Vista - Autumnal Allure: New York to Montreal

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 2 sea days over 11 Nights.

1. Day 1

   New York, NY

   United StatesDepart
   New York, NY port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
2. Day 2

   Newport, RI

   United StatesPort

   Newport is a tender port - ships anchor out in Narragansett Bay and run boats into Perrotti Park at the head of the harbour, which lands you a block from Thames Street. The call is usually short and the town is compact, so the real choice is between the Gilded Age mansions on Bellevue Avenue and simply walking the waterfront.

   • The Breakers, the Vanderbilt house on Ochre Point, plus Marble House if you have time for two
   • The Cliff Walk, 3.5 miles between the mansion lawns and the Atlantic
   • Thames Street and Bowen's Wharf for chowder and boat-watching
   • The International Tennis Hall of Fame in the old Newport Casino building

   Getting ashore

   A tender call: ships anchor in the harbour and land at Perrotti Park, a block from Thames Street - no bus needed, but a stiff blow can cancel the tender operation.

   Best months

   Jun-Oct (September is the best combination of weather and thinner crowds)

3. Day 3

   Boston, MA

   United StatesPort
   Boston, MA port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
4. Day 4

   Saint John

   CanadaPort

   Saint John sits on the Bay of Fundy, which has the largest tides in the world. Here the range is around eight metres, and twice a day the incoming tide physically shoves the Saint John River backwards through a rock gorge - the Reversing Falls Rapids, which only performs if you time your visit to the tide table. The city behind the pier is a weathered working port with a genuinely good 1876 market hall, and you can walk off into it.

   • The Reversing Falls Rapids from Fallsview Park - check the tide times before you go
   • Saint John City Market, the oldest continuously operating farmers' market in Canada
   • The sea caves and covered bridges at St. Martins, about 40 minutes out
   • Hopewell Rocks flowerpot formations, walkable on the sea floor at low tide but 90 minutes each way

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal on the downtown waterfront, with an enclosed pedway through to Market Square and the City Market.

   Best months

   Jun-Oct; Sep-Oct for fall colour

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Halifax

   CanadaPort
   Halifax port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
7. Day 7

   Sydney

   CanadaPort

   Sydney is the way into Cape Breton rather than the reason for the day. The pier is marked by a giant fiddle sculpture on the boardwalk, and the town behind it has been quiet since the coal mines and the steel plant shut. Nearly everything worth the day is a drive away, so decide before you dock - unplanned, Sydney runs out in about an hour.

   • Fortress of Louisbourg, a reconstructed 18th-century French garrison town, about 45 minutes away
   • The Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park, a full-day loop
   • Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site at Baddeck, roughly an hour out
   • Cape Breton Miners' Museum in Glace Bay, with an underground tour led by former miners

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion on the Sydney boardwalk; the town is a short walk, but the sights all need a coach or taxi.

   Best months

   Sep-Oct (Cabot Trail fall colour); Jun-Oct season

8. Day 8

   Corner Brook

   CanadaPort

   Corner Brook is a mill town - the pulp and paper plant sits right beside the berth and on the wrong wind you can smell it. About 19,000 people live up the hillsides above the Humber Arm. The reason ships stop is Gros Morne National Park an hour north, where glaciers carved freshwater fjords into the plateau and the Tablelands expose bare mantle rock at the surface.

   • Gros Morne National Park - the orange Tablelands and the Western Brook Pond fjord boat
   • The Captain James Cook Monument on Crow Hill, above the Bay of Islands he charted in the 1760s
   • Marble Mountain, with a summer lift and a zipline over the Humber valley
   • The drive out the Bay of Islands to Lark Harbour and Blow Me Down Provincial Park

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Western Terminal beside the mill, with a complimentary shuttle into the downtown core; Gros Morne needs a coach or a hire car.

   Best months

   Sep-Oct (fall colour); a long season, Mar-Oct in 2025

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10

    Saguenay

    CanadaPort

    The cruise berth is the Quai de Bagotville in the La Baie borough, at the head of the Baie des Ha! Ha! - and reaching it means 54 nautical miles up the Saguenay fjord from the St. Lawrence, which is itself most of what you came for. Saguenay has won best-welcome awards four times over and puts entertainment on the dock for every arrival. Quebec City is a two-and-a-half hour drive away.

    • The fjord transit itself, past Cap Trinite and the Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay statue on the cliff
    • Musee du Fjord in La Baie, on the bay the ship berths in
    • La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, a ruined pulp mill turned regional museum
    • Zodiac and sea-kayak trips on the fjord, or the drive out to the abandoned company town at Val-Jalbert

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Quai de Bagotville cruise terminal in La Baie, which has its own welcome pavilion; some ships instead anchor a few hundred metres off and tender.

    Best months

    Sep-Oct (fall colour); Jun-Oct season

11. Day 11

    Quebec City

    CanadaPort

    The berth at Pointe-a-Carcy sits directly under the old city, which makes this one of the easiest walk-off ports anywhere - you come out into the Lower Town and the funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac is two blocks away. Quebec is walled, French-speaking, steep and a UNESCO site in its entirety. Some St. Lawrence itineraries turn around here rather than just call.

    • Quartier Petit-Champlain and the funicular up to Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac
    • The Plains of Abraham and the star-shaped Citadelle
    • Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, with a cable car and a bridge across the top
    • The farm road and cider houses of Ile d'Orleans

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Port of Quebec terminal at Pointe-a-Carcy in the Old Port; Old Quebec begins at the gangway.

    Best months

    late Sep-mid Oct (fall colour); May-Oct season

12. Day 12

    Montreal

    CanadaArrive

    Montreal is usually a turnaround rather than a call - it is the upstream end of most St. Lawrence itineraries, since ships cannot pass the Seaway locks above it. The Grand Quay terminal at Alexandra Pier sits in Old Montreal with a public observation tower on its roof. What you get is a French-speaking city with a serious food culture and a compact old quarter.

    • Notre-Dame Basilica and the cobbled streets of Vieux-Montreal
    • The Mount Royal lookout, with the whole city and the river below it
    • Jean-Talon Market, and the Mile End bagel and smoked-meat institutions
    • The Underground City and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Grand Quay (Alexandra Pier) in the Old Port; Old Montreal starts at the terminal door and the metro is a few blocks away.

    Best months

    late Sep-mid Oct (fall colour); May-Oct season