Wendake (Huron-Wendat Indigenous Nation), Onhoüa Chetek8e, Kabir Kouba Waterfall & Sainte-Anne Canyon

Long before French explorers sailed up the St. Lawrence River, the St. Lawrence Valley was the homeland of Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous peoples. Today, located just 15 kilometres (20 minutes by car, taxi or seasonal shuttle bus) north of Old Quebec completely surrounded by the modern city, sits the self-governing urban territory of Wendake, home to the Huron-Wendat Nation, one of the most welcoming and culturally rich Indigenous destinations in Canada.

1. Visiting Wendake (20 Mins North of Old Quebec)

Anchored along the rushing Akiawenrahk' (Saint-Charles) River, Wendake offers four extraordinary experiences within a 10-minute walk of one another:

1. The Huron-Wendat Museum & Ekionkiestha' National Longhouse: built in the shape of a traditional bent-sapling Iroquois/Wendat village palisade right inside the luxury Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations, the museum safeguards priceless wampum belts, moccasins and snowshoes. Join a Huron-Wendat guide inside the Ekionkiestha' Longhouse, and return after dark for Onhwa' Lumina, an enchanting 1.2-kilometre multimedia night-walk through the forest created with Moment Factory.
2. Site Traditionnel Huron Onhoüa Chetek8e: walk through a reconstructed traditional village to see how birchbark canoes, snowshoes and smoked meat are made, watch traditional dances, and dine on bannock bread, sagamité corn-and-venison soup, wapiti elk and wild blueberries at La Traite or Nek8arre.
3. Kabir Kouba Waterfall ('The River of a Thousand Detours'): right behind the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Church (1730), a free wooden boardwalk trail traces a 28-metre waterfall plunging into a 42-metre-deep, 450-million-year-old Ordovician limestone canyon rich in fossils.

2. Canyon Sainte-Anne & Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Basilica (30 Mins East of Quebec City)

Driving 20 minutes east past Montmorency Falls along Route 138 brings you first to the monumental twin-spired Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (North America's oldest pilgrimage shrine, founded in 1658 and famous for its 240 stained-glass windows and ceiling mosaics), and 6 km further to Canyon Sainte-Anne, where a roaring 74-metre waterfall carves through 1.2-billion-year-old Precambrian rock crossed by three dizzying suspension footbridges, including one hanging 60 metres above the gorge.