I visited a beautiful region in Canada with incredible waterfront sunsets and fresh seafood. It’s a true local gem.

• I’m a Quebec local, and I only recently visited our Bas-Saint-Laurent region for the first time.
• The drive to the area from Montreal was scenic, and we enjoyed exploring the shoreline.
• This region is absolutely worth visiting, though you may want to pack a rain jacket and boots.

As a city dweller living in Montreal, I know there’s still so much of Quebec that I have yet to explore.

My French-Canadian home province is roughly three times the size of France and has 17 regions. This summer, I checked a new one off my list: Bas-Saint-Laurent.

My partner’s brother and his wife were born in the maritime region and travel there every summer with their young daughter. This year, they invited us to tag along and discover its beauty for ourselves.

Even our drive to the region felt incredibly scenic.

To reach this region, my partner and I drove 400 miles outside the city along the south shore of the lower Saint Lawrence River, nicknamed “Bas-du-Fleuve.”

It’s in this area that the river widens into a gulf that flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The water is vast — a mix of fresh and saltwater — and breathtakingly beautiful.

The drive from Montreal to Bas-du-Fleuve takes roughly six hours if you go straight and take the largest highway.

It’s a little longer if you opt for the slower, more scenic route and make stops along the way like we did. Trust me, it’s worth it.

The drive gets especially pretty after Quebec City, where the views of the water begin.

The area is known for its fresh fish, local meats and cheeses (hello, cheese curds), and craft beer. So, we made stops at Tête d’Allumette, a microbrewery with a beautiful terrace overlooking the river, a smoked fish store called Marché Des Trois Fumoirs, and a specialty cheese store called Fromagerie des Basques to stock up on local goodies.

We eventually arrived at Motel de la Mer, which looks out at the river, where we all stayed in an apartment-style accommodation.

We found plenty to do in the area.

Our first morning in Bas-Saint-Laurent was rainy, so we toured the Onondaga, a 295-foot submarine that traversed the North Atlantic from 1967 to 2000. It’s also the first publicly accessible submarine in Canada.

We also stopped next door to visit the Empress of Ireland Museum, an exhibition about the greatest maritime tragedy in Canadian history.

Then, we met up with the rest of the gang for brunch in downtown Rimouski, the biggest city in the area. We filled up on eggs, crepes, bacon, and good coffee before walking around the city center and popping into cute local shops.

It was especially wonderful to walk along the shore.

Later that afternoon, at low tide, we walked along the nearby shore, taking in the views as we looked for interesting rocks and shells.

When the tide is low in this region, parts of the shoreline become exposed, and you can actually see and explore the sea floor.

When the tide rises again, that same shoreline is resubmerged. There are different high and low tides each day, and their timing and height vary.

We also enjoyed having fresh seafood.

That evening, we picked up dinner from a casse-croûte, a locally used term for a small, casual establishment that serves comfort food.

I had a lobster roll and fries while my partner had a lobster poutine.

We were highly impressed with the quantity and freshness of the seafood.

The nearby provincial park is beautiful — but beware of the fickle weather.

The following day, we headed out to Parc national du Bic, a beautiful provincial park nearby. We had a picnic and then started walking along the shoreline before turning onto one of the many hiking trails in the woods.

The weather started off gray and cloudy, but eventually turned to heavy rainstorms that left us quite wet. We laughed it off and still had a good time.

This region regularly experiences rainfall (in part due to the St. Lawrence’s oceanic influence), so be sure to pack a great rain jacket and boots if you plan to visit.

We also experienced the area’s famous sunsets.

The spectacular sunsets alone are reason enough to visit Bas-du-Fleuve.

Some even refer to the region as “the capital of sunsets” for its western-facing vantage point combined with the beauty of the river, which makes for stunning sundown sights most days.

The location of our motel provided us with a great view of the sun setting over the water as it dipped below the horizon, lighting up the sky.

There’s so much beauty to be seen in Quebec.

My stay in Bas-Saint-Laurent was rainy (of course, the sun came out and stayed out as soon as we left), but also incredibly memorable.

It showed me how much beauty there is to explore in this giant province I call home — and it made me want to share what I saw with others.

Though Montreal and Quebec City may seem like the obvious choices when traveling to this part of Canada (for good reason), you may also want to consider venturing beyond the big cities to witness what this one-of-a-kind region has to offer.

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