Nova Scotia, PEI & New Brunswick travel advice (1 Viewer)

[Ari]

My wife and I have around five or six days vacation in early April and we were thinking of going to Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick.

I realize that's quite a lot of area to cover so I was hoping to get some concrete advice with regards to a suggested itinerary. Must-dos, must-sees, must-eats and must-stays.... I haven't begun researching so I don't have any idea on what to do and where to go yet.

Also, we're planning to fly in from NY. I'm guessing that the best starting point would be Halifax. We'll probably just rent a car from there.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Cape Bretton in northern Novia Scotia is a must visit, imo. It's a beautiful, scenic area with some good hiking trails and some good places to watch for moose. I'm not sure what the weather is like in April, though -- we were there in the summertime.

 

[Grant B]

I would love to go to Oak Island, don't know if that's possible

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/OakIsland/

 

[Mike Graham]

Be sure to make the trip to PEI, so that you can cross the Confederation bridge. Its my understanding that its one of the longest bridges in the world.

New Brunswick has a lot of mill towns (Miramichi, Saint John) but other cities like Fredericton and Moncton are nice to visit.

 

[John Watson]

The weather may still be raw at that time of year so bring coat and hat! But the chance of gale strength wind at Peggys's Cove will be better (Light House, breakers) and there will be fewer tourists around then.

Whale watching excursions may also be out of season.:frowning:

PEI is wonderful, take the bridge one-way, and the ferry back the other way. (Actually, I'm not sure if the ferry runs in April so you may not have the chance.) Highlight of a trip I made there a few years ago was stopping on a red dirt road in a sea of green potato plants. Don't miss Green Gables (watch Anne of Green Gables before you go).

If you want nice souvenirs (arts, crafts, etc), you may have to look hard - we have the same malls with the same dreck as the rest of the continent. I'm assuming you're not Canadian? - so you'll get to know Tim Hortons - for coffee and donuts on the road.

http://www.gov.ns.ca/

 

[Ari]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I've started to do my own research and here is what I've come up with:

Damn!! It's going to be cold!! However, we've been all over the northeast and this is the only place we've not been to....but I'm still hoping that there'll be stuff to see in April....

We definitely want to hit Halifax and surrounding areas (Peggy's Cove, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay & Chester), Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail, and Charlottestown.

Any other areas that I should go to?? We're planning to drive around PEI....which part should we go to??

Also, in what order should I do the trip? We arrive in Halifax in the late afternoon on a Monday and leave in the late afternoon the following Monday.

P.S. My wife's family comes lives in Toronto...so I'm pretty familiar with Tim Horton's....

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Yeah there's a Tim's every corner

A few years ago we did that same trip only in August. I will say that there's an awful lot to see in that short a time. Here's a few things that we really enjoyed.

* PEI - drive over the confederation bridge and then head to charlettown. From there we went to Green Gables. There's a nice park just out of town with a nice walk along the beach. You'll need a map of the area as there's no direct way to drive across PEI.

* Nova Scotia - Halifax is well worth the visit. The museum at Pier 21 very interesting as is the citedel. Also make sure you do the Alexander Keith's brewery tour
Peggy's cove isn't that far a drive from Halifax and the change in geography is rather amazing. Peggy's Cove is also where that Swiss air flight went down several years ago. I would love to go back to NS and tour the vineyards, annapolis valley and Cape Breton.

* New Brunswick - We didn't tour around there as much as we would have liked but we did do the ever popular "Magnetic Hill" and went to Fundy National Park which was well worth the visit...though it rained all day! Muncton was ok though Fredricton is apparently nicer from an architecutral stand point. The Irving boardwalk is a nice hike if you're into that sort of thing (I enjoyed it)

 

[Lance Nichols]

When in Halifax, check out the Maritime museum, as well as the HMCS Sackville and the Bluenose will likely be arround as well.

The Sackville is a restored WWII Corevette. These small, tough little ships formed the vast majority of the escorts for the Atlantic convoys. It is just astounding to see how many people they crammed into one of them.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Are Tim Horton's not prevalent throughout the U.S. now? We have quite a few of them in Michigan.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Ah the invasion has begun

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Yeah, I expect to see Canadian Tire stores popping up soon in the area, too.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Yeah I love Canadian Tire

 

[Jay H]

When are we going to start seeing Esso gas stations... One of memories of driving through Canada when I was younger. That and also the Hudson Bay Dept. Stores.

Jay

 

[Jason L.]

Now that Timmy's is owned by Wendy's [I believe], you should be seeing more of them in the U.S.

 

[JamieD]

Tim Horton's is indeed owned by Wendy's. One of the reasons their recent patriotic ad campaign disgusts me, along with their new policy of shipping frozen products to outlets instead of having them baked fresh.

As well, if you're going to cover all of the the Northeast, try to hit Newfoundland and Labrador at some point.