Coastal Discovery

Nova Scotia Hot Spots

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Southwest Nova Scotia

Yarmouth

When you disembark from the ferry, be sure to set aside at least a few hours to explore this southwestern seaport. In years gone by, Yarmouth sea captains sailed the world, bringing back a wealth of ideas that today can be seen in architectural styles and gardens. There are both walking and garden tours, taking visitors along pleasant streets with stately homes and spreading chestnut trees.

Yarmouth houses three fine museums, unbelievable architecture and little gems of stories such as those about Babe Ruth, who loved to visit the area to fish and to hunt moose. Visitors can hear tales such as this aboard various local bus tours that cruise the town showcasing mansions and former sea captains’ homes. The tours also explore areas outside the town, such as the Stanley Lobster Pound, where tourists can buy lobster to eat on a picnic table. Other notable sights include Cape Island boats and manmade walls that hold back the ocean. Sitting atop a rocky hillside is the apple-core-style red-and-white Cape Forchu lighthouse, the first lighthouse in Canada that has been turned over to a private society to maintain.

The town’s prized museums include the Firefighters Museum of Nova Scotia, the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives and the W. Laurence Sweeney Museum, which recreates Yarmouth’s waterfront past. Smell the coal tar in the fishing ropes, hear the creak of wharf planks underfoot and flip through old Simpson’s and Life magazines. Though 90 per cent of the material is authentic, including the shingles taken off original buildings, numbered and rebuilt in the museum, nothing is roped off. It’s all interactive.

Hospitality is a hallmark in Yarmouth; it’s evident in the friendly service at stores, accommodations and restaurants. For example, visitors can relax at Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brew Pub, a busy and fun complex housed in an 18th-century building right on the waterfront (the amazing sunsets are free). Sample the premium beers brewed onsite and feel glad you lingered on this southwestern tip of Nova Scotia.

Shelburne

Once the fourth-largest community in North America, Shelburne was founded in 1783 by 3,000 Loyalists from New York City. The historic district, with a museum complex that includes the Ross-Thomson House, the oldest restored store in North America, can be toured on foot. Parts of the movie set for The Scarlet Letter, filmed in Shelburne in 1994, are still there. At the Charlotte Lane Cafe and craft gallery, Swiss chef and owner Roland Glauser and his wife, Kathleen, have won kudos for their dishes. Swiss specialties are on the menu as well.

Liverpool

Founded by Cape Cod emigrants in 1759, Liverpool, at the mouth of the Mersey River, was once a town of privateers. During the American Revolution and the War of 1812, the Liverpool Packet is said to have claimed 100 American “prizes,” or ships. The Privateers Days festival runs in early July of each year. Liverpudlians have since given up privateering for the quieter occupations of fish processing and paper making. The Perkins House is worth visiting; it was built in 1766 for shipowner and merchant Simeon Perkins and has been restored to its original splendour. Visitors seeking the escape of a film might look into the schedule for the Astor Theatre. When it was built in 1902, it was called the Liverpool Opera House. Live performances eventually made way for films. It has since gone back to live presentations and has hosted such Canadian stars as Rita MacNeil, Natalie MacMaster, Tommy Hunter, childhood icon Mr. Dressup, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Royal Shakespeare Co.

Kejimkujik National Park

Called Keji for short, this huge park is wonderful to explore by foot or water. Keji serves up both a coastline, in the Seaside Adjunct, and a backcountry experience with hiking trails, woodland and lakes and rivers ideal for canoeing.

The park is in the very centre of the province, roughly 100 miles west of Halifax, 118 miles northeast from Yarmouth and 56 miles southeast of Digby. The Seaside Adjunct, about 62 miles south of the inland portion, is southwest of Liverpool.

Tobeatic Wilderness Area

Located south of Keji, the 254,400-acre area is the largest remaining wild area in the region. It was established in 1927 to protect moose, giving them a safe place to live and breed. The area now serves as a refuge for other native species, including the black bear and the American marten. Lakes, streams and rivers run through it, providing visitors with opportunities to canoe and hike through old-growth forest and rugged terrain.

