Wandering Coastal Nova Scotia

The highway south out of Halifax is the beginning of a coastal route dotted with small port towns and fishing villages featuring colorful houses and weathered fishing boats. Add in more lighthouses and churches than you can possibly believe, and cute becomes a cliche. The only practical way to experience seaside Nova Scotia is on the road, so we rented a car and joined the caravan of RVs, camper trailers, and luggage capped SUVs cruising Nova Scotia’s southwestern thumb.

The Polly’s and Peggy’s Cove

We started our road trip on 8-August-2022, with the goal of spending the night in Lunenburg. We headed south out of Halifax down Highway 333 toward the picturesque destination of Peggy’s Cove. Peggy’s Cove is a popular day trip from Halifax and a highlight mentioned in all the guide books. However, the route to Peggy’s Cove also includes the Polly’s Cove hiking trail, which is a vast expanse of wetland just begging you to stop. If you search for Polly’s Cove, all you’ll see are pictures of the coastline and the end of the trail. People somehow miss the amazing wetland along the way to the shore. We didn’t have time to hike to the coast, but pulled aside just to marvel at this unique landscape.

This wetland peat bog was full of insect-eating plants, dwarf trees, and moss everywhere. Looking at just the pictures and not knowing where we were, you’d think we were in an alpine wetland. We were actually at sea level with the ocean just over the hill.

Continuing on to Peggy’s Cove gives you the postcard version of a Nova Scotia sea town. Take in the serenity of this photograph knowing that we had to park in a huge parking lot similar to those found in U.S. National parks and then walk through throngs of tourists getting ice cream and fish and chips.

Oh, did I mention something about lighthouses? The Peggy’s Cove lighthouse is one of the main attractions, so we waded through the crowds to take the obligatory selfie.

Lovely Lunenburg

The road between Halifax and Lunenburg isn’t lacking for roadside attractions. Another iconic destination is Mahone Bay. Look it up and marvel at the wonderful pictures of the churches on the waterfront. Our day there was rainy and overcast and the water was anything but still, glassy, and reflective. We took a pause and a photograph to record or visit there. Churches and lighthouses . . .

When we reached our final destination for the day, we couldn’t have been more charmed. Lunenburg is one of those rare places lost in time but not dead. It still feels like a fishing village, but has a vibrant modern life. While it is a main tourist destination and it was frankly difficult to get into a restaurant, it wasn’t overrun or pandering. It is just a place that is what it is and that makes people want to be there. We wanted to be there and were sad we didn’t know it earlier because we only booked one night. We stayed at the Mariner King Inn, just a couple blocks off of the waterfront in downtown Lunenburg.

This is the main building of the historic inn, but the property is actually three buildings on the same street. We booked late and had to take a suit, which ended up being the top room in the lovely pink building across the street. We had comfortable beds and two rooms, one for our crap and one to just chill out in. After our hotel in Halifax, it couldn’t have been more different or welcome. Again, we really wish we had known and also had time to book another day. Our schedule was determined by how long we had our rental car and the logistics of actually getting to Newfoundland, so it wasn’t in the plan. The hotel is for sale! Investors welcome. We’d love to live there and run it. Seriously, consider it.

We spent the evening in Lunenburg walking the waterfront and enjoying a beer at what could only be called a nanobrewery. Not the best representation, but this picture of the bar and the fermenters at Shipwright Brewing is basically the entire operation. they had three small kettles and some outside seating area. Would love to own this with the hotel. Owner owns the entire block including the bar and restaurant downstairs. In desperate need of a brewer as they were running out of beer. Anyway . . .

The Lunenburg waterfront is the summer home to the Bluenose II, the second edition of the historic ship. Other times of the year, it makes port in Halifax where there is a breakfast place by the same name. (Actually caused some confusion as we thought we’d get to eat breakfast on the ship. Another Halifax disappointment.) All we really know about it is that it is the ship that is pictured on the Canadian dime, so it must be important. We wanted to join a cruise, but apparently people book months in advance for a chance to ride in the ship when it is in full sail. Maybe another time.

We did get to see it under sail as we were leaving town, so that is something. It really was an impressive sight in the bay.

The Bluenose is only one of the attractions on the waterfront. We took a lovely stroll and then visited another brewery on the other side of the bay the next day to take more pictures.

We had lunch at Lightship Brewing and sat there for much of the afternoon enjoying the views and not wanting to leave. Among the sites was this one of beers just hanging out being beers and enjoying the view like we were.

Yarmouth to Annapolis Royale

From our afternoon in Lunenburg, we traveled further along Canadian Highway 3, or Trunk 3 as it was called, following the coastline around the end of the thumb to eventually head north to Yarmouth, our stop for the night.

Along the route, we took a quick stop at Blue Rocks. Here was yet another idyllic seaside fishing town. Tiny doesn’t describe it. We spent half an hour walking the waterfront, taking pictures, and enjoying the ocean. If we had more time and the tide had been in, we might have kayaked. It was a really nice stop on the road trip and some of our favorite pictures, so here’s one we’d like to share. Tiny Blue Rocks was worth the stop even though there just wasn’t much there or anything going on.

By contrast, after leaving Blue Rocks, the route next took us through the Shelburne Historic District, which was starred in our Moon Guide. The vibe in Shelburne could not have been more different than that of Lunenburg or Blue Rocks. Maybe it was the late hour (3:30 in the afternoon) that caused everything to be closed and the historic waterfront to be completely lifeless. It was pretty and all, but we found ourselves wondering where everyone was. Tiny Blue Rocks had more going on in the little kayak shack.

