Today, you depart for your Magdalen Islands adventure!

Arrive on the Magdalen Islands mid-morning and meet your tour guide for an information session followed by lunch at Café D’Chez Nous.

After lunch, depart for a tour of L'Anse-aux-Baleiniers and North Dune Beach.

L'Anse-aux-Baleiniers is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area due to its beautiful beach and wooden walkways. Enjoy the exquisite scenery and then cross over to North Dune Beach. Linking two islands to-gether, North Dune Beach is a site to see. With stunning water, soft sand, and the feeling of standing on an island with large bod-ies of water on both sides, you’ll be surprised at the beauty of it all.

Later on, take a scenic drive towards La Belle Anse and walk along the cliffside where the sea has formed breathtaking rock formations over hundreds of years. In some places, the sea has aided in collapsing some of the arches leaving only lone columns standing in the midst of the erratic waves.

Lastly, visit L’Etang-du-Nord Light-house. Built in 1847 for the purpose of warning mariners of Dead Man’s Island and mark the western shore of the Mag-dalen Islands, it also marked the end of the murky ghost-ship legends of Dean Man’s Island. To mark the end of your first day on this magnificent island, check into your hotel, Chateau Madelinot, and enjoy dinner at the hotel. 

After breakfast today, you will visit La Fromagerie Pied De Vent, a local cheese factory. The factory was initially started with a desire to share the knowledge and delicacy of cheese made with the ingredients produced directly on the island. One of those in-gredients is the milk produced by the herd of Canadian heritage cows raised just steps from the factory at Le Ferme Arseneau. The most popular cheese the factory pro-duces is called Pied-de-Vent and has be-come a staple not only on the island, but in many areas around the country.

Visit any restaurant within the archipelago and you’ll have an opportunity to test this cheese, however, to taste any of their new gourmet cheese, Tommes des Demoiselles (aged with Corne de Brune beer directly from À l'abri de la Tempête microbrewery) you can only get it directly from the source—the factory! Dinner tonight will be on your own with an overnight at the Chateau Madelinot.

Following this, depart for a tour of one of the most popular businesses on the archipelago; Le Fumoir d’Antan, a smokehouse specializing in smoked fish. This smokehouse is not just any smokehouse, however, as it has a very nota-ble history.

In the early 20th century, the Islands were famous throughout most of the world as the delicacy required great craftsmanship. With the short-age of smoked herring during WWII, the Islands began exporting their fa-mous herring in abundance. But when overfishing resulted in near ex-tinction of this popular fish in the mid-20th century, nearly all of the 40 smokehouses in the archipelago were forced to close their doors.

In the 1990s, however, herring had grown a huge popula-tion in the area and family-owned smokehouses, including La Fumoir d’Antan, were once again able to offer their famous smoked herring with a goal to continue the herit-age and traditional smoking methods passed down through 3 generations.

Just before lunch, you will visit the South Dune Beach. Spreading over 22 km in length, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the red cliffs and red sandstone caves sculpted by the sea.

Enjoy lunch at the Auberge La Salicorneprepared with fresh, local ingredients.

This afternoon, enjoy three more interesting locations:

• Mines Seleine’s Interpretation Center: A local museum showcasing the importance of salt—something we all take for granted at dinnertime–and its importance to our very survival
• Old Harry Beach: Making up the coastline of the East Point National Wildlife Reserve, this beach seems to go on forever. Walk it to the end and you may see seals playing in the water. Enjoy some free time here where you can also visit La Maison de Potier Studio and Boutique.
• Grande Entrée: Québec's lobster capital, this port harbours more than 100 brightly coloured fish-ingboats. Go down to the pier and hang out for a while with the fishermen. You'll get a good feel for the im-portance of the traditional fishing methods.

Following breakfast this morning, depart your hotel for Le Site D'Autrefois, roughly translat-ed to “The Site of Another Time.” Le Site depicts the Islands throughout the years. You will have an opportunity to visit a tra-ditional house and farmhouse. Al-so, sprawled throughout are min-iature villages built to replicate what the islands looked like in years passed. You will be guid-ed through by a Madelinot fisherman and shipwreck survivor, who will deliver an entertaining interpretation of the lives of fisherman through stories and song.

Afterwards, travel the scenic route through the villages of Bas-sin, La Montagne, and Etang-du-Corps. Glimpse beautiful land-scapes, 19th century homes painted in vivid colours, L’Anse-à-la-Cabane lighthouse—the oldest still-functioning lighthouse, built in 1871—and Le Rocher du Corps Mort (Dead Body Rock); an uninhabited rock formation in the middle of the Golf of St Lawrence.

Before lunch, you will stop at La Baraque Art Gallery where you will view paintings and sculpture rich in passion, col-our, and quality.

You will then have lunch at Auberge Chez Denis A Francois, a bright, spacious restaurant along the water that offers all the seafood you could dream of and a quaint island-life feel.

Following lunch, you will visit La Musée de la Mer which has a permanent exhibit that examines the history of the Islands through models of ships and lighthouses, photographs and maritime objects that depict the development of navigation throughout the years, stories and history of fishing and seal hunt-ing, and recounts of shipwrecks along the Gulf. Additionally, view beautiful collections of min-erals, shells, and rocks from the Island and the adjoining sea. Afterwards, you will visit La Grave, which is a traditional his-torical site with unique character and architecture and is a fascinating testimonial to the past. Extending over the pebble beach, La Grave was the site of the Islands' first settlement as well as the beginning of the archipelago's fishery.

Dinner tonight will be on your own with an overnight at the Chateau Madelinot. 

Start today off with breakfast at the hotel and then depart for Saint-Pierre-de-La Vernière Church in Lavernière. Built in 1876, it is the second largest wooden church in North Ameri-ca. But what makes this church even more amazing is that the wood used for the building was retrieved from shipwrecks and had been blessed before its con-struction. Due to all this, and so much more, this church holds a very special place in the Mag-dalinot heritage.

Afterwards, enjoy some free time at La Côté followed by a visit to Parc de Gros Cap (a stunning location that offers panoramic sea views. See, hear and smell the ocean as far as the eyes can see)stopping first at La Renais-sancefor lunch. Watch as they create their world-famous Lob-ster Rolls right in front of you while you enjoy the quaint am-bience of your surroundings (other lunch options are availa-ble, as well).

Enjoy a glass blowing demonstration close by and then visit L’Abri de la Tempete Microbrewery. Started by two women in 2002, this microbrewery works to honour the distinctive terri-tory of the archipelago through its beer and its menu. The creation of taste meshes with the various ac-tors and artisans of the Islands and is the heart and spirit of the company

This evening, enjoy a wonderful farewell dinner at Le Domaine du Vieux Couvent, a century-old con-vent converted into what is now a very popular Inn and res-taurant. Following dinner, transfer back to your hotel. 

ALL INCLUSIVE CANADA PLAN

CANCELLATION/INTERRUPTION INSURANCE ONLY

Cancellation coverage valid mainly for medically-related reasons.