From Montreal, the White Mountains sit about three and a half hours south by road, a little under 200 miles, plus however long the border takes on the day you go. Add the crossing and the slow parkway at the end and it is closer to four hours door to door. Most of it is easy, low-traffic driving down through Quebec's Eastern Townships and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, with the mountains rising ahead of you for the last hour. It makes an easy long-weekend escape from the city.
The one thing this drive has that our others do not is an international border, so the trip needs a passport and a little patience. The reward comes at the end. Guests driving up from Boston or New York reach Lincoln from the south; you reach it from the north, which means the last half hour brings you straight down through Franconia Notch, past Cannon and the Old Man site, before you ever unpack. You are in the park before you have checked in.
Below is the route we give guests making the drive for the first time: which autoroutes to take, what to expect at Derby Line, where to stop, and how the road changes with the seasons. Once you reach Lincoln, the lodge is 5 min past the exit, with keyless self check-in, so a slow line at the border never leaves you standing at a locked door.
The route south
Leave Montreal on Autoroute 10 East, the Cantons-de-l'Est autoroute that runs toward Sherbrooke. Near Magog you pick up Autoroute 55 South, which carries you the rest of the way to the border at Stanstead. This is the direct line to the mountains, and the middle of it is quiet farmland and river valley rather than highway sprawl.
At the border, Autoroute 55 becomes Interstate 91 the moment you cross into Derby Line, Vermont. From there it is Interstate 91 South for about fifty miles through Vermont's Northeast Kingdom to St. Johnsbury, where I-91 meets the northern end of Interstate 93. You take I-93 South from that junction, and it does not let go until Lincoln.
That last stretch is the good one. I-93 crosses into New Hampshire, passes Littleton, and then narrows into the Franconia Notch Parkway, a slower two-lane road, one lane each way, that threads the notch between Cannon Mountain and Franconia Ridge. You come out the bottom of the notch, pass Exit 33, and reach Exit 32 for Lincoln and the Kancamagus. Note the direction: coming from Montreal you are heading south on I-93, not north. It is the same exit Boston and New York guests use, but you reach it from the opposite side.
The whole thing is roughly ninety miles of Quebec to the border, about fifty miles of I-91 to St. Johnsbury, and fifty-odd miles of I-93 down to Lincoln. Your navigation app may reroute the middle around traffic or construction, but the shape holds: south to Derby Line, south on I-91 to St. Johnsbury, south on I-93 to the notch.
The border crossing at Derby Line
The crossing at Derby Line, Vermont, is the main highway port between Quebec and New England, and it runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. That matters for this drive more than most. If the border or a late start pushes your arrival past dark, the lodge's check-in does not depend on anyone being awake to hand you a key.
Carry a valid passport for everyone in the car. A NEXUS card also counts as an accepted document, and for entering the United States by land a few others qualify as well, but a passport is the one that never raises a question at the booth. If you are travelling with anyone under sixteen, the document rules differ from the adult requirement and change from time to time, so check the current ones before you leave.
A couple of things are worth knowing before you pull up. Cannabis is legal in Quebec, but carrying it across the United States border is a federal offense in any amount, so leave it at home. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and certain meats can also be turned away, so finish them before you cross rather than lose them at inspection. Expect the usual questions about where you are going and for how long; "a few nights in Lincoln, New Hampshire" is all it takes.
Once you are across, everything is priced in U.S. dollars, and your phone moves onto U.S. roaming, which is worth confirming with your carrier so you are not surprised. Download an offline map before you go, too. Cell coverage thins out in the mountains and disappears entirely on the Kancamagus Highway, which carries no signal along its length.
When to leave
The drive itself carries little traffic. The variable is the border. Weekday mornings before eight are the lightest times to cross; Friday afternoons, summer weekends, and Sunday afternoons in ski season are the heaviest, when the line at Derby Line can add real time to your estimate.
For a Friday-to-Sunday weekend, leaving Montreal in the mid- to late morning usually clears the border before the afternoon build and puts you in Lincoln in time for dinner. If you can travel on an off-peak day, better still. U.S. Customs and Border Protection posts current wait times for Derby Line online and in its app, and it is worth a look before you settle on a departure time for a busy weekend.
Coming home, the same pattern runs in reverse, with Sunday afternoons northbound into Canada the slow ones. An early start on the way back, or a Monday departure if your schedule allows, avoids the worst of it.
Where to stop along the way
There is no shortage of places to break the drive, but a few are better placed than others. In Quebec, Magog sits right where Autoroute 55 begins its run south, on the shore of Lake Memphremagog. It is a good spot for a coffee or an early lunch and the last easy stop on the Canadian side.
