In July of 2024, I undertook an east coast road trip with the family. It was a 12-day whirlwind that included stays at five campgrounds over three provinces. The first stop on this adventure was at Valcartier Vacation Village in Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, about 20-minutes north of Quebec City, and five hours from our home-base on Kingston, Ontario.
Valcartier is different from other campgrounds that we have visited in that it’s a waterpark with camping, rather than a campground near a waterpark. When you arrive at Valcartier, you are able to check-in to your site using a drive-through check-in kiosk but are required to return to the main campground office to complete your full registration. This is also where you can pick up your pre-purchased wrist bands for waterpark access (highly recommend pre-purchasing online before your arrival!).
Campsite: We stayed on site 1804, which was a large site, easy to back into, with full services (electrical, water, sewer). The site location was intentionally very close to the waterpark entrances, both for indoor and outdoor waterpark access. The site was level and well-shaded, and included a cement pad for the picnic table which was a nice feature. There were lots of trees within the site for hanging a clothesline – a must for camping at a waterpark - and also provided privacy. Steps from the site was a beautiful view overlooking the Le Gran Remous river which produced gorgeous sunsets. The firepit is lacking, consisting of a shallow indent in the ground, with several rocks circling it.
Campground: The campground is very large, well-treed and clean. The campground map shows many amenities including swings, horseshoes, volleyball court and heated pool just to name a few. In fairness, we spent the majority of our time at the indoor and outdoor waterparks and did not use the amenities of the campground. One unique feature of this campground is the variety of accommodations available. In addition to the typical tent, trailer and RV sites there are cabins and RVs on site that you can rent, as well as these fully-equipped, neat looking “CoolBoxes”. Lots of great options for glamping!
Waterparks! I don’t typically review nearby attractions in these campsite reviews but given that Valcartier’s waterpark is one of the main reasons people would camp at this campground I figured I would include it here. Obviously we enjoyed both the indoor and outdoor waterparks very much, given that this was our second time here. In our own experiences we’ve found the outdoor park to be geared towards older (& taller) youth, teenagers and adults, or for very young children and toddlers. Kids around the ages of 8-10 may not enjoy the outdoor park as much as the indoor, as they may be too short for most of the rides, and the remaining attractions they may find too babyish. But for those tall enough for the rides and thrill seekers at heart, you’ll have a blast with several high and fast, adrenaline pumping slides to choose from, complimented by some easy-going lazy rivers. The outdoor waterpark also includes one of the larger wave pools we’ve been to which is often too crowded to use. Located within the outdoor waterpark are many food stalls that allow you to quickly grab ice cream, pizza, churros or poutine, with lots of seating to eat and relax. Moving on to the indoor park, there are activities for kids of all sizes, shallower waters, smaller slides and activities for younger children, plus larger slides with twists and turns for the teens, trap door vertical drop-style slides for the thrill seekers, and a family raft slide and lazy river for all to enjoy together. We find the indoor wave pool smaller and less intense, but less crowded so overall better. There’s also a FlowRider in the indoor waterpark that patrons can access following the completion of a waiver. There is limited food on the main floor of the waterpark, but there is access to a restaurant from within the waterpark. I couldn’t help but notice, in comparison to trips to the Great Wolfe Lodge where they have lifeguards walking around every pool section, switching off at regular intervals, and one posted at every slide entrance regulating the safety of the users, Valcartier had noticeably less. Rather than patrolling lifeguards, Valcartier had strategically placed lifeguards sitting in chairs often looking at their phones instead of the water and one lifeguard monitoring three or four slide entry points relying on an automated green-light / red-light system advising users of when it was safe to go. This system puts more onus on the swimmers, and I personally noticed it failed on a couple of occasions when teenagers entered the slide prior to the green-light, which likely would not have happened if a lifeguard had been supervising each slide. Like we found in the campground, both the indoor and outdoor waterparks were very clean and well maintained.
On a disappointing note, a few of the rides were not fully functional. The indoor lazy river wasn’t running at full capacity with about half its water features turned off/not functioning as well as half of the Flow Rider. Having ridden these rides before I know this greatly changed the experience.
Value: At $76.50 CAD per night, full service (electrical, water, sewer), large campsite, clean campground, within walking distance to indoor and outdoor waterparks, we find this a very reasonable rate. At this time there were many pricing options to access the water parks including outdoor park access only, indoor park access only, and multiday-day passes. We chose a three-day pass that allowed unlimited access to both the indoor and outdoor waterparks for maximum convenience and use of the amenities for about $100 CAD per person.
Caution! Despite this being a huge campground (over 600 sites) book well in advance, as it does fill up. We booked in February to attend in July and had much better luck booking over the phone than through the website.
Tip! The 3-day outdoor and indoor waterpark pass is an online exclusive, best purchased before you attend Valcartier. It is activated once you obtain your wrist band and allows you unlimited access to both waterparks during operating hours. If the weather turns bad during your stay and the outdoor waterpark closes, you won’t feel like you missed out because you can always use the indoor facilities!
Final word: Our family and the family we travel with all thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Valcartier. Even though we enjoy visiting new sites and exploring new locations, we will definitely be back for our third visit sometime in the near future.
We’d love to hear about your adventures! Feel free to leave comments describing your own experiences, good or bad, or join our private Facebook community Glamping Essentials Campfire Collective. Should you have any specific questions, please email me at Jason@GlampingEssentials.ca.
~ Jason
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