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I’d never taken a hotel tour before I went to Quebec City, Canada. However, the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is no ordinary hotel.
Perched atop Old Quebec City, the hotel is front and center in the most quintessential view of the city. It’s no surprise that the hotel has been named the most photographed hotel in the world. It looks more like a storybook castle than any hotel you’ve seen before.
Not only is the exterior of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac beautiful, but the inside has everything you’d want in a luxury hotel, including a rich past.
Needless to say, I absolutely had to take a guided tour of Fairmont Le Château Frontenac when I visited Quebec City. I wanted to see as much of it as possible and learn about its history.
One way to get a nice introduction to Quebec City is to take a tour. Check out these other excellent tour options & book now!
Book your hotel in Quebec City now!Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Tour Tickets
Tours of the Quebec City Fairmont are available at multiple times every day during peak travel seasons and daily during quieter times of the year. Tours are available in French and English. See tour availability and book tickets here.
The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac tour lasts about an hour. However, consider leaving yourself extra time, especially if you want to visit Bar 1608, which is one of the best cocktail bars in Quebec City. At the very least, you’ll want to spend time taking photos outside and in the public areas of the hotel.
Fairmont Quebec City Tour Review
The guided tour of the Château Frontenac starts outside on the Dufferin Terrace. The terrace has panoramic views of the city, the St. Lawrence River, and beyond. Cicerone, the tour provider, offers a variety of Quebec City tours.
Hidden below this terrace is the Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux National Historic Site. It is dedicated to the 1600s-era buildings that once occupied this area, long before the towering hotel was constructed.
We met our tour guide, Sylvain, who was dressed in a period costume as Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the Governor of French Louisiana and Governor General of New France. Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil was the last governor of New France before the British conquered the territory.
Sylvain began the tour by providing an overview of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac and its construction.
The Canadian Pacific Railway originally built the Châteauesque hotel. Six different wings were built between 1893 and 1993. If you look closely at the building, you can spot different shades of brick and copper roofs, which are a result of the varying construction dates and building material sources.
Wings 1, 2, and 3 were built with bricks from Scotland, while wings 4 and 5 were constructed with bricks from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The newest wing, built in the 1990s, used bricks from near Montreal.
As one might expect, a hotel of this age has undergone significant changes over the years through expansions and changing societal interests. Our tour guide showed us old photos, allowing us to get a sense of what the areas we were walking through were like in the past.
For example, the Starbucks at the entrance used to be a barber shop. The area that’s now the Place Dufferin restaurant and tea house was once a curling alley.
We also passed through a hallway with museum exhibits about the hotel.
A staircase later, we found ourselves at Restaurant Champlain, the Fairmont’s fine dining restaurant, and Bar 1608, the hotel bar, both of which are open to the public.
The bar’s windows have great views of Dufferin Terrace and the river, while the restaurant has other notable design elements.
A fireplace features a carving dedicated to explorer Samuel de Champlain above it.
Also, a sculpture representing the depth of the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec City, which he sailed, fills the length of one room.
The restaurant and bar showcase the opulence of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. Bottles of Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac and 1998 Domaine de La Romanée-Conti wine beckon to those who have many thousands of dollars available.
We made a note of the location so we could return to Bar 1608 for drinks after our tour. It’s the perfect way to round out your hotel experience, even if your budget is more Hop House 13 than Louis XIII.
The tour continues winding its way around the hotel. In the Jacques Cartier meeting room, stained glass windows depict the arrivals of various explorers of Canada, starting with the Vikings.
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Between the different wings, staircases, and hallways, it felt like we were learning the secrets of the hotel, moving about the place as if we’d obtained a special key.
Books like “Eloise” and “A Gentleman in Moscow,” which take place in historic hotels, have widely appealed to readers. There’s a reason why there’s a certain excitement to exploring a hotel, that thrill of being somewhere it feels like you’re not supposed to be.
A hotel this massive has an impressive amount of passageways, nearly 8 miles (12 kilometers) in all.
These passageways are not just for hotel guests in the 610 rooms and suites, but they also make it easier for staff to get around. Maids lived on-site on the 18th floor until the 1960s.
The hallways may also serve as a passage for ghosts. Like any good historic hotel, the Château Frontenac has its share of ghost stories from throughout the years.
We then found ourselves in the hotel’s main lobby. It underwent a full renovation in 2014. The decor was refreshed while also honoring the rich history of the Château Frontenac. Everywhere you look, there’s some unique detail to spot.
The lobby’s themes include the St. Lawrence and winter, with white onyx behind the check-in desk evoking the image of ice on the river.
There are also beautiful paintings and historic artifacts, including a book of reservations from 1893.
We then headed into other areas of the Château Frontenac that have historical significance.
The Salon Rose is a beautiful meeting room that used to be the ladies’ parlor.
In 1943 and 1944, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King met in this room for D-Day and post-World War II planning during the Quebec Conferences (although for security, they stayed in the nearby Citadelle rather than at the hotel).
Other meeting rooms include the Salon Bellevue and the Grand Ballroom, which can hold up to 1,000 guests.
Over the years, many other famous people have visited the Château Frontenac, including Queen Elizabeth II, Charles de Gaulle, Princess Grace of Monaco, Celine Dion, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, Sting, Charlie Chaplin, and Paul McCartney. Alfred Hitchcock also directed part of his film “I Confess” at the hotel.
As the fun and informative tour was wrapping up and heading back to the lobby, Sylvain told us one last story.
Just above the lobby, this beautiful staircase splits into two sides. Thanks to the story of two travelers from long ago, there’s now a tradition that hotel visitors partake in on these steps.
The story begins with a couple who had walked down these stairs. The gentleman walked down the left side, while the lady walked down the right side.
Unbeknownst to each other, they made separate wishes for a happy lifetime together and to someday return to the hotel on a special occasion.
They did. Many years later, they returned to the Château Frontenac for their 60th wedding anniversary.
This romantic story has inspired many others to descend the stairs while making wishes.
I, too, hope to return someday.
Book Château Frontenac tours here
The Château Frontenac tour is a unique way to get to know Quebec City through its most prominent landmark. Here are some other great Quebec City tours.
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