At the crossing itself, straddling Stanstead and Derby Line, is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a stone building that sits directly on the international line, with the boundary marked by a line across the floor of the reading room. It is still open to visitors, though access changed in 2025: after the United States tightened entry at the historic front door, the library added a new entrance on the Canadian side, which opened in June 2026. Canadian and American visitors now come in from their own sides, so check the current hours and entrance before you plan a stop.
In Vermont, St. Johnsbury is the natural break point, since it is where you leave I-91 for I-93. There is gas and food, and, if you have time, the Fairbanks Museum, a Victorian natural-history collection housed in an 1890s red-sandstone Romanesque building. It is an easy place to top up the tank before the last hour.
Once you are on I-93 in New Hampshire, Littleton is the last town of any size before the notch, reached from Exit 41 or 42. Its Main Street is worth the short detour: Chutters, a candy store whose 112-foot candy counter is billed as the longest in the world, sits along it, and there are diners and a riverside brewery within a couple of blocks. Fill the tank here if you are running low, because the notch and Lincoln beyond it are not the place to go looking for a late-night gas station.
Coming down through Franconia Notch
The final half hour is the reason to make this drive rather than fly somewhere and rent a car. South of Littleton, I-93 narrows into the Franconia Notch Parkway and drops into the notch, with Cannon Mountain on your right and the wall of Franconia Ridge on your left. Slow down here. The speed limit drops to forty-five, the road bends, and there is a lot to look at.
Cannon's aerial tramway is out of service. The forty-five-year-old tram was retired after its last day in late October 2025, and no reopening date has been announced for a new one, so do not plan a ride up this year. The ski area itself still operates in winter; it is only the old tram that is down. A little farther along, Echo Lake sits at the top of the notch, and below it Profile Lake marks the spot where the Old Man of the Mountain looked out until the rock profile fell in May 2003. The face is gone, but a small plaza at the lake still tells the story.
Past Profile Lake you go by the trailheads that make this park famous: Lafayette Place for the Franconia Ridge Loop, the short walk to the Basin's glacial pothole, and the Flume Gorge near the bottom of the notch. You do not have to stop on the way in, and after most of a day on the road you may not want to, but it is worth knowing that most of what you have come for is lined up along these last few miles. Then the parkway widens back out, Exit 33 goes by, and Exit 32 brings you into Lincoln.
Foliage and winter driving
This is a drive that changes with the calendar. Fall color in the northern White Mountains generally peaks from late September into mid-October, and the notch is one of the best places in the region to see it, which also makes early-October weekends the busiest of the year on this route and at the border. If you are coming for foliage, travel on the shoulder days if you can, and leave early.
In winter, this is a ski route as much as a scenic one, and it deserves respect. Vermont's I-91 and the Franconia Notch Parkway both get real snow, and the parkway's curves are less forgiving than open interstate. Travel with winter tires, keep the tank above half, and give yourself extra time when the weather is moving through. The plus side of the 24-hour crossing at Derby Line is that a storm-slowed drive still ends at a door that opens to a code on your phone, whatever the hour.
Once you reach Lincoln
Lincoln sits at the western end of the Kancamagus Highway, and the lodge is in the middle of town, 5 min past Exit 32. From here almost everything is close: Loon Mountain is about 6 min east, the entrance to Franconia Notch State Park about 10 min north, and the Flume Gorge about 12 min. That is the same Flume you passed coming down; it runs on timed, seasonal entry, so book a slot ahead in summer and fall.
The Kancamagus itself starts at the end of our street and runs thirty-four miles east to Conway with no gas, no services, and no cell signal the whole way, cresting near 2,855 feet. It is one of the great drives in New England, but fuel up in Lincoln before you set out. If you plan to park at the trailheads and overlooks along it, or anywhere in the White Mountain National Forest, you will need a recreation pass, which runs five dollars for the day or thirty for the year, sold in town and at the trailhead machines.
One trail note for this year: the Lincoln Woods Trail, the popular flat walk along the Pemigewasset just east of town, is closed from June 15 into November 2026, so plan your hikes around it. For a first meal after the drive, the town has the usual mountain-town spread, including Basecamp Brewing, the Lincoln brewpub that used to be One Love, a short drive from the lodge.
Where to stay when you arrive
At the end of the drive from Montreal, Launchpoint Lodge is 5 min past Exit 32, in the middle of Lincoln: a restored 1902 colonial with six adults-only suites, five of them TV-free, the kind of quiet that lands well after most of a day on the road and a border. Check-in is keyless. Your door code arrives the day before arrival, once your check-in form and payment are complete, so a slow crossing or a late start never leaves you waiting on a front desk that has closed for the night.
We book direct, and the best rate is always direct. Bring your passport, plan for the border, and the last half hour through Franconia Notch does the rest.
Sources & official info: cbp.gov · visitnh.gov
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
