Photo: Wilfredor (CC0)

Premium · Walking Tour

Québec CityThe Walled City & Place-Royale

Walk the only walled city north of Mexico. Champlain built his Habitation in 1608 on the shore at Place-Royale, where the Lower Town still stands on the colony's original street plan; above it the Upper Town holds the seminary, the Ursuline monastery and the basilica that has been rebuilt after every fire and every siege. The ramparts a visitor walks today are largely British works finished after 1763 on French foundations, and they end at the Plains of Abraham, where a battle lasting under half an hour in 1759 killed both commanders and decided the fate of New France.

Hear a sample narration
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline

62 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.

Going somewhere with no signal? Download on wi-fi before you set off — keep the screen open while it saves — then add it to your home screen so you can find it again. It works in airplane mode, with no roaming charges. Show me how to save it →

62 narration points ~88 minutes Haute-Ville, Basse-Ville, the ramparts and the Plains of Abraham
Verified Sources

Where the facts come from

Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.

  1. 1

    Built from the record

    Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.

  2. 2

    Checked against the authority

    Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.

  3. 3

    Anything unsupported is cut

    Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.

  4. 4

    A person signs it off

    Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.

Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.

The Tour

Explore Old Québec

Haute-Ville — the Upper Town

The basilica, the seminary and the Ursuline monastery, Place d'Armes and the Château Frontenac on the cliff above the river.

25 narration points
🛡️
The ramparts and the Citadelle

The gates, the powder magazine and the star fort on Cap Diamant — a French line of defence finished by the British and still garrisoned today.

17 narration points
Basse-Ville and Place-Royale

Where Champlain landed in 1608 and the colony actually began: Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, the Petit-Champlain and the wharves below the cliff.

11 narration points
Highlights

Sites that define Québec City

Château Frontenac
1893

The most photographed hotel in the world, and not a castle — a Canadian Pacific railway hotel by the American architect Bruce Price, built to sell the railway as much as the view.

Place-Royale and Notre-Dame-des-Victoires
1608 and 1688

The square where Champlain raised the Habitation, and the oldest stone church in Canada still standing on its original walls.

Citadelle de Québec
1820–1850

The star fort on Cap Diamant, begun by the British on French works and still home to the Royal 22e Régiment.

Terrasse Dufferin
1838

The boardwalk above the river, laid over the buried ruins of the Château Saint-Louis where the governors of New France actually lived.

Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame de Québec
1647

Seat of the first Roman Catholic diocese in North America north of Mexico, burned and rebuilt after fire and after the bombardment of 1759.

Plains of Abraham
1759

The battlefield above the cliffs where Wolfe and Montcalm were both killed and New France effectively ended, now a park in the middle of the city.

How It Works

Walk. Listen. See what they saw.

1
Open the tour

Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 62 narration points.

2
Walk at your pace

Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.

3
Hear the stories

Each site has its own narration — history, architecture, and the stories behind them. 62 narration points across the Upper Town, the Lower Town and the fortifications, in English and Québec French.

What You Get

A companion through Old Québec, from Place-Royale to the Plains of Abraham

📍
GPS-Triggered

Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.

🎤
Studio-Quality Voice

Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.

📚
Fact-Checked Twice

Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.

🗺
Interactive Map

See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.

🏛
62 Sites

Every significant point inside the walls and the ground just beyond them. The great monuments get deep dives; the gates, chapels and small museums get focused stories.

Your Own Pace

Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.

Common Questions

How it works

It’s not just GPS — what are the ways to trigger a narration?

Three ways, all built in:

  • GPS-triggered (default): walk near a site, the narration starts automatically.
  • Tap any marker on the map: open the map view, tap any of the 62 markers to play that narration on demand — no walking required.
  • Queue controls: pause, skip, replay any narration; the queue auto-advances as you walk.

The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.

Do I need cell service or data while I’m there?

No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.

How do I make it work with no signal — and open it again later?

Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.

  1. Tap Download for offline above. It opens the guide.
  2. Put that page on your home screen — steps below.
  3. Open the guide from the new icon and download it there, on wi-fi. Keep the screen open until it finishes.

Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):

  1. Tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Tap Share.
  3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.

If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.

What if my phone’s GPS is unreliable?

Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.

How long is the tour and how much time do I need?

The audio runs ~88 minutes total, but you walk at your own pace. 62 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.

Can I share with my partner or family?

One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.

What if I never use the tour, or never make it to the site?

Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.

Walk the only walled city north of Mexico
62 narration points, in English and Québec French. Place-Royale, the Upper Town, the ramparts and the Plains of Abraham.
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline
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