1-2 night trip near Montreal

[mikeys_mom]

We are considering driving to Montreal to visit my parents for a week at the end of December. We plan to spend most of the time at their house and do different daytrips but would love to be able to go away somewhere fun for 1-2 nights with the kids. Something like Great Wolf Lodge would be ideal but I know there are no locations in Quebec. We are thinking about the Laurentians, but considering that my parents are only a 40 minute drive from Saint Sauveur, we would need to find a hotel with great facilities to make it worthwhile to stay overnight.

DH and I ski, but the kids don't (yet ) and we are not planning on taking them skiing this year. The kids love outdoor activities, but we need to be realistic seeing as the twins will only be 21 months at the time. We took DS to the tube sliding at Mont Avila a few years ago and are considering going back this year, but it becomes difficult logistically with so many little ones.

I was discussing some options with my Mom last night and she is trying to be helpful but is really out of the loop on kid-friendly activities. We visit them a few times a year plus I lived there for 27 years, so I am familiar with all the major attractions in the area, but I'm wondering if there is anything new or some kid-friendly location/attraction that I am missing?

[MontrealMum]

I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier - Beth pm'ed me!

I don't know a whole lot about full service one-stop places here in the Montreal area, but I do know that you're on the right track to focus on a major ski area like Tremblant (Avila) or down in the townships at a place like Owl's Head or similar. We just don't have the Great Wolf Lodge type of thing here, but the ski resorts do offer a lot of family friendly activities.

You have 4 kids, right? We XC skiied with DS but certainly wouldn't have considered taking him Alpine at the age your youngest are at this point. Do you see yourselves splitting up at a ski center with one parent going alpine with the older ones, and the other doing something with the younger two? Or are you looking for something to do all together?

Give me some time to do a little asking around Since we live here we never go to places like that so I'm really not all that familiar with what we have here.

[mikeys_mom]

Thanks for the reply! I have been meaning to PM you, but got busy and distracted from vacation planning.

Yes, we have 4 kids. They will be 6, 4 and almost 22 months (twins) when we travel. We have problem splitting up for part of the time but would like to do some activities together. We have not ruled out alpine skiing 100% yet. If the weather is nice we might consider giving the older 2 a lesson. The only issue we have is that we hate the whole process of renting equipment and getting all geared up for an activity that will be pretty short lived. We plan to start them all on ski lessons back home in a year or two.

Hmm, I hadn't considered XC skiing. I know how and DH has done it once or twice. I think my parents might even have some equipment that the kids could use. Did your DS actually ski at that age or was he in a carrier? Have you done snowshoeing at all?

We spent a week at Tremblant with DS when he was a 14 months and had a great time but we did a lot of non-structured activities. Walked around the village, bought an inflatable sled and let him play at the base of the mountain with that, etc... and we put him in the childcare a couple of times so that DH and I could ski a bit. With our larger "gang" now, I am worried that type of trip will be a disaster so we want to have a few activities planned. A hotel with a nicer pool would be great, particularly if it has a slide into the pool.

I forgot about the Townships. I'll have to look into that.

[MontrealMum]

We XC ski with DS in a pulk/ski trailer...we've done both - you can definitely rent pulks at most of the XC areas here. But we also started him out on his own skis last year when he was about 2 yrs. 4 mos (my husband used to be on the QC National team - so he's a little nutty about starting this stuff early.) We'd let him play around on skis a bit and then stuff him and the equipment into the Chariot and pull him with us. He was better at it and had more stamina than I thought he would. We're buying him real skis this year (last year they were the strap-on over your regular boot type) I don't snowshoe myself but I do see parents with kids in Kelty style carriers on the trails - many of them run alongside the XC trails.

We usually XC ski in Parcs Quebec places (where you can also snowshoe): http://www.sepaq.com/pq/index.dot?language_id=1 You can check all trail conditions/facilities on the site if you do decide to go so that you're up to date on everything. The fees aren't the same at all of them, so be sure to check that too.

