What should we make sure to see on a visit to Quebec?
Simon Calder answers your questions on travelling in Canada, missing a flight because of an accident, the new rules for entering Gibraltar, and a stopover in Miami
Q We are going to the Canadian province of Quebec for the first time next month, starting and ending in Montreal but with a trip north to the towns of Saguenay and Tadoussac. What would you recommend along the way?
Name supplied
A Montreal is beautiful, fun and relaxed. By European standards, the old town isn’t particularly quaint, but it’s pleasant enough. Outside the centre, charming Rue St-Denis has excellent places to eat and drink. If you are a meat eater, make your way to 3895 St Laurent Boulevard and order a smoked beef sandwich at Schwartz’s Deli – a fixture since 1928. It’s absurdly popular, but if you are happy to sit at the counter rather than at a table, you won’t queue for long.
Quebec City, northeast of Montreal along the ever-present St Lawrence River, is probably my favourite city in Canada because of its sheer good looks – with a compact, three-dimensional centre and an impressive cliff walk above the St Lawrence. The skyline is dominated by the extravagant 1893 hotel, the Chateau Frontenac – good fun to explore, either informally or on a proper tour. A new attraction: plunging into the waters of the St Lawrence River at L’Oasis, an Olympic-size swimming pool created in a dock in the Port of Quebec. It’s open from June until 31 August, admission free.
Your choices in the north are excellent. The drive along the inland route from Quebec City to Saguenay goes through muscular countryside, and Saguenay itself is engrossing: once known as the Chicago of the North thanks to the might of its aluminium and paper manufacturing, it is now laid bare with some haunting industrial archaeology. Parallel to it is the spectacular fjord that carries the Saguenay River to Tadoussac, where it meets the St Lawrence.
Tadoussac is a charming riverside resort. At this point the St Lawrence is 10 miles wide. You could cross by ferry from Les Escoumins, slightly northeast to Trois-Pistoles on the opposite shore. But the left bank of the St Lawrence, the same as Tadoussac, has lots of appeal on the journey back to Quebec City and Montreal. Just before you reach Quebec City, the Montmorency Falls are impressive, with some fun walkways and bridges.
Q Our son Chris, who’s a single dad and has two boys aged eight and 10, was due to fly from Manchester airport to Malaga with Tui at 6am on Wednesday. The boys were so excited because they had never flown before. They were about 10 minutes from the airport when a motorbike travelling in excess of 100mph passed them, then crashed in front of their car. Sadly, the rider died. Police closed the motorway and would not let anyone through.
The family missed the flight. To get to Malaga as quickly as possible, Chris rebooked on Ryanair from Leeds Bradford airport, at a cost of £500. Is he able to make a claim from anyone?
Marlene K
A The tragedy happened on the southbound M61 in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Diversions were swiftly set up, but motorists who were close to the scene of the accident were inevitably delayed for hours. The crash itself must have been deeply upsetting to witness. For your son and his family, this was followed by the growing realisation that the holiday flight they had been anticipating would take off without them. No doubt hundreds of other passengers missed holiday flights, too.
When something like this happens, airlines are often flexible and will allow you to change to a later departure without a fee, if seats are available. Given the high “load factor” on most holiday flights at this time of year, there may not have been space available – or it might have meant delaying the trip by a day. In the circumstances, your son responded appropriately by choosing the first available flight from a nearby airport. For peak summer, finding three seats on a Med-bound plane for a total of £500 was quite an achievement.
The only avenue I think your son can reasonably pursue is travel insurance. He will need to demonstrate that he allowed plenty of time before departure. Such is the media coverage of the tragedy that it should be easy for the insurers to verify his story. He may also be able to claim for additional expenses, such as the cost of reaching Leeds Bradford airport, as well as delayed arrival at his holiday location.
Q I understand that Gibraltar is now part of the Schengen area. Does that mean I can only stay for 90 days in any 180 days?
‘South Coast Simon’
A Once the post-Brexit deal for Gibraltar takes effect – probably by the end of 2025 – UK visitors to the British overseas territory will face tough new conditions for entry, while holders of a passport from Ireland (or any other Schengen-area nation) will breeze in with barely a care. Nine years after the democratic decision to leave the European Union, the future status of the British overseas territory has finally been agreed. The border infrastructure between Gibraltar and Spain is to be removed once all parties have ratified the deal, which will allow a free flow of people, vehicles and goods across the land frontier.
While UK ministers are at pains to say that the Rock will not become part of the Schengen area, from the point of view of British travellers, it might as well be. Free movement will be possible from Gibraltar as far as the Arctic. So there is no alternative to treating all arrivals as entering the zone. Consequently, UK travellers flying to Gibraltar will face the same red tape as at any Schengen frontier post, with one trivial difference: the existing examination by the local Borders and Coastguard Agency will continue. Immediately after passing this check, travellers will encounter a Spanish frontier post. Here, British arrivals must meet Schengen passport validity conditions: no older than 10 years on the day of entry, and at least three months remaining on the intended day of departure.
Even if you plan to stay put in Gibraltar, you will not be able to spend more than 90 days in any 180 days there. Initially, this will be checked using passport stamps. But within the next year, the plan is that visitors from outside the Schengen area will register via the entry-exit system, providing fingerprints and a facial biometric. All of this is the inevitable conclusion of the “third-country” rules that Boris Johnson’s government negotiated for UK citizens to enter Europe. Until then, including during the referendum campaign, the pretence was that the UK would achieve a special status vis-a-vis Europe. Who knows? Perhaps one day we shall.
Q I’m lucky enough to be spending Christmas in Honduras, but on the way I will have to overnight in Miami and therefore enter the US. My question is whether it might be better to renew my passport in advance so that I have a perfectly “clean” passport when I enter the US.
My present document contains stamps from all kinds of fascinating countries, including Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Egypt – which may ring alarm bells to a US immigration officer. Or would he or she be able to see my travel history regardless of my having a brand new passport?
Chris Santry
A You can relax – as long as your passport bears no evidence of a visit to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen. Those nations are regarded by the US as “state sponsors of terrorism”. If you have travelled to any of them since 2011 (for Cuba, since 2021), you are not entitled to obtain an Esta, the online permit that most British travellers need. Assuming that does not affect you, I predict no problems.
So good is facial recognition these days that US Customs and Border Protection are unlikely even to glance at your passport. As your facial biometric will be encoded on the American immigration database, there is an element of “We’ve been expecting you” as you step up and look into the camera at the desk. The official is likely to ask the purpose of your visit. When you answer, “I’m overnighting before a flight to Honduras”, the chances are that he or she will clear you immediately.
Given the White House’s insistence that “all aliens seeking admission to the United States” should be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”, you could be asked for evidence of a flight ticket out of the US, and of your hotel reservation in Miami. Perhaps the officer will look through your passport and ask a question or two about what you were doing in Egypt or Tunisia. But even if that happens, there should not be a problem when you explain that you were on vacation.
Finally, US immigration officials have no access to records of where you may have been with previous passports.
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