THE TOUR INCLUDES: seven nights deluxe accommodations at premier hotels in each city (Old Montreal: Hotel Nelligan; Lower Town Quebec City: Auberge Saint-Antoine; Ottawa: Chateau Laurier) Top category seats for three performances Full breakfast daily plus three dinners and three lunches four custom (private) tours (Old Montréal, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Old Québec,plus the National Gallery of Canada) private airport-hotel transfers On-site tour direction by an Aria Tours representative Cost: $5285 US Single Supplement: $1075 US Balance Due: June 25, 2009

OPTIONS FLIGHTS We will be happy to make any flight arrangements, including reward travel with your preferred carrier, for $75 per person. Inbound flight should be booked to arrive in Montréal mid-afternoon on September 25; the outbound flight should depart from Ottawa on October 2. AIRPORT-HOTEL TRANSFERS We include airport-hotel transfers (group) on the published tour dates. Transfers are not included for early arrivals or extended stays, although we can easily make these arrangements for you. TOUR ADDITIONS The itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and desires. Please call us to discuss any changes or amendments you wish to make. INSURANCE We strongly recommend that all tour members purchase cancellation insurance upon registration. We can assist you with this, though you are welcome to purchase a policy at your own discretion. If you would like information on the policies offered by our supplier, please contact us for details, or click HERE for an insurance brochure and application.

This tour brings you to three of North America's loveliest urban centres: Montréal, with its cosmopolitan chic, Québec, with its Old World charm, and Ottawa, with its 19th century colonial warmth. Join us on a journey into the epicentres of two cultures, and thus into the heart and soul of Canada.

Montréal is unique in North America, blending a brash New World urbanity with the romantic charm of its European-flavoured historic districts and a Gallic sense of joie de vivre evident in the city's many pavement cafés and dynamic nightlife. Although its downtown skyscrapers are a testament to the economic clout of Canada's second largest city, visitors are more likely to be drawn to the cobbled streets of Old Montreal near the St. Lawrence River or around Mount Royal, the city's landmark. Montréal is situated on an island, sandwiched between the Rivière des Prairies and the St. Lawrence River. When Jacques Cartier first 'discovered' the island for France in 1535, it was already inhabited—the Iroquois village of Hochelaga stood at the foot of Mount Royal. Today, the 'real' Montréal exists in neighbourhoods that celebrate their ethnic origins—like Little Italy and Chinatown and especially the multicultural Plateau Mont-Royal. Boulevard St-Laurent ('The Main'), which runs through the Plateau and divides Montreal into east and west, is the city's most lively street, where the shops, bars and ethnic restaurants draw crowds until well into the night.

The 'cradle of New France' and the bastion of French culture in North America today, Québec City is perhaps the most charming city on the continent. Nowhere else is the past so well preserved in an ensemble of 17th- to 19th-century buildings, wrapped tight in the fortifications of the only walled city north of Mexico. A popular destination for visitors, with its horse-drawn calèches rattling down narrow streets between grey-stone buildings, Old Québec also won recognition from UNESCO, which declared it a World Heritage Site in 1985. Located in the eastern portion of massive Canada, the city's fortunes are largely due to its geography and history. The walled Upper Town sits atop the strategic Cap Diamant, overlooking the spot where the St. Lawrence River narrows (known as the kebec to the original Algonquin inhabitants). In 2008, Québec City celebrated its 400th anniversary, making it—along with Jamestown and Santa Fe—one of the three oldest settlements in North America.

Ottawa may be one of the most under-appreciated national capitals, even though on most counts it is an urban standard against which many North American cities might well gauge themselves. Ottawa's downtown is striking, with more renovation and enlightened recycling of its 19th- and early-20th-century buildings happening every year. The miles of tidy late-Victorian brick houses serving as shops, restaurants, and homes are true characteristics of the city. The Gothic spires and towers of Parliament Hill look like the grand estate of an overachieving Scottish laird, with the voluptuous Gatineau Hills as a backdrop. In spring, carpets of tulips and daffodils embrace residences and ministries and cast visual fire against the deep greens of the city's parks. Cutting a swath through the city is the Rideau Canal, a magnet for houseboats and cabin cruisers in summer and a scene out of a Dutch painting in winter, when the citizenry takes to the ice on sleighs and skates.

