In short
Old Quebec is a World Heritage site: the only surviving fortified urban ensemble in North America north of Mexico, with four and a half kilometres of walls.
The city was founded in 1608 by Champlain. French is the everyday language here to a degree Montreal does not reach.
What it really costs
Housing costs markedly less than in Montreal or Toronto. The centre is entirely walkable, which makes a car pointless.
Winter is the hidden item: warm kit, and a heating bill that does not exist in a summer traveller's budget.
What nobody tells you
Winter regularly drops below minus twenty and snow lies from December to March. That is the season of the Carnival and the ice hotel, and it is also when the city looks best.
Montmorency Falls, fifteen minutes away, are eighty-three metres high — thirty more than Niagara. Almost nobody knows.
Prices displayed in Canada are before tax, and two taxes apply in Quebec. A fifteen to twenty per cent tip is expected in restaurants and is not included.