What to Pack for Quebec in Winter: a Tested Packing List

Pack for Quebec in winter around merino base layers, a windproof outer shell and proper snow boots, because the cold there is dry and constant rather than occasional. Temperatures drop to -30°C (-22°F) in the coldest weeks, and the difference between a good trip and a miserable one is layering rather than spending. I put this list together for a 10-day trip across Canada that mixed Quebec City with the ski resorts at Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham, plus a night visiting the Ice Hotel.

In the city you can duck into a cafe to warm up. At the resorts you are outside most of the day, which is what the list below is really built for.

The short answer: what matters most

Four things carried that trip, and everything else was detail. They are listed below in the order I would buy them.

1. Merino base layers, top and bottom. These did more than any other item. They keep you warm, they pull sweat off your skin so you do not chill once you stop moving, and they do not start to smell. After a snowboarding lesson at Stoneham where I badly over-dressed and sweated through everything, the merino base layer still smelled fresh while the fleece over it did not.
2. Snow boots, knee-high if you can. Warm, waterproof, and tall enough to push through snow. They are also what you strap snowshoes onto.
3. A windproof outer layer. The wind is what makes -10°C feel like -25°C, particularly on open ground.
4. A hat that covers your ears and gloves you can actually use. Extremities go first.

Everything after that is a question of how many spares you want to carry.

Buying versus borrowing

Borrow the expensive items on a first winter trip, because you may not go again. I could have spent a lot on outdoor clothing, ski gear and thermal underwear before this trip and I deliberately did not. I had never been on a snow trip and had no idea whether I would want to repeat it, so I borrowed instead: ski trousers from my neighbour, fleeces from a friend, and a pile of clothing from my partner’s mother.

What I did buy was the merino: ski socks, a long-sleeve base layer, leggings and glove liners. Part of that was a birthday present, as my birthday fell a month before we left.

That decision held up. I have been on plenty of winter trips since and now own proper ski trousers and other cold-weather kit, which I use every time I go somewhere cold. The merino has lasted longest of anything: washed by hand and in the machine many times over the years, and still good.

The glove liners were the one thing I got wrong. I barely wore them, because my hands were warmer in ordinary gloves on their own. The leggings and base layer I hardly took off.

The full Quebec winter packing list

This is what I took for 10 days, split into clothing, shoes, luggage, medication and everything else. Items I did not end up wearing are marked as such, because a packing list is more useful when it admits what was dead weight.

Clothes and accessories

The clothing and accessories I packed are listed below.

• 4 light fleece jumpers, worn as a mid layer both in the city and at the resorts
• 3 turtleneck long-sleeve tops
• 1 pair of ordinary leggings, which I did not wear until the flight home
• Merino leggings, worn almost every day
• 1 merino long-sleeve base layer plus 4 borrowed base layers, and I often wore two at once
• Ski gloves
• Ordinary gloves, which came into their own cross-country skiing when the ski gloves were too warm
• Glove liners, which I did not use
• 3 pairs of ski socks, 2 borrowed and 1 pair of merino ski socks that I wore most and rinsed through mid-trip
• 5 pairs of hiking socks
• 2 pairs of thick ordinary socks, unworn
• 5 pairs of ordinary socks, unworn until the flight home
• 2 sets of pyjamas
• Underwear and bras
• 1 bikini, for the hot tubs at one of the hotels
• Ski goggles, which also hid my face the first time I skied
• Ski trousers
• 1 pair of jeans, worn over the merino leggings every day in the city
• 1 ski jacket, though I would now take my Arc’teryx parka instead
• 1 ordinary winter hat and 1 much thicker one
• 2 balaclavas, unworn
• 1 fleece buff
• 3 ordinary long-sleeve tops, of which I wore one, on the flights

Shoes

Take snow boots and expect to wear them every single day. I packed snow boots and hiking boots and wore the snow boots throughout. The pair I borrowed from my partner’s mother seem indestructible: she had been taking them on ski trips for years before I had them, and I have since taken them on several winter trips of my own. They are still warm and still waterproof. They are Salomon, and this is the same model.

Luggage and backpacks

We each took a backpack as hand luggage and a large suitcase in the hold. Mine was an Eastpak Egghead, chosen for its padded laptop compartment. That exact model is no longer sold, and this Eastpak is the nearest current equivalent; my partner carried the Eastpak PackR. We borrowed suitcases from my parents at the time and now travel with Thule Subterra cases.

