Newfoundland (island)

[anasara]

I'm trying to figure out our next adventure am considering a trip to Atlantic Canada in late May/early June.  We live in New England so Nova Scotia & PEI are driving distance.  I know there's a ferry to Newfoundland from Sydney & it's intriguing.  Anyone been?  Recs?  Thanks!

[Redpoppy]

I had researched it at one point as a road trip too. At the time, the timing and distance of the ferries would've taken up 2 days for the crossings there and back. Add in two to three more days driving, and we were looking at a two week road trip. They didn't have many crossings a day. We want to go there someday, but would probably fly there.

They might be restarting the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth this summer. We drove from Boston to the Bay of Fundy, but didn't make it into Nova Scotia. That might make for a nice round trip without retracing.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2014 22:01:24 GMT -5 Redpoppy said:

I had researched it at one point as a road trip too. At the time, the timing and distance of the ferries would've taken up 2 days for the crossings there and back. Add in two to three more days driving, and we were looking at a two week road trip. They didn't have many crossings a day. We want to go there someday, but would probably fly there.

They might be restarting the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth this summer. We drove from Boston to the Bay of Fundy, but didn't make it into Nova Scotia. That might make for a nice round trip without retracing.

I always thought the ads for the car ferry to bay of fundy looked like an interesting vacation

[Redpoppy]

Jan 31, 2014 7:42:02 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Jan 30, 2014 22:01:24 GMT -5 Redpoppy said:

I had researched it at one point as a road trip too. At the time, the timing and distance of the ferries would've taken up 2 days for the crossings there and back. Add in two to three more days driving, and we were looking at a two week road trip. They didn't have many crossings a day. We want to go there someday, but would probably fly there.

They might be restarting the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth this summer. We drove from Boston to the Bay of Fundy, but didn't make it into Nova Scotia. That might make for a nice round trip without retracing.

I always thought the ads for the car ferry to bay of fundy looked like an interesting vacation

They do! Our issue is more about taking a 2 week vacation. Driving and ferry travel time was extensive. We will probably try the one between Portland and Nova Scotia this summer or next as we've been checking if it is starting back up for a few years. The new one will be slow though, 9 hour trip. Newfoundland is in the list too and if airfares stay where they are we may just end up taking the two week road/ferry trip. It was great seeing the Bay of Fundy with a quick Acadia NP stop but we packed that trip into 5 days.

[Deleted]

No advice on Nfld, but I have recommendations for New Brunswick if you want.

Although the province doesn't have a ton to offer, I recommend visiting the Bay of Fundy area. St Andrews is beautiful. Specifically, the Algonquin hotel is really nice and pretty affordable compared to big city hotels. St Andrews is on the southern end of New Brunswick, close to the Maine border.

As you travel up the coast(ish) of New Brunswick, through Saint John (Saint John, NB, not St. John's) and Moncton, hit up Hopewell Rocks on your way into Nova Scotia for some really neat sites. 

Also, Atlantic Canada has some of the best farmers' markets in Canada. Fredericton and Halifax have great ones and I also hear that Saint John's is really good.

[janiejones]

Some of the Atlantic ferries are very cost prohibitive for travel. The ferry between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for example would have cost almost three hundred dollars for our car this past summer. We opted to drive the long way instead, which was seven hours between the ferry points.


That said my sister spent time in NFLD and loved every minute if it. We'd really like to go someday. Especially since we love watching Republic of Doyle.