Québec tourism authorities produce detailed and highly useful publications, and they're easy to obtain by mail, by phone, or in person. To contact Tourisme Québec, write C.P. 979, Montréal, Québec H3C 2W3; call tel. 877/266-5687; or visit their website at www.bonjourquebec.com.

The Québec government maintains a number of offices in the United States and abroad, which provide specific tourism information about the province:

In the U.S.: Délégation du Québec, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10020 (tel. 212/397-0200).

Délégation du Québec, 444 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1900, Chicago, IL 60611 (tel. 312/645-0392).

Délégation du Québec, 10940 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 720, Los Angeles, CA 90024 (tel. 310/824-4173).

In the U.K.: Délégation du Québec, 59 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JH, England (tel. 071/930-8314).

High Commission of Canada, Canada House, Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, London SW1Y 5BJ, England (tel. 071/258-6600).

Besides these offices outside Québec, the province has a large office in Montréal, and there is a convenient regional office in Québec City as well.

Using a Cellphone in Canada--Keep it simple: Sign up for a wireless system that covers both the U.S. and Canada. Verizon is one. Otherwise, it gets complicated, to wit:

If your cellphone is on a GSM system, and you have a world-capable phone such as many (but not all) Sony Ericsson, Motorola, or Samsung models, you can make and receive calls across civilized areas on much of the globe, from Andorra to Uganda. Just call your wireless operator and ask for "international roaming" to be activated on your account. Unfortunately, per-minute charges can be high.

World-phone owners can bring down their per-minute charges with a bit of trickery. Call up your cellular operator and say you'll be going abroad for several months and want to "unlock" your phone to use it with a local provider. Usually, they'll oblige. Then, in your destination country, pick up a cheap, prepaid phone chip at a mobile phone store and slip it into your phone. (Show your phone to the salesperson, as not all phones work on all networks.) You'll get a local phone number in your destination country -- and much, much lower calling rates.

Otherwise, renting a phone is a good idea. While you can rent a phone from any number of overseas sites, including kiosks at airports and at car-rental agencies, we suggest renting the phone before you leave home. That way you can give loved ones your new number, make sure the phone works, and take the phone wherever you go -- especially helpful when you rent overseas, where phone-rental agencies bill in local currency and may not let you take the phone to another country.

Phone rental isn't cheap. You'll usually pay $40 to $50 per week, plus airtime fees of at least a dollar a minute. Shop around.

Two good wireless rental companies are InTouch USA (tel. 800/872-7626; www.intouchglobal.com) and RoadPost (www.roadpost.com; tel. 888/290-1606 or 905/272-5665). Give them your itinerary, and they'll tell you what wireless products you need. InTouch will also, for free, advise you on whether your existing phone will work overseas; simply call tel. 703/222-7161 between 9am and 4pm EST, or go to http://intouchglobal.com/travel.htm.

For trips of more than a few weeks spent in one country, buying a phone becomes economically attractive, as many nations have cheap, no-questions-asked prepaid phone systems. Stop by a local cellphone shop and get the cheapest package; you'll probably pay less than $100 for a phone and a starter calling card. Local calls may be as low as 10¢ per minute, and in many countries incoming calls are free.

Online Traveler's Toolbox

Veteran travelers usually carry some essential items to make their trips easier. Following is a selection of online tools to bookmark and use:

Visa ATM Locator (www.visa.com), for locations of PLUS ATMs worldwide, or MasterCard ATM Locator (www.mastercard.com), for locations of Cirrus ATMs worldwide.

Foreign Languages for Travelers (www.travlang.com). Learn basic terms in more than 70 languages and click on any underlined phrase to hear what it sounds like.

Intellicast (www.intellicast.com) and Weather.com (www.weather.com). These give weather forecasts for all 50 states and for cities around the world.

Mapquest (www.mapquest.com). This best of the mapping sites lets you choose a specific address or destination, and in seconds, it will return a map and detailed directions.