I first visited Canada in 2017. It was a deserved break after finishing my master’s degree. Caroline already had visited the western part of Canada, so we decided to explore the eastern part and planned a road trip from Toronto to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The plan was to combine cities and landscapes and some wildlife as well in about 17 days on the road.

Details

Visit: June 6th - June 28th 2017

Season: Summer

Start / End: Toronto / Halifax

Transport: Rental Car

Toronto

We had 3 days in Toronto, though we planned a day trip to the Niagara Falls in between. On the 2 days exploring Toronto we did a lot of walking in the city. We spent most of the time in Old Toronto and explored the financial district, Dundas Square, Berczy Park and St. Lawrence Market, went to Chinatown, had some views from the viewing platform of the famous CN Tower and did not only stroll along the shore of Lake Ontario, we also did a boat trip on the lake. We really liked the Distillery District, too.

Niagara Falls

When you‘re in Toronto, you can’t miss the Niagara Falls. We decided to not book a day trip or something like that but go by ourselves as we needed a rental car anyway. The drive takes about one and a half hours and there is lots of parking available of course. You can do lots of things in the town, there is even a casino not far from the waterfalls, but we just went to see the falls. There is a couple of viewpoints and you can basically get good views of the main waterfall, the Horseshoe Falls, from many places along the way. It’s breathtaking to see what power that waterfall has - according to Wikipedia it’s actually the most powerful waterfall in North America based on the flow rate We walked along the walkway until we reached the Rainbow International Bridge to get better views of the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls that lie entirely within the United States of America. You can do boat tours and zip lining, too, and probably many more activities, but we didn’t do any of that.

Algonquin Provincial Park

After having spent some days in the city of Toronto we wanted to go into the nature, so we drove up to the Algonquin Provincial Park which is a two to three hour drive from Toronto. We wanted to do some hiking and also see some wildlife if possible and we were lucky to see moose, beavers (I just love them!) and squirrels. No bears, unfortunately or luckily, depending on who you ask. We also rented some canoes to canoe on Canoe Lake.

We did a couple of short but beautiful hikes. The ones that I remember are:

- The Beaver Pond Trail was only 2 kilometer long and very easy to walk, and it did not disappoint as we saw some beavers along the way.

- We also walked the easy Spruce Bog Boardwalk that is only 1.4 kilometers.

- The Lookout Trail is a 2 km long steep hike to a great lookout over the surrounding forest.

- The Hardwood Lookout Trail is only 1km long, but you’ll get great views of Smoke Lake.

We probably did one or two more short ones, but these are the ones that I kept in mind, especially the beaver one! There are some longer hiking trails, too, but we decided to rather do more of the short ones to explore more of the park in general.

Ottawa

Our next stop would be Montreal, but we decided to make a quick stop at the capital of Canada on the way. We just didn’t know we‘d got stuck in traffic for an hour until we really arrived in the center of Ottawa. We didn’t have much time, so we only explored the city a little and focused on the area around Parliament Hill and the beautiful Parliament buildings located here, including the library. It’s nice to take a stroll along along Ottawa River. We also went to Sparks Street and found a food festival happening there so we took the chance to get some dinner before continuing to Montreal.

Montreal

In Montreal we did a lot of walking around the city again. It’s not a city with a ton of sights in my view, but it’s nice to just live there.

First, we went to the Parc du Mont Royal. There you‘ll find a viewpoint over the city, the Kondiaronk lookout, as well as the Chalet du Mont-Royal and the Mount Royal Cross, a 31 meter high monument from 1924.

We also walked through downtown and the area at Saint Lawrence River including Notre Dame Basilica and the Old Port, La Grande roue de Montréal as well as the Aldred Building and Bonsecours Market.

It was also the first time we hat Poutine and I loved it!

Quebec City

We couldn’t miss Quebec, of course. It’s the only walled city in North America, though it felt more like being in France, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We only really had one full day in the city, so we visited some of the main sights in town, like the fortifications that you see a lot, obviously Place Royale with the stone church Notre-Dame des Victoires and probably the most famous building in town, the Château Frontenac which is a huge hotel but was originally built for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The whole area around it is beautiful, too, with views of Saint Lawrence River and historic monuments and buildings surrounding the hotel. It looks also stunning at night.

We really liked Quartier Petit-Champlain which is an area of narrow streets and beautiful old buildings that now houses restaurants, cafes and boutiques. And it‘s got pedestrian only streets which is great to enjoy this scenic area.

