Winter Day Trip To Southern Quebec from New England
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Sometimes you just need to take a last minute trip out of the country. So, that’s exactly what I did this week! I spent some time in southern Quebec right over the U.S. border. One of the great things about living in New England is that Canada is easily accessible by car. From southeastern Connecticut where I live, it’s 4.5 hours to the Canadian border. For people in northern New England, it’s definitely a bit easier to day trip to Canada.
The Initial Plan
My brother is into snowboarding and he usually asks me if I’d like to tag along while he checks out different ski resorts in the Northeast that are on his Ikon Pass and Indy Pass. This week, he wanted to go to Jay Peak in Vermont.
The plan was to stay around White River Junction, which was two hours from Jay Peak, and then finish the drive in the morning. But, we decided to just cross into Canada at the last minute. It was only 15 minutes further to go to Owl’s Head in Mansonville, Quebec instead of Jay Peak in Jay, Vermont.
Where We Stayed On The Way Up
Our trip started Sunday night, but it was really just a travel day. We got to our hotel in Lebanon, New Hampshire around 8:30pm. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Hanover Lebanon. I can’t say that I would recommend the hotel if you’re looking for a place to stay in the area. There were mixed reviews on Google, but our experience definitely wasn’t great. Thankfully we were really just there to sleep.
The restaurant and bar that was supposed to be open until 9pm was not open, so we went without dinner. The room we booked had a king bed and a pullout couch, but the pullout couch didn’t have any sheets on it, so my brother had to go request sheets and a blanket. I’ll leave out details, but it was not pleasant when he went down to the lobby to request those. The staff was friendly, but there just happened to be an incident at the hotel where police had to come.
Exploring Southern Quebec’s Eastern Townships Region
From Lebanon, New Hampshire, it was about a two hour and twenty minute drive to get to Owl’s Head in Quebec. We left the hotel at 6am and grabbed breakfast to-go at Dunkin in Lebanon before heading north. It was brutally cold and we saw temperatures as low as negative 19 degrees Fahrenheit.
I dropped my brother off at Owl’s Head before heading off to do some exploring on my own. While I hadn’t been to Owl’s Head before, I had previously explored in Quebec within an hour of Owl’s Head.
Owl’s Head is situated on Lake Memphremagog and I’d done some exploring around the lake and surrounding area during my fall trip to Quebec in 2024. The area is super scenic, so I was really excited to explore it in the winter.
My first stop was Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, which is a monastery overlooking Lake Memphremagog. I had visited this spot during my fall trip in 2024, but it was really crowded and difficult to get nice photographs of the building. I figured it would be a bit quieter in the winter and beautiful with snow.
While this spot is open year-round, I decided not to go inside because I had toured it previously. There’s a store inside that sells homemade products such as cheese, ciders, and apple products. I didn’t have a cooler or anything to be able to bring anything back with me so it didn’t make sense for me to go into the store either.
After I left the monastery, I pulled off along the side of the road to photograph some Highland cows. They were in a scenic spot that had a nice backdrop of mountains. Thankfully the road to the monastery wasn’t busy at all so I was able to spend time photographing them mostly uninterrupted. It was so cold though that I did stay in my car the whole time.
Once I had my fill with the Highland cows, I headed to a spot along Lake Memphremagog that overlooks Owl’s Head. The spot is a residential boat launch that I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to access during the regular season. I snapped a couple of photos and sent them to my brother who was snowboarding on the mountain.
After, I decided to head to Magog. I wanted to visit the park along the water that I’d visited previously. I was shocked to see that there was an ice skating path along the lake where the parks are. If I had thought to bring ice skates, I would have loved to skate there!
Instead, I just stayed on the path meant for walkers. It was pretty cold, so I really didn’t stay out that long. If I had thrown on my ski pants, I would have been okay, but I don’t love putting on layers unless I absolutely have to.
After my quick stop in Magog, I decided to head to Eastman, which was where I stayed during my last trip to the area. It’s a super cute small town that has a ton of little parks, many which are along various lakes. The first stop I made was at a rest area along Orford Lake. This is a great spot to view and photograph Mount Orford. Thankfully a small portion of the parking lot was plowed!
Then, I headed to Parc J.-C. Marc-Aurèle because I couldn’t not go to the park that basically has my last name in it. This small park is tucked away in a neighborhood and thankfully the small parking area was mostly plowed and someone had shoveled a path to the lake. The park is located on the shores of Parker Lake and it has some seriously great mountain views.
After, I tried to go to another park I visited previously, Petite-Rivière Park, which is along Lake Argent. This park was actually walking distance from our Airbnb we stayed at in the fall. Unfortunately, the park wasn’t accessible because of the snow.
After attempting that park, I decided to head into town because there are cute buildings there. However, there was so much snow in front of them, it wasn’t worth stopping for photos. I did however pull of to photograph some sculptures at Serres Noel Simard, which is a garden center. I’d love to visit this spot during the warmer months.
After, I decided to go back to Owl’s Head to pick up my brother. He had been able to snowboard the entire mountain in a couple of hours, so he was looking to try and go to another resort nearby. He tried going to Mount Sutton in Sutton, Quebec, but at the resort, he learned he could only do one resort a day with his pass.
Since we were already in town, we decided to grab lunch in Sutton. The town was super cute with and full of historic charm. We grabbed lunch at Auberge Sutton Brouërie. This spot is an inn with a microbrewery.
