Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Sure thing. Just send me a PM with the date you are here :starsmile:

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Agreed, agreed and agreed. Highway 3 coastal drive is my most favourite.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Of course, you shouldn't miss doing some sightseeing .............

that great NS view that's on all the calendars ........... Peggy's Cove.

It's lovely in sunlight, really eerie when the fog has rolled in!


If you do go there, then I suggest you drive a little further around St Margaret's Bay, and look at the SwissAir Memorial, commemorating the 229 people killed when SwissAir Flight 111 crashed in to the Bay in 1998.

I found that memorial ranks level with the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC, as being extremely simple yet extremely powerful.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Agreed. In NS though, I'd have thought the spots would be Martinique Beach (it's long and sandy with ocean and waves so not unique but nice all the same) and the road around Cape Breton which is bendy and up and down and classically cliff edge like you see in adverts for the mildly souped up versions of dreary cars. Note that Cape Bretoners are the people Newfies think to be some stunned so you're going for the views, not the conversation.

An immigrant might enjoy the Pier Something museum of immigration in Halifax, it's like Ellis Island for people really down on their luck; people who were head taxed or shipped to Saskatchewan. A real "there but for the grace of God" place.

As long as one is in the Maritimes, a visit to Newfoundland shouldn't be infeasible. The place in Canada I've found most compelling was an outport island near Twillingate. We got there on a rented boat but there are lots of outports and I'm sure lots of arrangements to get there. The short of the story is that people lived in fishing villages, often on islands, that were expensive for the government to service so the government decided to force them to move; by removing services, closing schools and so on. The populace was collectivized in larger urban centres. It may seem obvious to you that fishermen displaced to urban centres are not going to do well, the plan is flawed. If so, that's why you're not in a job writing government policy. Anyway, the people left, the villages stand, if there's somewhere more eerie it's near Chernobyl.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Oh, and places to avoid,

New Glasgow - it's one of those towns built around a smelly place of employment, a pulp mill or an abbatoir or some such, if you've never been to West Virginia or northern Pennsylvania or south Wales the air of decay might be educational but there's no rush to go there, the smell's not going to fade.

Sydney, it's famous for the toxic waste ponds but you can't get close enough to see the swirling colours of the chemicals so it's a disappointment.

Truro, ho hum town of big box stores with a baffling one way system.

Gottingen St. Halifax. Poor, ugly, but not rough enough to give one a thrill for having survived a visit.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Thank you for your replies. We're so excited about our visit and will most def take in some of the sights you guys have mentioned. I think we've got a few to avoid as well. Everything sounds so amazing and I'm so grateful that you guys have taken the time to reply to me.


Hardest part is going to be fitting everything in. We're going to stick to cities mon-fri to look for work, somewhere to live etc.. and then get out to the coast for the two weekends we're there.
We're trying to do everything as cheap as possible as saving cash for when we move. So it's Airbnb me thinks plus we'd like to stay in a nice hotel for a bit of luxury on our last night.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

New Glasgow - has one of the best beaches in the province though called Melmerby, water is lovely and warm and simply stunning beach. I dont get the same feel for New Glasgow as dbd33 does.
Sydney - never saw those but theres not much there except did see that "Lick a chik" diner place :eek:
Truro - also has some really pretty streets with mom and pop shops and some lovely restaurants like "The Nook and Cranny", its also got Victoria Park which is worth a visit for the Jacobs Ladder staircase if you have no issue with heights.
Gottingen - agreed, dont go there at night.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

But to get to NL you will either need upwards of $600 to fly there or catch the ferry from Sydney to Port aux Basque which either takes all day or all night depending on the one you catch, also not cheap at all.
NL is nice though.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

What's up with Gottingen? I am morbidly curious now, how rough are we talking comparatively?

"Lick a chip" hahaha! :D

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

"Chik" not chip, although licking chips always good :)

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Council housing estate of low rise blocks in the UK. Risk of being mugged or in a fight. British rough, not American rough.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

If anyone is hurt its typically in Gottengen Street (or Dartmouth or Spryfield), very artsy place though by day.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Oh yes, and you have to go during the annual week of clear weather without knowing when that might be. One should plan as one would for a visit to the Shetland Islands.

It's a cliché but, NS, one should go and have a butcher's at the offshore wildlife.

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

Yes! Brier Island off Digby has the best whale watching trips. There are two tour guides there, Mariner Whale and Seabird Tours and Brier Island tours. The place is almost teeming with Humpbacks :-)

Re: Places to visit in the Maritimes?
 

I was a bit disappointed in Spryfield. I went there yonks ago when my daughter was about to start school in Halifax. We were interested to get an impression of the town, good bits and bad, and that was supposed to be bad. It didn't have any of the visual cues that put me on edge; no bars on the ground floor windows, no groups of men hanging around the corners with paper bags in their hands, no burned out vehicles, no sounds of shots. At that time that daughter played iced hockey in a worse neighbourhood.

Misery tourism needs somewhere like the 9th ward, Mexicantown or abandoned Buffalo, somewhere that makes your hair stand on end; I haven't seen any such place in eastern Canada.