This sub provided a great reality check to me when I planned my last significant trip, so I thought I'd reach out again while planning my next.

I'm a 32/m introvert. I'm in the initial planning stages for a trip to Quebec City this summer. I like to plan ahead so I can spread the costs out over several months. I'm a fan of architecture, wandering new cities, museums, history, and sampling local cheap eats and sweets. During the day, my plan is to pick a part of the city and explore the museums and take photos with my dSLR camera. I'm not into most night life, clubbing, or bars beyond grabbing a night cap at a quiet bar close to my hotel.

I'm thinking this trip would be the middle of July 2019. This would occur while I'm on terminal leave from the military, shortly before I move back to the Midwest for law school. I'm looking at this as the last significant vacation that I will take for the foreseeable future since law school will take up the next few years. I'm also hoping to get this scheduled for AFTER my household goods are packed out, so it would be a way to kill nearly a week so I won't be in my home with an air mattress and laptop for as long. The rest of the time in New England would be spent doing day trips across the area (e.g., visit Plymouth and Salem, MA, and then other sites that are close).

The overall idea is to road trip from Rhode Island, USA to Quebec City. It is a full day drive each way (google maps says 8 hrs, I'm telling myself 10-12 hours to take in account stops and potential extra time at the border). I'm on the fence about if I should plan on two full days plus travel days or three full days plus travel days. I'm leaning towards three full days plus the travel day on both ends.

Budget

Using estimates from Hotels.com, it looks like I should be able to pull this off for $750-950. If I wait to book a hotel until after I've flown back to Chicago to find an apartment, I should have a free night saved up, so that would knock $150-175 off the hotel cost, yet hotel prices could go up. I'm not overly interested in hostels-the ones I could find that offer private rooms with bathroom aren't much cheaper than hotels. I'm considering AirBnB though, the prices ranged from about $300 all in to about $500. I'd like to stay in Old Quebec to be close (walking distance) to most of the touristy stuff.

I tend to eat fairly cheap-breakfast is typically caffeine (Redbull/Monster Rehab), caffeine, and if I'm feeling fancy, a pastry. Light/quick lunch from delis/street food/fast casual. Dinner is when I go for a sit down meal or something slightly nicer than fast food. So, the budget is currently at $50 (USD) per day for food and fun. Based off of the ties that I've found that captured my attention, it looks like admissions fees would be about $75 total for the trip.

So overall budget numbers: Gas $175 (my car averages 25 mpg, roughly 1100 miles round trip, figuring $3/gal average fuel cost), 4 nights hotel at average price of $145 night = $580, $50 fun/food money for 3 days= $150, $20 food money per travel day =$40. Total: $945 for 3 full days plus two travel days if I don't redeem a free night from Hotels.com. I still need to find out how much it would cost to park my car.

Attractions/Activities

Observatoire de la Capitale, Chute Montmorency, La Citadelle, La Chateau Fontenac (walk by/photograph), Musee national des beux-arts, Musee de la Civlisation, Fortifications, and Ile d'Orleans are all on my list. I'll have my car so I could drive to the falls and then if the trip to Ile de'Orleans is longer than walking distance-I could drive there as well.

Does this sound feasible to others that have been there?