I mention the “late” hour because reality is Atlantic Canadians turn in early and we honestly had trouble finding restaurants open past 8pm. It was a problem everywhere. Apparently Shelburne takes that one step further and closes at 2pm in the height of the summer season. We were hoping to have some lunch, but couldn’t find anywhere to eat. We took a few pictures, not going to bother to share any here. We decided to at least find a brewery and have a beer before moving on. Frankly, the brewery was odd and the beer disappointing. We finished our beers and left wondering why we had stopped.

Towns are small in this part of Nova Scotia, and we only had our guide book to help us decide where to spend the night. Shelburne had been an option, so we were glad we had decided to go a little further on to Yarmouth. The town itself wasn’t much bigger, but at least showed some signs of life. We reserved a room at the Lakelawn Motel, apparently the only place to stay in town.

It had an Addams Family/Bates Motel Vibe, but the staff was friendly, the bed comfortable, and the included breakfast was decent. We arrived on Ande’s father’s 100th birthday (We love and miss you, Dean!) and wanted to have a celebratory dinner. We were a little concerned about what our choices would be considering our stop in Shelburne and the fact that it was getting on to the very late hour of 7pm. Luckily, Rudder’s on the waterfront was actually open until 10pm, and we scored a table on the patio overlooking the waterfront. We enjoyed a seafood dinner and toasted Dean’s birthday. He, in turn, rewarded us with a pretty nice sunset–actually the first we enjoyed in a long time. Coincidence? Happy birthday, Dean.

The next day we drove up the coast to Cape Saint Mary on the way to our next lodging stop. We were in the heart of Acadian Country. Acadians are some of the first French settlers of Canada who made nice with the natives and lived side by side. When the French lost the fight for the territory, the British basically tried to eliminate them. Not a good history for the British. You can look it up. The Acadians are fiercely nationalistic and proudly fly their flag in their territory in Canada. The history of the area is the history of the Acadians.

Cape Saint Mary was as green and inviting as other parts of the coast. We, of course, visited a lighthouse and took pictures of the boats in port. It was all as if someone was staging a seaside art competition and erecting artificial sets. It was something to marvel, enjoy, and somehow doubt that it was actually real.

Digby and Annapolis Royale

The Fundy Coast of Nova Scotia is all about Digby scallops. You’ll see them on the menu in every town up and down Fundy Bay. When we were planning the trip, we came across a schedule for the Digby Scallop Days that seemed to align with our travels. We booked a room in nearby Annapolis Royale because it was recommended in the guidebook, and planned to spend our first day there at the Digby Scallop Days. Checking our hotel reservation and looking at our calendar further, we started to wonder why the scallop festival would be in the middle of the week and not on a weekend.

For future reference, if you want to go to the 2023 Digby Scallop Days, it is happening 10-Aug through 12-Aug. I was looking at the wrong year when we made our plans weeks earlier, and we had just missed it. When we arrived in Digby 10-Aug-2022, the town was actually just recovering from the scallop hangover from the weekend before. It couldn’t have been more dead. Add to that the fact that someone had hit a light pole earlier that morning and NONE of the downtown businesses had power.

We feared we would be lucky to find a single scallop. We wandered through the noise of generators on the street to see if it was even possible. We did find the Fundy Restaurant and Bar, who had managed to run an extension cord to the kitchen from a generator in the street and was attempting to still serve lunch. The power issue didn’t stop the beer from pouring, so we enjoyed some scallops and chowder in the sun and paid with a good old fashioned credit card slip they’d run later when the power returned. Our timing was good because the generator ran out of gas just after we got our food and the tables behind us had to wait until someone got back with a gas can before they could serve more food. Timing. Really?

Our snaffu with the timing of the Digby Scallop Days actually freed up an entire day, which were precious few on our Atlantic Canada roadtrip. We booked two nights in Annapolis Royale at the Queen Anne Inn, and couldn’t have been happier with the town and the Inn.

The inn was walking distance from all the sights in town and the many restaurants, some even open past 7pm! There was a great pub, The Whiskey Teller, where we had dinner outside and a brewery, Annapolis Brewing Company, that didn’t disappoint. The beers and cider were all excellent.

Briar Island Whale Watching

With our free day, we decided to book a whale watching tour. We were in the middle of whale season in the middle of their summer feeding grounds. We were concerned we wouldn’t get on a boat with short notice and became more alarmed when we discovered the tour operator recommended in our guidebook had retired due to health reasons and closed. We got lucky and found a spot on a Zodiac with Briar Island. As the name suggests, the tours all leave from Briar Island, which lies at the end of Digby Neck, a really long spit on the Bay of Fundy capped by two tiny islands. To get to the whale tour, we had to drive the length of the spit and then take two ferries. It was beautiful, filled with lighthouses and seaside shacks, and a lot of fun to drive. The trip to the tour was worth it in itself.

When we eventually got to Briar Island and out on the water, we had an awesome time. Here’s some of our whale watching experience. We donned heavy and hot, bright orange float suits and headed out on the ocean to try and find whales.

We were actually really happy to have the suits once we got out on the water. It is the ocean and we were moving in our little boat. They kept us warm and dry, and we had an amazing time. As you’ll see soon, we also saw whales. Tons of humpback whales. Everywhere. They kept popping up right next to the boat. It was phenomenal!

The rest of our time in Nova Scotia was spent visiting the reconstructed settlement of Port Royale and enjoying our time in Annapolis Royale. The next leg of our road trip took us to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and eventually on to Newfoundland. We’ll cover those in other posts soon. For now, please enjoy a condensed version of our whale watching highlights.