10 Days in the Maritime Provinces

Fly into Halifax Stanfield International Airport and settle in. Halifax is compact and most accommodation is walkable to the waterfront. The boardwalk along the harbour is a good orientation walk — the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic sits mid-boardwalk and has strong Titanic exhibits that are worth an hour. The museum holds the world's largest collection of Titanic artefacts outside the UK.

Halifax has excellent seafood at every price point. The waterfront area has tourist-oriented options; the Hydrostone Market neighbourhood in the North End has better local restaurants and a more interesting atmosphere. The neighbourhood was rebuilt after the 1917 Halifax Explosion — the streetscape is intact and the story is worth knowing before you walk it.

Halifax Citadel opens at 9 a.m. The star-shaped fort sits directly above downtown and the views over the harbour from the ramparts explain why the British chose this site. The noon cannon has fired every day since 1857 — time your visit to be on the ramparts when it goes off. Allow 90 minutes. Walk down to Citadel Hill Park for views of the harbour approach.

Pier 21 on the southern waterfront is Canada's National Immigration Museum, built on the site where over one million immigrants arrived between 1928 and 1971. The personal testimonies in the exhibit are genuinely moving and the interactive genealogy resources help visitors trace their own family connections. Allow 2 hours. Walk the waterfront boardwalk south to the Casino Nova Scotia wharf for views back toward the downtown.

The North End — particularly Agricola Street — is Halifax's most interesting neighbourhood for independent restaurants and bars. The Bicycle Thief on the waterfront is worth the splurge for a farewell dinner on your last night; on night two, the more casual options on Agricola are better value.

Drive to Peggy's Cove (45 minutes from Halifax) for 8 a.m. — the lighthouse is at its best in morning light and the granite boulders are far less crowded before 10 a.m. The fishing village of a dozen houses has looked the same for a century. Walk past the lighthouse and follow the granite headland as far as the orange-painted hazard line; beyond that marker the waves are powerful enough to wash people off the rock, which has happened repeatedly.

Continue along the South Shore to Lunenburg (90 minutes from Peggy's Cove). UNESCO designated Lunenburg's Old Town a World Heritage Site for its intact 18th-century British colonial settlement plan. The coloured wooden buildings along the waterfront have been photographed endlessly; they look exactly like the photos. The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic has a working schooner and a convincing lobster exhibit. Chester on the way back to Halifax is worth a slow drive through.

Drive the Annapolis Valley along Highway 101 west from Halifax (2 hours). The valley floor is apple orchard country and in spring (May) the blossoms are extraordinary. Stop in Wolfville for coffee — Acadia University gives the town a livelier than expected atmosphere for its size. Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal is a compact but genuinely important site for early Canadian colonial history.

Continue west and cross into New Brunswick via the Trans-Canada at Amherst. Drive to Moncton (2.5 hours from Annapolis Royal) or directly to the Fundy shore. Hopewell Cape, where the Hopewell Rocks are located, is 40 minutes south of Moncton on the Fundy Coast — if you arrive before 6 p.m., a late-day visit when the tide is out allows you to walk among the flowerpot formations on the ocean floor.

If yesterday's tide timing was wrong for a floor walk, return to Hopewell Rocks at low tide (check the Bay of Fundy tide tables — they are not on a standard 6-hour cycle). The 17-metre tidal range here is the largest in the world; walking on the ocean floor surrounded by 10-metre rock formations is a disorienting and memorable experience.

Drive southwest to Fundy National Park (1 hour). The park trail network covers coastal cliffs, Dickson Falls, and the Laverty Lake backcountry. The Alma village at the park entrance has excellent fish and chips — Alma Lobster Shop is the local choice. Check the tide table for the park's own beach: at low tide you can walk out nearly a kilometre on the bay floor.

Drive to Saint John (1 hour from Fundy NP). The Reversing Falls gorge is best visited at slack tide when the river and bay are in equilibrium — the tourist centre posts the day's reversal times. The Saint John City Market (Canada's oldest farmers market, continuously operating since 1876) is excellent for lunch supplies: dulse, Solomon Gundy, local cheese, and fresh fish.

Drive northeast toward Moncton (1.5 hours) and take the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. The bridge is 12.9 km long and the crossing takes 10 minutes by car. First views of PEI's red sand cliffs from the bridge are striking. Arrive Charlottetown by early evening (45 minutes from the bridge).

Charlottetown is walkable and handsome — Province House (Confederation birthplace, restored to 1860s appearance), the Confederation Centre of the Arts, and Victoria Row are all within a few blocks. The Saturday Farmers Market is one of the best in Atlantic Canada if your timing allows.

Drive to Cavendish (45 minutes) for Green Gables Heritage Place and PEI National Park beaches. The red sand and warm Gulf water are genuinely excellent; Brackley Beach tends to be less crowded than Cavendish proper. Evening: a lobster supper at New Glasgow Lobster Suppers is a non-negotiable Maritime experience — whole lobster, mussels, chowder, and fresh rolls.

Take the ferry from Wood Islands to Pictou (75-minute crossing, seasonally operated). Pictou is the "Birthplace of New Scotland" — the first Scottish settlers landed here in 1773. The Hector Heritage Quay has a full-scale replica of the ship that brought them. Continue east through Antigonish toward Cape Breton.

Cross the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island and drive to Baddeck (2 hours from Pictou), the eastern gateway to the Cabot Trail. Alexander Graham Bell's estate Beinn Bhreagh is here; the Bell National Historic Site museum is surprisingly absorbing. Overnight in Baddeck.

Drive the Cabot Trail clockwise from Baddeck — the spectacular coastal sections are on the western side of the loop (the Cheticamp cliffs and the French Acadian Coast) and the highland plateau and Ingonish areas are on the eastern return. The Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a 9 km loop to a headland overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence — one of the best moose-spotting walks in Atlantic Canada and one of the most photographed sunset viewpoints in the Maritimes. Allow a full day for the complete 300 km loop.

The drive from Baddeck to Halifax takes 3.5 hours via Highway 104 and 102. Allow a stop at the Antigonish Farmers Market if it's open, and fill the tank before you get to Truro — it's cheaper than the options closer to the airport. Return your car and allow 2 hours for airport check-in at Halifax Stanfield.