We also went to the Observatoire de la Capitale to get a 360 degree view of the city from the 31st floor.

New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island

The next few days were planned to drive through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia and visit some of the sights on the way.

Our first item on the list was getting on a whale watching boat in Rivière-du-Loup, but that was a fail because there was so much fog that we didn’t see anything. Never had that before, actually.

The second sight to be mentioned is Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy. These are strange looking sandstone rocks and are also called Flowerpots Rocks due to the extreme tides in the bay. At low tide you can walk around and get closer to the rocks, but at high tide the base of these rocks is in the water so they actually look like flowerpots. We first visited in between tides to see them in the water (though it already was a little late or early for that), then went to spent some time in Fundy National Park (we didn’t do much as it rained a lot) and came back when it was low tide at Hopewell Rocks. It’s definitely a weird place but even more worth visiting because of that.

Our third major stop was Charlotte Town on Prince Edward Island. Here we strolled through the streets a little, got a tour at Cows Creamery (that ice cream!) and explored the Prince Edward Island National Park north of Charlottetown. If you don’t have much time you can easily drive along the coastal road, stop on the way a few times (Covehead Harbour Lighthouse is a must) and visit Robison island before you leave the park.

Nova Scotia

We started our stay on Nova Scotia in New Glasgow with a little detour along the coast towards Antigonish, which is a beautiful drive. We also made a stop at Steinhart Distillery based on a recommendation from our previous hosts. If you like Gin or Vodka, that’s worth a visit.

From there we went to Cape Breton Island where we stayed three nights to drive the famous Cabot Trail, a scenic 300km Loop around the northern part of the island. The places we stayed were Baddeck, Chéticamp and Ingonish Beach, so we had enough time to not only drive the Cabot Trail but also explore the different areas that we visited on the way.

The first day was more about getting to the island and we took the scenic route to Baddeck when we arrived on the island, meaning that we drove along the west coast up to Inverness before we drove to Baddeck.

We really started driving the Cabot Trail on the second day on the island and drove a beautiful drive along the coast to Chéticamp. We stopped a lot along the way to enjoy the views. When we arrived in Cheticamp we decided to take a second chance on seeing whales and went on a whale watching trip. This time it was a success and we saw many pilot whales - amazing! Also, it was a great experience as it was only a little boat that we were on, so it was more private and intimate, and the scenery on the coast of Cape Breton Island was beautiful!

The third day we first went to a rather secret swimming hole near Cheticamp. Still cold, but way better than the cold than the Atlantic Ocean. Then we drove to the other side of the island and explored Cape Breton Highlands National Park. There is a number of hiking trails and we couldn’t do them all, obviously, so we decided to do one of them with potentially great views: the Skyline Trail. It’s a 7 kilometers long loop trail. At half point you‘ll get to a boardwalk that leads to scenic views over Cabot Trail and the ocean. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad (it was pouring rain and extremely windy) that we decided it would be too dangerous to head down to boardwalk after the first few steps downwards. That was a hard decision as I was really looking forward to this viewpoint, but the conditions were just so bad. Maybe I‘ll be back some day with better weather conditions. Our last stop of the day was Neil‘s Harbour Lighthouse before we arrived at our accomodation at Castle Rock Country Inn. The views from their restaurant was just amazing!

On our last day on the island we continued the Cabot Trail and left for Halifax after we finished it. The views were great on the way, but we only made one real stop at Freshwater Lake where we hiked up a hill to get some great views of the lake and the Atlantic Ocean.

Halifax was our last destination and we had a little more than a full day here. So we walked around the city in the afternoon when we arrived and the next morning and then took a last scenic road trip to Peggy‘s Cove.

In Halifax we really liked the hilltop Halifax Citadel National Historic Site which was built in 1856 and provides lots of information about Canadian history. Also located on the hill is the beautiful Old Town Clock. From there it’s also only a short walk to the Grand Parade, a historic military parade square where you find the Halifax City Hall and St Paul‘s Church, and the waterfront. It’s a nice walk along the water with options to relax, have coffee, do some shopping and visit the Farmers Market and Pier 21.

The 43 kilometers drive to Peggy‘s Cove took a little longer than expected, especially if you want to explore some of the other bays on the way, but it was definitely one last highlight before going back to Germany. It’s a must see in the area and we could see that with the amount of tourists being there. But the views are amazing with colourful houses, the rugged coast and a beautiful lighthouse.