This Peaceful Lakeside Town In Quebec Offers Beach Days, Mountain Views, And World-Class Stargazing

The Eastern Townships in the Canadian province of Quebec are composed of nine regions full of natural beauty, welcoming small towns, and lakes and mountains for four-season activities. Lac-Mégantic (Lake Megantic) is the heartbeat of the Megantic Region. Both the town and the lake share the name Lac-Mégantic. The town's population of around 5,800 mostly speaks French as their first language, but since the Eastern Townships border three American states (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), English is widely spoken. The lake, which measures 10 square miles, is less than 4 miles from the U.S. border.

Lac-Mégantic is a draw especially for the lake's beach and water activities, as well as stargazing at Mont-Mégantic Observatory, which is the world's first International Dark Sky Reserve. After a 2013 rail disaster, the town has rebuilt with new waterfront promenades, cafés, cultural spaces, and tourism infrastructure. Today, visitors come for its calm lakefront setting, observatory stargazing, beach and boating at Baie-des-Sables, and the slower pace of life typical of the Eastern Townships.

Lac-Mégantic is a little more than a two-hour drive away from Quebec City International Airport, three hours from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, and just over three hours from Maine's Bangor International Airport. You could also continue your exploration of the Eastern Townships region in Magog, a bigger lakeside city known for outdoor activities and gastronomical treats. Or, travel to the riverfront destination of Charlevoix outside Quebec, where you can enjoy art and local eats.

On the southwest edge of Lac-Mégantic, Baie-des-Sables is the town's main four-season resort, and in summer, it boasts the most popular beach. The supervised sandy shoreline is backed by picnic tables and volleyball courts, with calm waters ideal for swimming or launching into the lake. Visitors can rent kayaks, canoes, pedal boats, sailboats, windsurfing gear, or even the traditional rabaska canoe, making it a hub for nearly every kind of non-motorized watersport. A network of bike paths and forested hiking trails begins right at the beach, leading through over 700 acres of maple and cedar groves with routes ranging from short family-friendly loops to trails that are nearly three miles.

Closer to the town center, O.T.J. Beach offers a second lakeside option. It's smaller and more community-oriented than Baie-des-Sables, with family amenities such as a playground, water games, sports fields, and picnic areas. Bikers will appreciate its direct access to the cycling path that loops around key points of the town, including the town center, marina, waterfront promenade, and Veterans Park.

While summer is the classic season for Baie-des-Sables, the resort is also active once the lake freezes. From mid-December to mid-March, more than 40 private cabins make up a full-fledged ice fishing village by the frozen water. The surrounding trails convert into cross-country ski and snowshoe routes. Meanwhile, the center offers alpine skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and snowshoeing, making Lac-Mégantic a destination for winter activities as well as for summer beach and water fun. For more snowy adventures, take a short drive to Au 1884, Canada's high-speed sled ride that's one of the oldest and best winter attractions in the country.

Just beyond the lake, Lac-Mégantic's mountains rise quickly. The town sits at the base of the Summit Drive, a scenic loop through villages and into Parc National du Mont-Mégantic, home to two peaks soaring more than 3,000 feet: Mont Saint-Joseph and Mont Mégantic. The park is designed around earth-to-sky exploration — hiking and wildlife by day, astronomy by night.

Three main summit trails reward hikers with panoramic views across lakes, forest, and even into the U.S. mountains on a clear day, and a range of trail options make it a major hiking destination for both casual walkers and long-distance trekkers. When winter arrives — usually early and with deep snow — the same trails are transformed for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, with rental equipment available onsite as well as an option to overnight in a hut. Families stick closer to the ASTROLab welcome area for the sledding hill and toboggan run. What makes Mont-Mégantic truly unique is the ASTROLab and public observatory. Visitors can tour the observatory, see exhibitions, and experience stargazing at one of the best astro-tourism sites in North America.

Baie-des-Sables is the clear choice for accommodations to be right on the lake, just a few steps from the beach and water sports. At the time of this writing, a variety of accommodations, like cottages, begin at $83. And just a twelve-minute walk away, Auberge Majella has five accommodations that each come with a queen-size bed, sofa bed, bathroom, microwave, refrigerator, Wi-Fi, TV, and air-conditioning, also starting at $83.