Here's the run-down on the ones close to Mtl:
-Tremblant, bit of a drive but if you're already up there, not bad. Trails are harder/longer than most and not always the best for new skiers. Very beautiful though.
-Orford - busy-ish, but great for a multi-skilled group. LOTS of families. Varied terrain.
-Bruno - very short drive from Mtl., gorgeous lodge, but usually too darned busy. People have to park on the road and walk in and the trails just aren't enjoyable on the weekends. Might be OK during the week
-Oka - another close drive from Mtl., great lodge and lots of families. Super flat; good Jack Rabbit program for kids. They also have ice skating on the lake and a slide thing for kids. Can be busy and often loses it's snow due to rain/melting.
-Boucherville - not groomed or track-set, totally flat.
-Yamaska - we've never gone skiing there. Honestly, it's on the way to Orford, so we just keep on going.

For alpine, I'll check around as we're only just considering getting back into it since DS was born. We *may* take him around a bit this year - Apparently they have some sort of Magic Carpet thing for kids out at Bruno and they also have night skiing and good rentals there. Many of the alpine places around here have babysitting facilities so that parents can ski. I've never used them, but our neighbors (with 2 kids) have. I think they put the younger in the babysitting and ski with the older sometimes.

I'll do a little more looking and get back to you. I know the Tremblant area/Laurentians is very popular with tourists because most of the stuff up there is full service, but there's a lot down in the Townships too. We tend to prefer to go to the Townships because the driving isn't as crazy.

[MontrealMum]

Your older two could definitely either alpine, XC or snowshoe. I just looked at their ages and your middle DD is a little more than half a year older than my DS. Most kids we know among our friends and at his school are starting things like skiing (alpine and XC) as well as ice skating when they turn 3.

With your younger two it might be better to either split up (2 kids per parent), or put them in babysitting or something while you both do an activity with the older two. Or you could try something like renting a double Chariot trailer if you want to XC. I don't know how bad it is towing more than one! Many XC areas only rent pulks which are single seaters, but I think some of the sporting good stores here rent Chariots which come in double or single options. Or you could each pull one twin. We really like having one parent "free" though when we take DS out. You're really hampered for turning with the trailer (DH does the pulling) so I do a lot of the running around after DS because it's easier for me to maneuver. With two older ones skiing on their own it might be better for one of you to pull both twins, and the other one to be freer to run after your older kids.

[mikeys_mom]

Thanks for all the information - very helpful! The different Parcs in the Townships look like great options for us with lots of activities. Orford sounds like it would work well. We are going during winter break, so I am sure everywhere will be busy.

My older have both been skating since about 15 months old, and DS plays hockey, so I am sure they would be ok skiing. It's the little two that make things more difficult. If we can figure out the logistics, XC skiing sounds like fun. It's been a good 15 years since I have done XC, hopefully it's like riding a bike, that you just remember what to do. I run 2-3 times a week, so I'm not concerned about endurance or fitness level, just technique. I am the more experienced skier of the two of us, so I will probably be delegated to pulling the girls if we use a double chariot.

We took DS alpine skiing around here a couple of times and he rode on a magic carpet to get up the hill. It's like a moving sidewalk at the airport, going up the bunny hill.

Now I've got to try and see if there are any hotels or condos in the area that would work for us or if we just make it a day trip from my parent's place.

[MontrealMum]

Here's the place that I was thinking about for renting trailers:
http://www.lacordee.com/fre/Location/27801.cfm they're down by the Jacques Cartier bridge in the East end (that's the one we usually go to). There's also one up in Laval.
...and I see under Equipment Rental for Oka that they have Chariot carriers:
http://www.sepaq.com/pq/oka/information.dot
Orford only seems to have Babygliders, which is the pulk-style I was talking about:
http://www.sepaq.com/pq/mor/information.dot
...and Tremblant doesn't seem to rent either: http://www.sepaq.com/pq/mot/information.dot , basically they just rent the skiing equipment
(Those are the 3 parcs I'd recommend)

I can check out hotels/condos later tonight. We have a place (condo) we always stay at down in the Orford area that I can pm you later as well.