Begin your Nova Scotia adventure in the capital city of Halifax. Halifax has been a thriving port city since its founding in 1749. The heart of Halifax is perfect for exploring on foot, with beautiful tree-lined streets, international restaurants, galleries, and award-winning attractions.
The city’s vibrant waterfront is a great place to start! Lively Historic Properties is three city blocks of Canada’s oldest surviving group of waterfront warehouses - now home to a diverse collection of speciality boutiques, pubs and restaurants.
Take a voyage of discovery through Nova Scotia’s rich maritime heritage at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Among the museums’ thousands of marine treasures is the world’s finest collection of wooden artifacts from Titanic. The museum’s artifacts are not limited to inside the museum - the CSS Acadia (Canada’s first hydrographic vessel) and the HMCS Sackville, the last of the World War II convoy escort corvettes, can be found dockside.
Be sure to visit Pier 21 National Historic Site - Canada’s immigration museum. This highly interactive and moving interpretive centre is housed in Canada’s last surviving ocean immigration shed.
Visit Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. The impressive star-shaped fortress has a commanding view of the city’s expansive harbour. Enjoy pageantry and music of the kilted 78th Highlanders as you tour one of Canada’s most popular heritage treasures.
Take a late afternoon stroll through the Halifax Public Gardens - a 17-acre Victoria horticultural masterpiece located in the heart of the city. Just steps away is one of the city’s premier shopping districts - Spring Garden Road.
Overnight: Halifax area
Explore the Land of Evangeline in the picturesque Annapolis Valley, Atlantic Canada’s richest agricultural region.
Begin your day with a visit to Grand-Pré National Historic Site where a graceful stone church stands as a memorial to the Acadians who were forcefully exiled from their homes and farms during the Deportation from 1755 to 1763. The church grounds are peaceful and lovely with attractive formal gardens, ancient French willows, a blacksmith’s shop and a multipurpose visitor reception centre.
Stop in the charming university town of Wolfville with stately trees and beautiful heritage homes. Dominating the centre of town is Acadia University, one of Canada’s top undergraduate schools. The new Environmental Sciences Research Centre has a six-acre native botanical garden, greenhouses, and a gene bank of Atlantic Region flora.
Drive to Hall’s Harbour, a lovely natural harbour and picturesque fishing village on the upper Bay of Fundy. The village has several artists’ studios, hiking trails, a walking trail and a restaurant / lobster pound that serves up fresh boiled lobsters at picnic tables by the water’s edge.
The Annapolis Valley is currently inhabited by a growing number of wineries and grape growers - Blomidon Estate Winery, Gaspereau Vineyards and Domaine de Grand Pré, a member of the ECONOMUSEUM® network, are all located in the Wolfville area. A little closer to Halifax in the Windsor area is Sainte Famille Wines Ltd.
Overnight: Halifax
Come and celebrate the timeless romance of the sea as you journey through an unforgettable landscape of coastal beauty and historic charm.
At Peggy’s Cove, the graceful lighthouse sitting high upon the smooth wave-worn granite of the coast is a revered symbol of the sea-born spirit of Nova Scotia. The tiny harbour below the lighthouse is a masterpiece of weathered fish sheds and colourful fishing boats.
Continue along the shoreline road past wave-carved headlands and tranquil, island-studded bays to Chester, a beautiful seaside village where you can stroll along tree-lined streets , take a boat tour or explore nearby islands by kayak.
Stop in Mahone Bay, where the narrow streets are lined with a unique collection of studios and galleries of some of Canada’s finest artists and craftspeople. The three waterfront churches form one of the most photographed scenes in Nova Scotia.
Before heading back to Halifax, visit Lunenburg, where the colourful waterfront, narrow streets and captivating architecture radiate the flavour of the town’s seafaring heritage. Old Town Lunenburg was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995. Bluenose II, a replica of the original undefeated champion of the North Atlantic, was built in Lunenburg in 1963 and is open to the public when it’s in port.
Overnight: Halifax
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