THE ITINERARY

Friday, September 25...Departures for Montréal
Depart for Montréal, arriving same day. Upon arrival, you will be met at your arrival airport and transferred to the Hotel Nelligan, our boutique hotel in charming Old Montréal. This evening, gather for introductions and enjoy a Welcome Dinner in the hotel's excellent Restaurant Verses.

Saturday, September 26...Montréal
Following breakfast, included daily at each hotel, we enjoy a guided tour of Old Montréal. Stops will include: Place Royale; Place d'Armes, the Sulpician Seminary, the Bank of Montreal and Notre-Dame Basilica; the City Hall and Château Ramezay; the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel and Bonsecours Market. After our tour, the afternoon is at leisure. This evening, we gather and make the short walk to Place des Arts for a performance by Opéra de Montréal (tba; 8pm curtain).

Sunday, September 27...Montréal — Québec City
After breakfast, check out (baggage pick-up) and depart for a guided tour of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. One of the first museums in North America to amass an encyclopedic collection worthy of the name, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1860, has over its existence built up a collection of over 33,000 objects—painting, sculpture, works on paper, prints and drawings, photographs and decorative art objects—from antiquity to today. Following our tour, we board the First Class car for our direct train journey to Québec City (12:30 departure; 3 hours). Lunch is included en route. Upon arrival, we check in at the Relais & Chateau Auberge Saint-Antoine, in the heart of Old Quebec. The Saint-Antoine has been selected by Travel & Leisure Magazine as one of the Top 100 Hotels on the Planet. After settling in to our rooms, the evening is at leisure.

Monday, September 28...Québec City
Enjoy the full day at leisure in Québec City. This evening we gather for dinner in the hotel's stellar restaurant Panache, featuring local produce and unrivalled French-Canadian cuisine.

Tuesday, September 29...Québec City
This morning we offer a guided tour of one of North America's oldest and greatest cities, with 400 years of history to be read in its winding cobblestone streets and stone buildings. We begin at Place d'Armes (Armoury Square), right at the heart of the Old Town, and end at the foot of Cap Diamant with the imposing Chateau Frontenac towering above us. In between, we will see Dufferin Terrace, with its breathtaking view over the St-Lawrence River and the Citadel, the Governors' Garden, Wolfe-Montcalm monument, the Old Bastion of the Mill (a defensive system built in 1693), St-Louis Gate, the courtyard of the Ursuline Sisters, Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral (1804), City Hall and its castle-like architecture, City Hall, the Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec (the first Roman Catholic Cathedral erected north of Mexico), St-Pierre Street and Place Royale. Following the tour, stop for lunch at L'Echaude, long-regarded as one of the finest restaurants in the city. Possible performance this evening by the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec at the Grand Théâtre de Québec.

Wednesday, September 30...Québec City — Ottawa
After breakfast, check out and baggage pick up. Following baggage pick-up, we gather and depart once again by First Class rail to Ottawa (via Montreal). Lunch is included en route. Upon arrival in Ottawa, we transfer and check in at the landmark Fairmont Chateau Laurier, one of Canada's best and most historic hotels, on Parliament Hill in the heart of the nation's capital. This evening we gather and make the short walk to the National Arts Centre, directly across from the hotel, for a concert featuring the NAC Orchestra and conductor Pinchas Zukerman. 8 pm start.

Thursday, October 1...Ottawa
Following a morning and lat leisure, we enjoy guided tours of Parliament Hill and the National Gallery of Canada. The National Gallery is located in a stunning building, designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, overlooking the Ottawa River. Our Gallery experience begins with a performance in the Rideau Chapel (tba), followed by a tour of the excellent collection's highlights. This evening we say our goodbyes over an unforgettable Farewell Dinner at Le Cordon Bleu Signatures Restaurant, one of only nine Five Diamond restaurants in Canada.

Friday, October 2...Departures
After breakfast, check out and transfer (included) to Ottawa International Airport for homeward departures. *Those wishing to connect with the Toronto, Shaw Festival & Stratford tour will be accommodated at no cost (via air to Toronto and then private car to Niagara).