The food we had was absolutely delicious. My brother got traditional poutine and I got mac and cheese with maple ham. The ham had so much flavor. I’m not really someone who loves ham, but wow, I’d eat that ham again.
For drinks, he got a beer and I got a hot chocolate. When I’m in the United States, it’s usually a gamble getting a hot chocolate from a restaurant. I’m usually disappointed by powdered hot chocolate mix in water. That was not the case here. My hot chocolate was coffee shop quality. It was seriously so good.
After lunch, we did a little bit of sightseeing. There were some historic buildings that were of interest to me, so I stopped and took a couple of photos of them and read the informational signs. I’d definitely love to visit this town again in the future when it’s warmer.
Some Stops In Vermont On The Way Home
After Sutton, we decided to start making our way back to Connecticut. Since we were going to be driving through northern Vermont, I decided we’d hit some historic covered bridges on the way back. Vermont has around 100 historic, authentic covered bridges. It has the highest density of such bridges per square mile in the United States. So, it was not hard to find a bunch of covered bridges to check out that were directly on the way home.
Before we made it to the first covered bridge, we came across a very nice overlook of what I believe is Jay Peak from Berkshire, Vermont. There was a large pull-off that made it easy to safely pull off and take photos.
After snapping some photos, we headed to the first covered bridge of the trip, Hopkins Covered Bridge. This town lattice type bridge was built by the Jewett Brothers in 1875. It’s in the town of Enosburg Falls, Vermont and it goes across the Trout River.
Not far from the Hopkins Bridge is the Longley Covered Bridge. This bridge is also in Enosburg Falls, built by the Jewett Brothers, and built in the town lattice style. However, this bridge was built in 1863, making it over ten years older than the Hopkins Bridge.
Next up was the Comstock Covered Bridge in Montgomery, Vermont (not to be confused with the Comstock Covered Bridge on the Colchester and East Hampton border in Connecticut). This was another bridge built by the Jewett Brothers in the town lattice style. This bridge was built in 1883.
On the way to the next bridge, we drove through what I believe was the center of Montgomery. There were some historic buildings that caught my eye, so I pulled off to snap some photos. There was a historical society, which is housed in a historic church, and an inn and restaurant, The Black Lantern Inn.
The next bridge was the Fuller Covered Bridge, which is yet another bridge built by the Jewett Brothers. This bridge was built in 1890 and it was built over Black Falls Brook. This was the last of the many covered bridges that the Jewett Brothers built.
After Fuller Covered Bridge, we attempted to go to the Hutchins Covered Bridge. However, it seemed that the road it is on was not plowed, so it was not accessible. We did find a historic marker though for Hectorville Covered Bridge. The bridge was one of four bridges built in 1883 by the Jewett brothers in Montgomery Village. The bridge was dismantled and placed in storage in 2002.
Our last covered bridge was in Stowe, but we decided to stop at Rock Art Brewery on the way to the bridge. This brewery had both a tasting room and a local art gallery. The owner told us that they represent 80 different local artists, which is super cool. There were some really great art pieces in the brewery.
It also just seemed like a great place to hang out since they had games around the tasting room. If we weren’t trying to make it back to Connecticut at a reasonable hour, we probably would have stayed there longer.
When we left the brewery, we headed to Stowe to check out the Gold Brook Covered Bridge. This bridge was built around 1844, and it is one of the earliest applications of the Howe truss. This bridge is the only covered bridge remaining in Stowe.
It’s also supposedly haunted by a woman named Emily who ended her life there. She was supposed to meet her lover at the bridge at midnight to elope, but he never showed up. When I went, I didn’t experience anything spooky, but I did get there before sunset.
After the bridge, I was ready to head home, but my brother insisted we stop in Waterbury, Vermont to stop at Prohibition Pig. When we got there, we found it closed for a private event. Since we were already in town, we made a quick stop at Cask & Cork across the street, which had a tasting room and wine bar.
Thankfully for me, this was a relatively quick stop. When my brother finished his beer, it was time for me to finish the drive home, which was about four hours. I would like to go back to Waterbury in the future though to check out Ben & Jerry’s (the one with the Flavor Graveyard) and grab a bite to eat at Prohibition Pig.
Final Thoughts
While it was a pretty long travel day for me, I did enjoy the day. I was really excited to be able to explore Quebec’s Eastern Townships Region in the winter. I’m already plotting my return to the region once the weather gets warmer to do some more exploring. I love how accessible the region is from New England and I love all of the cute small towns and their history.
While Quebec was definitely the main highlight, I did really enjoy my time in Vermont on the drive back to Connecticut. I’ve been slowly trying to work my way through Vermont’s covered bridges, so I was really happy to check off five bridges in northern Vermont. It’s not often that I make the drive up there.
If I were to do it again, I’d definitely do at least two nights in Quebec to give myself time to slow down and truly enjoy the area. Day trips are fun, but when they’re that far from home, it’s hard to slow down because you need to be mindful of time.
And while most people can speak English, I’d like to work on my French before my next trip. I took at least 7 years of French in school, but I am pretty rusty from not practicing. My family tree traces back to Quebec (not shocking with the last name MarcAurele) and I’d love to connect more with the area and the culture.
I wish I had spent more time in Quebec during the 4 years I was in Vermont. It is such a beautiful area! Your covered bridge photos are inspiring me to want to pay another visit to this area.