Bridgewater

In Bridgewater, on the LaHave River, the Wile Carding Mill Museum was the centre of sheep-fleece processing and part of a bustling, mid-1800s, water-powered industrial park. The mill is now a provincial museum; DesBrisway Museum is here as well. Visitors keen to get a taste of rural life in Nova Scotia can check out the South Shore Exhibition and International Ox Pull in July.

Lunenburg

A little further down the South Shore, stroll along the quaint streets of Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1753, the town became the British colony’s second settlement in the province, after Halifax. Many of the buildings and homes date back to those early days. Take a horse-drawn carriage tour, look to see if the famed schooner the Bluenose II is in port, take a tour with a lobster-fishing company and visit the waterfront Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. There are lots of fascinating craft shops to visit as well.

Mahone Bay

Mahone Bay is a lovely town that curves around the bay and its hundreds of tiny islands. The town’s three churches are beautiful and are said to be the most photographed in the country. In August during the Wooden Boat Festival, the bay is crowded with small boats and the sidewalks are crowded with boat enthusiasts. There are boat races and parades, fireworks, workshops and live entertainment during the four-day event. If you want to stop here for a bite, the area’s restaurants, cafés and pubs offer delicious regional and international dishes, contemporary flavours and homemade baked goods.

Peggy’s Cove

Facing the powerful Atlantic, the small fishing village of Peggy’s Cove 31 miles southwest of Halifax is among the most photographed places in Canada. Visitors can walk on huge wave-washed granite boulders, but take care: the sea is constantly changing. History buffs may know that the Royal Canadian Navy put the lighthouse to use as a radio station during World War II. Sit and watch the waves crash or mail a letter from the post office in the lighthouse, where your mail will be stamped with a cancellation mark in the shape of a lighthouse. Peggy’s Cove is a working fishing village, parts of which can be seen over tea and scones in the restaurant there.

Halifax

Founded in 1749, the historic provincial capital of Halifax was a vital strategic port for the British. The Halifax Citadel, the enormous star-shaped stone fort in the centre of the city, was redesigned and rebuilt four or five times over the centuries. Britain formally handed over control of the military to the Canadian Army in 1906, an event that will be celebrated with the Changing of the Guard Festival in July of 2006. The week-long encampment will draw more than 1,000 historical re-enactors to the city who will serve as Crown forces.

Tourists who are unable to visit in July can take a guided tour of the fort or explore on their own while they listen for the firing of the noon cannon. An after-hours ghost tour along the Citadel’s ramparts is on offer. By day, march past the stoic 78th Highlander guarding the gate.

Many of Halifax’s activities are, naturally, related to the water. Sitting snugly on the second-largest natural harbour in the world, Atlantic Canada’s largest city (with a population of 350,000) boasts a boardwalk area complete with historic properties, upscale shopping, fine eateries and Pier 21 National Historic Site, where visitors can trace the emotional journey of the millions of immigrants who came to call Canada home. Tours of the Halifax Harbour are easy to find; visitors will find tour stands all along the waterfront. Sail aboard the Tall Ship Silva, hauling lines with the crew, and visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to learn more about the seafaring heritage, with great exhibits on the Titanic, shipwrecks, the Halifax Explosion and more. In August the Halifax International Buskers Festival brightens the waterfront.

On Saturday mornings, don’t miss the year-round Farmers’ Market in the Alexander Keith Brewery Building on Lower Water Street. Costumed actors lead visitors on a brewery tour, back to the 1863 heyday. It’s easy to imagine the clip-clop of the giant workhorses that once pulled carts laden with barrels through the archways. The iron stone walls date back to 1820, when Alexander Keith built the brewery. When you’re through here, culture vultures should head to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the province’s largest gallery, while families always enjoy the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, with its interactive exhibits and summertime butterfly pavilion.