What is the Quebec City outdoor escape game?
The Quebec City outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out into Old Quebec: you play on your smartphone, and each of the 10 stops holds a puzzle that you solve by observing the surroundings and reasoning it through. Count on about 2 hours, including 23 minutes of walking over roughly 3 km, and begin whenever suits you.
The puzzles sit at landmarks such as the Château Frontenac, Dufferin Terrace and Place Royale, and each one stands on its own, so no storyline is needed to move on. Up to three levels of hints are available if a puzzle stumps you. Old Quebec suits this format because the Upper Town and the Lower Town lie close together, so the route alternates clifftop views with narrow streets by the river.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 23 min · 3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at each stop from what is in front of you and your own reasoning. No prior knowledge of Quebec is needed.
Look closer
The answers hide in architecture, statues and views, so keep your eyes on the details of each façade and square.
Walk
Google Maps guides you from stop to stop: about 23 minutes on foot over roughly 3 km, with stairs and slopes between the Upper and Lower Town.
Take your time
No countdown runs in the background. Ask for a hint when you need one, stop for a coffee and pick the game up later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends on a day out
The puzzles give every stop something new to debate, and nobody has to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps you talking as you move between the cliff and the river, with no clock ticking.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 people each play on their own phone and decide for themselves how to split the puzzles.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from City Hall to Petit-Champlain
10 stops · about 23 min walking · start: Quebec City Hall · finish: Fresque du Petit-Champlain
The game starts at Quebec City Hall and passes the Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral and Place d'Armes before reaching the Château Frontenac. From Dufferin Terrace you continue to Montmorency Park, then head down to the Fresque des Québécois and Place Royale, take the Breakneck Stairs and finish at the Fresque du Petit-Champlain. Daylight makes the best start, since rain and wind slow an outdoor game. Google Maps leads you between stops, the app lets you change the order, and no entry tickets are needed for the puzzles.
Open the route map ↗
1Quebec City HallStart
Quebec City Hall opened in 1896 on the site of the former Jesuit college, to designs by the architect Georges-Émile Tanguay. Its towers rise above the Jardin de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, a small public garden in front of the building.
2Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral
This is the mother church of the first Catholic diocese in North America north of Mexico, created in 1674 with François de Laval as its bishop. Destroyed during the siege of 1759 and again by fire in 1922, it was rebuilt both times. In 2013 it received a Holy Door, the first outside Europe.
3Place d'Armes
This square was the parade ground of the French garrison in the days of New France, next to the governor's residence. In its centre stands the Monument to the Faith, unveiled in 1916 for the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Récollet friars in 1615.
4Château Frontenac
The Château Frontenac opened in 1893 as a railway hotel of the Canadian Pacific Railway, designed by the American architect Bruce Price. It is named after the Count of Frontenac, governor of New France, and in 1943 and 1944 it hosted the Quebec Conferences, where Churchill and Roosevelt discussed the conduct of the Second World War.
5Dufferin Terrace
This wide wooden boardwalk along the clifftop opened in 1879 and is named after Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada, who pushed for the preservation of the city walls. It looks over the St Lawrence River and the Lower Town, and beneath it lie the remains of the Château Saint-Louis, the residence of the governors of New France.
6Montmorency Park
This park on the edge of the cliff is named after François de Montmorency-Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, whose palace once stood here. Later the parliament of Lower Canada met on this site. Old cannons line its edge, and a statue of George-Étienne Cartier, one of the Fathers of Confederation, looks out over the river.
7Fresque des Québécois
This trompe-l'oeil mural in the Lower Town covers a whole building wall of more than 400 square metres. Painted in 1999 by Quebec and French artists, it shows about 15 figures from four centuries of local history, among them Samuel de Champlain and Bishop Laval, alongside scenes of everyday life.
8Place Royale
Place Royale is where Samuel de Champlain built his Habitation in 1608, the start of the French settlement. The stone church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, begun in 1688, is named after French successes against the English in 1690 and 1711, and a bust of Louis XIV recalls the square's royal name.
9Breakneck Stairs (Escalier Casse-Cou)
The Breakneck Stairs link the Côte de la Montagne in the Upper Town with Rue du Petit-Champlain below, and a stairway has stood here since the 17th century. Their steep flights explain the name, and from the top you look straight down the narrow street of the Petit-Champlain quarter, often called one of the oldest commercial streets in North America.
10Fresque du Petit-ChamplainFinish
This trompe-l'oeil mural covers the end wall of a house in the Petit-Champlain quarter and portrays the history of the neighbourhood and its residents over the centuries. Its painted building fronts and figures blend into the real street, so look closely to see where the house ends and the painting begins.
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