Driving to Quebec City

Today we drove from Charlottetown PEI, all the way to Quebec City. This is a 920km drive, and we were dreading it, but best to get it out of the way in one day then split it across two. Our only benchmark is the drive from Wellington to Auckland however the highways here are much better so we expected a longer distance in a similar timeframe.

We were up early, had breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road at 8am. It took about an hour to cross Prince Edward Island, and across the bridge, paying a $45.50 toll on the way out. Interestingly PEI charges the same toll leaving the island, either by road bridge or ferry, but it is free to enter the island via either.

Then, we settled in for a long drive. Apart from a couple of stretch stops, a driver swap, and a stop for lunch, we were on the road the whole time. The road was very good, divided highway with 110km/h for almost the entire distance. Try this: look at this photo for 9 hours straight, and you get an idea of what our day consisted of.

Now so far, everywhere in Canada, signs are dual language English and French. However, the minute we crossed the border into the state of Quebec, all signs are in French only! It does make following directions more difficult but we get by.

We gained an hour along the way, crossing a time zone, and arrived at the hotel 4:30pm local time making for a 9.5 hour drive. Phew!

So we now have a few days to look around Quebec city. Tomorrow will no doubt start with a sleep in after today.