Sightseeing In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

January 28, 2006 9:53 AM

Driving from MA to NS. Sights?

We're driving through Maine to Nova Scotia in July. Any tips for what to see along the route, north of Bangor, in NB, and the middle part of NS? We are partial to scenery and geography; churches and museums - not so much. What we liked last time we visited (western) NS: Medford Beach; Lunenburg. We were not as impressed with Peggy's Cove.

posted by Kirth Gerson to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. Incredible scenery and the world's highest tides.
posted by killdevil at 10:06 AM on January 28, 2006

i did that drive about 20 years ago. the place to stop and see is Fundy National Park in New Brunswick. the coast is awesome!
posted by brandz at 10:14 AM on January 28, 2006

Second the Bay of Fundy and Fundy NP. If you have extra time, take a detour into Prince Edward Island, probably my favorite place in all of Canada. The Confederation Bridge takes you onto the island from NB; and the car ferry takes you from PEI to Nova Scotia, a couple hours from Halifax.

In Maine, what to see depends on what route you take. If you're taking I-95, check out Millinocket and Baxter State Park. July is peak season and you can climb Mt. Kathadin (the highest point in Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail). If you go along the coast, you can hit Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, then drive up to Lubec and cross over to Campobello Island (FDR's summer home). A series of ferries will take you to the NB mainland.

Here's a slideshow of our trip to PEI and NS in 2002 (self-link).
posted by Saucy Intruder at 11:27 AM on January 28, 2006

Definitely check out the Bay of Fundy. I would recommend going to Blomidon Provincial Park. A great place to hike, though be aware of tide times and keep an eye on your watch- people get trapped by the tides and have to be airlifed out! It's an area of small towns with tons of B&Bs and you'll be at the right time of year to get to take in some of the great festivals the small towns have to offer. Here's a PDF with a calendar of everything going on.

One thing I didn't do while I was there and totally regret is a trip to Kejimkujik National Park. It's supposed to have great hiking and canoeing.

As you drive through NB, my only recommendation is skipping Magnetic Hill. Well, I take that back- go to Magnetic Hill if you would like fodder for family jokes for years to come.
posted by wallaby at 12:37 PM on January 28, 2006

Thanks all. We saw the western third (well, as much as we had time for) of NS last time, and we took the Cat from and to Bar Harbor, which is why we want to drive all the way this time. We expect the driving route to put us in NS on the other side of the Minas Basin from the farthest point we saw before. We won't have time to get to PEI this trip, unless NS is really dull, which I doubt.

Is Parrsboro a good place to see the tidal bore?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:13 PM on January 28, 2006

Actually, I did find NS pretty dull on our vacation there about ten years ago. But then I live on the southern coast of Maine, so maybe it's just prettier here. ;-)

But my artist-wife and I LOVED Prince Edward Island and keep promising ourselves we'll go back again one of these days. It's like a beautiful time warp...
posted by wordwhiz at 5:53 AM on January 29, 2006

wordwhiz, we actually found a lot of good stuff on our last trip - so much that we could only see about 1/3 of the province. And that was mostly ignoring the things that are heavily touted, like the churches and so on. Exploring the shore every place it looked interesting brought us to some very nice scenery.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:47 PM on January 29, 2006