Château Frontenac, Dufferin Terrace, the 1884 Toboggan Slide & Fort Saint-Louis

Crowning the 60-metre cliff of Cap Diamant like a Loire Valley castle, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is the symbol of Quebec City and holds the Guinness World Record as the most photographed hotel on Earth. Designed by architect Bruce Price for the Canadian Pacific Railway and opened in 1893 (with its 18-storey central tower added in 1924), this Châteauesque landmark hosted Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Lyon Mackenzie King during the 1943 and 1944 Quebec Conferences that planned the D-Day Normandy landings.

1. Can Non-Guests Go Inside Château Frontenac?

Even if you are not sleeping at the hotel, anyone may walk inside the ground-floor public lobbies, shopping arcade and bars for free:

• The Rose-Marble Lobby, Display Windows & 1608 Bar: enter through the grand courtyard porte-cochère off Rue Saint-Louis to admire the wood-panelled lobby, brass mail chutes and museum display cases exhibiting artefacts from the hotel's 130-year history. For a treat without booking a room, order a cocktail or Quebec artisanal cheese board overlooking the St. Lawrence River at 1608 Wine & Cheese Bar, or book a 1-hour guided heritage tour via Cicérone in 19th-century period costume.

2. Dufferin Terrace, The 1884 Toboggan Slide & Underground Fort Saint-Louis

Directly outside the hotel doors stretches Dufferin Terrace (Terrasse Dufferin), a 430-metre wooden boardwalk punctuated by six green-and-white Victorian kiosks named after French and British governors:

1. The Archaeological Crypt of Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux: look down through the glass skylights embedded in the boardwalk planks. Directly beneath Dufferin Terrace lie the excavated stone foundations of Fort Saint-Louis (1620 to 1834), the residence of Samuel de Champlain and the French and British Governors of Canada for over 200 years. Step down the Parks Canada staircase to walk through the subterranean stone vaults.
2. The 1884 Wooden Toboggan Slide (Mid-December to Mid-March): every winter for over 140 years, visitors climb the wooden tower at the southern end of Dufferin Terrace and speed down three icy chutes on a traditional wooden toboggan at up to 70 km/h (45 mph) toward the Château Frontenac.
3. The Promenade des Gouverneurs (310 Steps to the Plains of Abraham): from the toboggan slide, follow the cliff-hugging wooden staircase boardwalk around the Citadelle walls to the Plains of Abraham.