Once we were outside of Gare du Palais, I hailed Uber to come pick us up and take us to our hotel, the
Chateau Frontenac. We were dropped off at the main portico where the bellman took our luggage and handed me a ticket to give to the front desk at check-in. I went right up the dedicated check-in line for Fairmont's President's Club member which I am a member of where I was greeted with a Bon Jour, and I replied back in French. Then the agent switched to English and welcomed me to the hotel before asking for my name. She found my information and informed me that since I booked through Chase's Luxury Hotel Collection, that I was given a room upgrade to a junior suite and then she proceeded to list off all of the benefits that I would be getting with the Chase LHC rate. Breakfast for two was included in the LHC rate along with a $100 CAD food and beverage credit. There was a long list of other benefits such as late checkout which we would not be using. I was given keys to our room and told the agent "merci beaucoup" before grabbing my parents and heading up to our room.
Once we entered our room, the first impression of the room was OMG it is big. When I was told that we were upgraded to a junior suite, I figured we would be getting a slightly bigger room with a extra sofa or something like what we stayed in at the
Marriott Copenhagen in May. Our junior suite for the next two nights was a good 2.5 times the size of a typical standard deluxe room at a SPG or Marriott property. There was a walk in closet which itself could have been a small bedroom in New York. Our separate living room still had more than enough space to sleep couple extra people on the floor if you wanted on top of the pullout bed which the sofa converts into. The bedroom had two double beds with each room having its own TV. The only thing that was tiny in our room was the bathroom which no one minded at all. On top of the TV stand was a welcome card from the hotel and a small tin of Chateau Frontenac chocolates.
Both mornings, we had breakfast at the
Chateau Frontenac's Place Dufferin Restaurant. Breakfast for two people were included in the LHC rate and the $100CAD food and beverage credit more than covered the third persons breakfast. We were given the same table by the window with a view of the boardwalk and the St Lawerence River both mornings. My mom liked the view the first morning and when I requested it the second morning, the manager who escorted us to our table gave us the same one. Breakfast was buffet style with a separate pastry station that had killer croissants and other French style pastries. An omelette bar was available but the three of us did not partake in it. The maple bacon was hit with my mom and dad. The staff here were all friendly and always smiling. When the cooks working at the omelette bar saw me taking pictures, they asked if I wanted to take one of them. I said absolutely and snapped a few of the cooks. She asked me if the camera broke after taking their pictures and I told her ABSOLUTELY NOT, and said it was the best picture of the day! Generally staff members anywhere are camera shy but these two were really good sport!
To be honest, I thought the breakfast and pastries here at the
Chateau Frontenac was Wayyyyyy better than the much more expensive breakfast that I had in Paris at the Novotel Le Hales in 2015. This may upset some Frenchman but during my trip in Quebec City, I thought the French Canadiens baked better pastries.
Even if your breakfast isn't included like our were, I definitely recommend that anyone visiting Quebec City have breakfast here at the
Chateau Frontenac. One elderly couple on our first morning came off the cruise ship and purposely came up to the hotel just for the breakfast buffet. At the table were small jars of assorted jams and honey which btw the honey is from the bees that the hotel keeps on the roof of the hotel. Both mornings, I took the honey jars with me as a souvenir.
Turndown service was offered each evening which included a second housekeeping service, the ice bucket filled with ice, maple shaped and flavored candy left on the bed and the beds turned down for sleeping with any decorative items removed.
Since the Chateau Frontenac is a tourist destination in itself, the lobby and the outside of the hotel was crowded with tourists that had been offloaded from their tour buses. What was annoying was they would all crowd around the mailbox located in between the elevators taking group pictures which prevented us and other hotel guests from using the elevator freely, or we could not get out of the elevator since there was a mob waiting to take pictures.
More pictures from
Chateau Frontenac Hotel