Medication

Pack your own prescriptions, because replacing them abroad is slow. What I carried is below, and yours will differ.

• Migraine medication
• Anti-diarrhoeal tablets
• Allergy medication
• Anti-nausea tablets
• Painkillers
• An inhaler
• Contraceptive pill
• Plasters, and blister plasters specifically

Everything else

The remaining items I carried are listed below.

• 3 packs of tissues
• My Pacsafe Citysafe anti-theft handbag
• A notebook, 2 pens and a pencil
• A travel pillow
• Laptop, camera and phone, with chargers
• USB cables
• 2 universal travel adapters
• Small shower gels and shampoos kept from previous hotels
• Face cream, aftersun, sun cream and lip balm
• Deodorant, hairbrush, basic make-up and remover
• Toothpaste and toothbrush

Do not skip the sun cream and lip balm because it is winter. Snow reflects sunlight upwards into your face, and dry cold splits lips within a day or two.

A note on Canadian prices

Canada uses the Canadian dollar, written C$ so it is not mistaken for the US dollar. At the rates of 10 September 2026, C$100 is about €62, $72 and £54. If a guide quotes you a bare dollar figure for Quebec, check which dollar it means before you budget around it.

Don’t forget travel insurance

Travel insurance covers the parts of a winter trip you cannot control, including cancellations, illness abroad and stolen or broken electronics. Winter sports are worth checking specifically, because some policies exclude them or charge extra, and a skiing injury in Canada is not a cheap thing to sort out without cover.

I have had ongoing travel insurance since I started travelling. If you do not have any yet, take a look at SafetyWing. Their plans are flexible enough to sign up for once a trip has already started, and when I caught COVID they reimbursed my costs without a fuss.

Where to stay in Quebec

We split the trip between the city and the two resorts. In Quebec City we stayed at the Hotel Château Bellevue, at 16 rue de la Porte in Old Québec, a 3-star hotel of 48 rooms in a row of houses built in 1899 and 1900.

At the resorts we stayed at Hotels & Condos Stoneham, at the Stoneham ski area north of the city, and at the hotel at the foot of Mont-Sainte-Anne in Beaupré. That second one has changed name. It traded as the Château Mont-Sainte-Anne when we visited and is now the Delta Hotels by Marriott Mont Sainte-Anne, Resort & Convention Centre, so searching the old name may not find it.

If you want the trip filled in as well as packed for, GetYourGuide lists tours and entry tickets in Quebec City, including the winter activities that are hard to arrange once you are there.

Frequently asked questions

How cold does Quebec get in winter? Temperatures fall to around -30°C (-22°F) in the coldest stretches. Wind chill makes it feel considerably colder again on open ground and on the slopes.

Do I need to buy special clothes for Quebec in winter? Not for a first trip. Borrow the ski trousers and the outer layers, and spend what you do spend on merino base layers and boots, which are the items that make the difference and which you will use again anywhere cold.

What is the one thing people forget? Lip balm and sun cream. Both are counter-intuitive in freezing weather and both are needed, because of reflected glare off the snow and the dryness of the air.

Are jeans warm enough for Quebec City? Jeans alone are not. Over merino leggings they were fine for days spent walking the city with cafe stops, which is exactly how I wore them.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from the 10 days I spent in Quebec in winter.

1. Wear fewer layers than instinct tells you when you are being active. I over-dressed for a lesson at Stoneham, sweated through everything, and then had to cool down in wet clothes. Merino saves you here; cotton does not.
2. Rinse merino socks in the sink mid-trip instead of packing more. I took 3 pairs of ski socks, wore 1 pair most days and washed them through, which is why the other 2 were nearly redundant.
3. Leave the glove liners at home and take two separate pairs of gloves. Liners under ski gloves made no difference to me. Having thick ski gloves and a thinner ordinary pair did, because cross-country skiing in full ski gloves is too hot.
4. Ask for an electricity card that stays in, if your hotel uses one. Several places we stayed cut the room’s power when you remove the card, which also stops anything drying while you are out.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and this packing list comes from her own 10-day winter trip to Quebec City, Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham. The team covers Canada for independent travellers, including the cold-weather gear, hotels and travel insurance worth buying, and updates this page when products are discontinued or hotels change name.