Auberge Place d'Armes — Hotel in Quebec

HIGHLIGHTS: *Great location. *Super staff. *Well-appointed, clean rooms that are not musty and nicely decorated. *Our attic room was quiet with a very comfortable (firmish) mattress.

GOOD TO KNOW: *No elevator. Carrying up your bags is roughly equivalent to scaling K2 with a grand piano. Let the bellman do it. *No parking. Let the bellman do it.

DON'T MISS: *Learning about the hotel's history. *Looking through Ziba just down the street. *Walking the nearby battlements next to the Chateau, climbing the steps up taking the path around to the Citadel. *Eating breakfast outside in one of the outdoor cafes in front of the hotel.

IN DETAIL...

Let's face it: booking a small hotel like this one is a bit of a gamble. We hope to nail that elusive blend of charming location, authentic character and a really good sleep. Good news! This time the dice came up in our favor.

The Auberge Place d'Armes is ideally situated in front of the Chateau Frontenac in the best part of the old city. Old Quebec isn't a thrill-a-minute amusement park like some historical sites elsewhere. It's more a contemplative place with paths and greens zones for relaxing and walking and loads of restaurants (of varying quality) for eating and drinking.

Out the front door and across the cobble stone street is a large green space plaza and fountain. There's often street performers somewhere nearby. A little over to the left are the wide-open battlements featuring gorgeously dizzying views of the St. Lawrence all the way to the bottom of the steps which lead up to a trail around the back of the old city walls, ending finally at the Citadel and the Plaines d'Abraham on the far side.

Or, turn right from the hotel front door and choose from the bustling streetside cafe restaurants. Follow that street down and to the right for some of old Quebec's best shopping (I really liked the middle eastern store called Ziba - my wife is Persian and I can confirm the stuff is authentic... though pricey).

The hotel feels historic. It's a sense you'll probably share as you drag your suitcases up three narrow flights of stairs to your attic room - no elevators here. You drag your bag as people have done for three centuries. Or just get the fit and friendly porter to do it. Come on you cheapo! It's a holiday. The porter can also park you car which I highly advise, although the 26 dollar hit is a bit painful (plus tip, of course).

The front desk folks are very friendly and helpful. The manager actually gave us a quick history of the hotel that I enjoyed: It was a wax museum in its last incarnation before becoming a lodge and the owner still has all the lifesize figures. Wouldn't it be cool climbing into bed with Champlain? No? Never mind. Anyway, it's a great bunch working at this place. We didn't eat at the restaurant adjoining the hotel but it looked fine. I felt it was being a bit oversold by the staff but later learned it is indeed very good.

Amazingly, I found our attic room to be cozy and quiet, despite the crowds down below. The room had almost everything we could want (except a large mirror) and included a walk-in shower (a biggie for me in hotel rooms) and perfect furnishings. I was astonished that the room smelled so fresh and clean. I was cautioned that sometimes the walls can become a bit moist if there's heavy rain - this summer has been dry and hot so maybe that explains why everything seemed perfect.

Great hotel, great staff, great location... and book early (3 months prior) for a...

The Pros: For those who want to be right in the middle of the action in upper town, this hotel is situated perfectly. Plenty of restaurants just feet away from the front door or a short walk away. We always felt safe after dark, as there were plenty of people around.|The cons (our fault): We prefer a quiet hotel, and this one comes with noise. We were on the third floor. On the first floor of the hotel is a restaurant that closes at 10:30 and it plays recorded music that we could hear all evening. Even with a white noise machine, we could hear the never-ending beat of the bass drum. After 10:30pm, we heard the rolling of dumpsters and the breaking down of outside tables and chairs. More of the same early in the morning. We thought we were getting a nice view of the Frontenac, but that was blocked by trees in the plaza, albeit they were brilliant in fall color. Next time we will opt for a boutique hotel a couple of blocks from the main action, and there are many of them.|Another con (no one’s fault): In the morning at 7am, an excavator started work on digging up an old walkway and retaining wall literally 20 feet in front of the hotel. Scrape, scoop, dump, beep-beep-beep all day—glad we were out and about most of the day. Just bad timing for us, but a classy hotel would have comped us with a breakfast at the downstairs restaurant, a bottle of wine, maybe a slight discount on the room, etc. This construction (Oct 2025) may be going on a while, so you might want to check in advance if you want to sleep late.|The cons (hotel issues): The digital door lock for the room was VERY frustrating. The hotel will send a text a couple of days before arrival, which provides a link to a digital key. Each time we used the digital key, it took an average of trying 5 or 6 times before the door would unlock. I guess the permanently installed A/C was maybe broken, but in its place was a suitcase-sized portable A/C unit sitting on a table by the window. A vent tube ran from a modified window pane to the unit—as a result, half of the small window was lost to the vent, plus the unit blocked any way to go to the window to look out. The vent prevented the window curtain from closing, letting in lots of light. The unit had no instructions, so it was trial and error. The mattress and furniture have seen its day. A four-foot-square window between the bedroom and bathroom provided a nice view of the toilet—at least there was a pulldown shade. As for the aforementioned restaurant music, it seems that the hotel could negotiate a lesser volume and shutoff time.|Summary: Granted this is a vintage hotel with its inherent quirks, and some travelers may prefer to be in the center of the action (kind of like Bourbon Street), but if you want to retire to a quiet setting after a long day of sightseeing, you should...

Long story short this hotel is great! We came from a nightmare Airbnb in Quebec and had to get out. We found Auberge Place D'Armes online the night before (this is a Saturday night looking for a place to stay from Sunday to Monday). It was one of the very few hotels we could find an available room for at a reasonable price (more than we would like but SO worth it). We called the hotel the night before to ask if we could keep our luggage there while we waited for our room to be ready (this is at about midnight), whoever we talked to was super nice and helpful and said yes of course. The next morning we followed our GPS to take us to the hotel. We were so surprised and ecstatic that the hotel was right in Quebec City, looking right at the Chateau Frontenac! It was a great location. We walked into the hotel and the woman at the desk was so nice and very helpful in asking us if we had been to Quebec before, where we had been during our stay, and told us what was going on that day/evening in Old Quebec (which we took her reccomendation and we had a blast!). She gave us a coupon for free breakfast crepes (delicious!), she also gave us a 15% off lunch or dinner coupon, and a coupon for free breakfast in the morning (which unfortunately we couldn't do as we had a train to catch). We left our luggage there and were out until we could check into the room. We decided to have dinner at the hotel since we could get 15% off. The staff was very helpful about what time would be best to eat there, and the times its busiest and slowest. The menu had a great variety of selections and the staff was so friendly! I ordered the beef cheek (which was so good, and I've never had it before), and for dessert I ordered the chocolate mousse, also delicious. My friend posted a picture of our meal on Facebook (we have the same birthday which is why we were in Quebec to celebrate), and the hotel commented on our photo saying Happy Birthday and enjoy the meal! The staff even came over and wished us a happy birthday! It was so nice and made our birthday so special! The cost of our meal I can't remember but it was less than what I had expected which is always a plus. Our hotel room was super cute, quaint, very clean and we just loved it! The bed was super comfortable too (and I consider myself a little picky when it comes to hotel beds). We loved the whole experience of the hotel, and the staff made our birthday an even more amazing one! We highly recommend this hotel to anyone. Coming from a nightmare situation, this hotel rescued us and gave us a very special birthday...