For Maritimes tourism:
New Brunswick:
- Fundy National Park - lots of great hiking, nature, beaches. Within the area there's also horseback riding, Hopewell Rocks, Cape Enrage
- St. Martin's is also worth it to see the caves
- St. Andrews is definitely worth a visit (even beat out Banff etc... for best destination in Canada by USA Today!). Just a wonderful seaside town which offers beaches, sailing, whale watching (highly recommend the Jolly Breeze if you have kids - it's a lovely tall ship and the kids can dress up as pirates, have an onboard touch tank, they get to steer the ship etc...). There's a historic block house, a small aquarium with an excellent touch tank and seals, and Minister's Island is also a neat visit. Lots of great shops, restaurants etc... We visit St. Andrews every year.
- New River Beach is fairly close by and is a really nice beach. They also host an awesome sand sculpting contest every July which is awesome to see.
- Saint John is a neat seaside city close to Fundy attractions and has the New Brunswick Museum which is nice, a small zoo, good shopping, theatre, a nice market etc...
- Moncton is also close to Fundy and has a great zoo and a small (but decent) water park.
- Fredericton is a beautiful city. Strong arts culture, they have nice parks, nice downtown area, children's science museum, art gallery that offers free children's programming on Sundays, theatre, a great weekend market, Kingswood Centre which is a great entertainment centre with bowling, laser tag etc... (and golfing).
- King's Landing (very close to Fredericton) is a great place to spend a day. It's a historical re-enactment village focused on Loyalist life that our kids love to visit. There's another great one up north in the province (close to Moncton), called The Acadian Village (Le Village Historique Acadien) which is even bigger, and focused on Acadian life.
- Mactaquac Provincial Park (near Fredericton) is nice and has a small freshwater beach, campground, nice hiking trails, and an awesome treetop zipline/adventure course called Treego.
- If you like mountains and hiking, Mt. Carleton In the northwest part of the province offers some beautiful hiking.
- Grand Falls is a neat day trip to see the Falls Gorge, and you can go ziplining over it as well.
Nova Scotia:
- If you're travelling through from New Brunswick, stop and visit the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park. It's a small gem we discovered on one of our trips to Halifax. A nice variety of animals, nature trails, and just really pretty. And it's dirt cheap, I think $3-4 per person?
- Cape Breton is definitely worth a visit on it's own. Lots of great things to see and do - the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, Fort Louisberg, other small museum, sailing on the Bras D'or Lakes, whale watching, deep sea fishing, lots of golfing, beaches, kayaking, paddle boarding, great thriving Celtic arts culture, and of course just gorgeous scenic drives, hiking etc...
- In the Annapolis Royal area there's a decent theme park called Upper Clements Park that also offers a cool zipline/aerial course. Nearby is also Kejimkujik National Park which has a great freshwater beach, lots of beautiful hiking etc... and a small zoo called Oaklawn Farm Zoo.
- Of course if you go to the other coast, you can tour up the eastern coast of Nova Scotia visiting Kejimkujik National Park Seaside (gorgeous hiking and singing sand beaches), and then just travel up the scenic coast visiting seaside towns like Liverpool, Lunenburg, visit famous Peggy's Cove, and end up in Halifax.
- Halifax is of course a destination on it's own. For families, on the other side of Dartmouth is a decent adventure park called Atlantic Splash Adventure which features water slides/rides, and typical fairground rides plus bumper boats and cars, Go Karts, batting cages etc... Within Halifax itself there's a huge indoor trampoline/jump place, there's the Citadel, the Maritime Museum, Public Gardens, Point Pleasant Park, other small museums, great shopping, nice wharf area, theatres, an awesome science museum etc...
PEI:
- Charlottetown is a beautiful city. We love to walk downtown Charlottetown visiting the shops, restaurants, so many historic buildings, small museums etc.. You have to visit St. Dunstan's Basilica Cathedral and the kids loved doing the Eckhart Scavenger Hunt. They have a great wharf to visit. The Confederation Centre has both a great art museum and theatre - seeing Anne! The Musical is a must. Anne & Gilbert (at another theatre) is also good. You can tour the Cow's Creamery. Victoria Park is a great place to spend sunny summer afternoon.
- Cavendish area is the main tourist area. There of course is the most popular beach, the Anne of Green Gables museum and historic site, Avonlea Village, two smaller theme parks: Shining Waters and Sandspit, a boardwalk area, and lots of other small attractions like mini golf, Ripley's and Wax World museums etc...
- Beaches, beaches, beaches. So many gorgeous beaches to visit. Then of course there's golfing galore, whale watching, deep sea fishing, kayaking etc... Hiking trails etc...
We were supposed to go to Paris for my DDs graduation. Keep those ideas coming!
It's not that far out of Montreal if anyone is driving on the Trans Canada. Downside is the lack of brand name hotels for a city that big. I had considered making it a week-end trip to show DW and DS x2 where I grew up and hung out. Sadly I remember buying the seasons pass for $2. I doubt would still apply LOL
