrow.

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