Quebec City to Montreal Airport after Cruise

[alabama ghost]

We're booked on a 10 day cruise from New York to Quebec City in October, but are looking at travel plans. Has anyone booked their own air and if so, how did you get from Quebec City to the Montreal Airport? I've checked with Princess and their transfer (for those not buying cruise line air) takes you from the ship to the Quebec City airport. The customer service person I spoke with indicated that there might be a transfer to Montreal available from Princess on the ship but I can't take that kind of a gamble.

 

Any recommendations?

[jp2001]

We're booked on a 10 day cruise from New York to Quebec City in October, but are looking at travel plans. Has anyone booked their own air and if so, how did you get from Quebec City to the Montreal Airport? I've checked with Princess and their transfer (for those not buying cruise line air) takes you from the ship to the Quebec City airport. The customer service person I spoke with indicated that there might be a transfer to Montreal available from Princess on the ship but I can't take that kind of a gamble.

 

Any recommendations?

 

If they don't have a transfer, there is the VIA Rail train option or the Orléans Express bus (almost every hour) option. Both the train and bus are in the Gare du Palais, about 15 minutes walk from the main pier or a very short taxi ride (if I had only one wheeled suitcase, I would walk, it's a nice area).

 

You will need a cab to get to the airport when you arrive in Montreal.

 

Also, I HIGHLY recommend that you stay at least 1 night in Quebec City (you will regret it if you don't)

[Ephraim]

From the port take a taxi to the Gare du Palais. The train station is in the front and the bus station in the back. You can take a train to Montreal and then the Air Connect service. Or you can take the bus to the airport. The train is more frequent and definitely more expensive. And service from Gare Centrale in Montreal to the airport is limited. You have to call VIA to ask about the Air Connect service because I haven't seen it for sale on their website. It's $12 from downtown Montreal to the airport and they provide a free shuttle from the train station to the airport.

 

On the other hand, Orleans express runs a bus that takes you right to the airport. It's four hours and leaves at 6H30, 9H30, 12H30, 15H30 and 22H30. It arrives at the airport at 10H30, 13H30, 16H30, 19H30, 21H00 and 2H30 respectively. They all stop downtown Montreal and continue to the airport. More info at http://www.orleansexpress.com/Corpo/service_aeroportuaire.aspx and it's $66.93 one way. You can also take the bus to Montreal's Station Centrale (the central bus station) and then take the L'Aerobus service. The L'Aerobus service is $15... plus your ticket from Quebec City to Montreal for $51.92 making the same total (okay, it's a penny cheaper), except that you will have to change buses. There are 22 departures every day and that leg takes 3 hours and 15 minutes.

[Twickenham]

We're booked on a 10 day cruise from New York to Quebec City in October, but are looking at travel plans. Has anyone booked their own air and if so, how did you get from Quebec City to the Montreal Airport? I've checked with Princess and their transfer (for those not buying cruise line air) takes you from the ship to the Quebec City airport. The customer service person I spoke with indicated that there might be a transfer to Montreal available from Princess on the ship but I can't take that kind of a gamble.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Be sure to compare air from YQB with air from YUL before you decide definitely to fly out of Montreal. I say this because in shopping for air to London, I found that it's actually $44 cheaper to fly Continental from YQB than YUL. Quebec has daily flights to Newark on Continental, Detroit on Northwest and Chicago on United.

 

However, if flights out of YUL end up being the better deal, than either the train or bus as previously described are both easy transfers. Gare du Palais is really very convenient for the port.

[alabama ghost]

Thanks so much for all you advice! We obviously have to do some more studying of the situation.

 

Our ship, the Crown Princess, arrives in Quebec with a day and night on board before we have to disembark, so we will have some time in Quebec City, which we are really looking forward to.

 

We were just trying to do our own air rather than going with Princess air and ran into a complication on trying to get from Quebec to Montreal. Maybe I should look some more at flights from Quebec.

 

Thanks again.

 

Pam

[Twickenham]

I just did a few searches for fun, using a departure date of October 12th and a return on the 23rd. MGM-New York, return YQB-MGM, is around $690 (with 2 connections), whereas a YUL-MGM return (1 connection) is $450. One-way train Quebec-Montreal-YUL is CA$60+tax. You have to see which gives you the best convenience-price ratio.

[alabama ghost]

I did some similar checking. However, we'll probably fly out of Atlanta. I really hate to give the airlines an extra chance to misplace our luggage.

 

The flights out of Quebec seem to have at least 2 connections, many in the middle of the night with long flight times. With Montreal you have the bus and more luggage handling. "Six of this and half a dozen of the other?"

 

Who knows, though. If I wait a while we might get some better pricing!

[Twickenham]

Atlanta makes a big difference. Now I'm getting a Delta-Air Canada combo on the gnome site at $430 return. One connection in Toronto on the way back. Only problem, it leaves YQB at 5:30 am!

One thing I will say is that YQB is a very nice (newly renovated), small, easy airport to get around. Nothing's very far to walk to, very user-friendly.

[Ephraim]

You have to remember that Quebec City is a small airport compared to Montreal. It's the fifteenth busiest airport in Canada. Second after Montreal in Quebec in passenger traffic, but only third in actual aircraft (little Montreal-Saint-Hubert beats it in actual aircraft traffic). So I'm not surprised to see that it needs more connections and smaller aircraft to get there.

 

Continental flies to Cleveland (seasonal) and Newark. Air Canada flies many routes, but Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa are probably the most useful for connections. Northwest flies to Detroit. Porter flies to Halifax (seasonal) and to Toronto-Centre (which isn't useful, since it's the only airline there!) WestJet flies to Toronto and United Express (Shuttle America) flies to Chicago.

 

Remember that there is one more consideration, when flying from Quebec City you will have to go through US immigration when you land. If you are connection in Canada in Montreal or Toronto you will have to clear US customs there (Montreal and Toronto have US preclearance, so the flight is considered domestic). If you connect in the US you will have to clear US customs at the first airport you fly into. So watch those connection times. A connection in Canada means you have to collect your luggage and lug it through US customs. I would therefore look for connections that are in the US if you are leaving from Quebec City.

 

Have you checked out the prices on Momondo? Lessno?