I would go early Sept, slightly warmer then. We did a similar trip a few years ago. But we did some flying and added in Quebec City and Niagara on the Lake ( both wonderful if you've not been ...) How many hrs per day are you willing to drive? IMHO the drives can be long and boring.

Personally I love pei the best. Are you doing bay of fundy? Bar Harbor? Acadia? There is a cool zip line near BOF practically over the ocean. We stayed in a yurt there. We also stayed in a lighthouse, by ourselves, off the maine coast. Very cool albeit rustic.

Oh and I will plug, once again, the Burlington rails to trails which is a bike ride on a spit jutting into Lake Champlain.

i can look up our hotels when I'm home if that helps.

have fun .... Gorgeous area

Thanks, Mtn. DH is a bit older than I. His health is good for his age and he goes to the gym daily, but his most strenuous activity is golf. We will not be hiking or zip-lining (I giggle at the very thought!). We are willing to drive about 6 hours a day. At this point, we have no plans beyond going to a general area. I've been to most of the Canadian provinces, except the Maritimes.

We thought about going to Quebec from Bangor and then along the St. Lawrence before turning south, but we've been there several times. We've also been to Burlington and Lake Champlain. I agree it is a gorgeous area, even though we didn't bike.

Bar Harbor and Acadia are definitely places we would like to fit in. We have friends who've raved about both. Campobello will get us on the Bay of Fundy as will Saint John. Is there something specific I need to make sure we see or do there (other than the zipline)?

I have been up that way a couple of times but it has been years. Your itinerary sounds like a lot of driving. Only you can decide if that's appropriate. We recently drove 4585 miles during a twelve day vacation. We were okay with that. We drive long distances in long days and then stay put for a couple of days. Works for us.

One place in the Maritimes we really liked was Grand Manan Island. We stayed there for a week once and people were waving at us like we were locals after a few days. As I said though, that was many years ago and things change.

You must go to Hopewell Rocks in NB. That is where you really get the feel of the Fundy tides.

Thanks, Roses. I appreciate the tips. We tend to "roam," for lack of a better term. We do not stay in one place more than one night, unless it is a large city (Boston, NYC, San Francisco, etc) with tons of stuff to do.

We try not to drive really long days, although we will drive 6 or 7 hours. Early in our marriage we drove to a wedding that was 1500 miles away, some of it through parts of the southwest that are sparsely populated. A friend who had previously made the same trip told us to stop in a certain town because it was half way. When we go to the half-way point it was only 3 p.m., we weren't terribly tired and decided to get a few more miles behind us before we stopped. We did not see another place to stop until almost midnight! Well, we saw some places, but they looked pretty seedy, so we kept going. That trip taught us to plan our driving days a little better.

I am from the maritimes!

Timing: Early September - you can get nice warm ocean swimming in the Northumberland strait (southeast cost of NB, south coast of PEI, north central coast of Nova Scotia). The only problem with early September is you could run into hurricane season so there could be a couple of bad weather days. If you are completely uninterested in swimming I'd go late September where the leaves start to turn, the harvest is in, the weather is drier and the nights are nice and cool.

Places to visit:

New Brunswick: Personally I would not spend a lot of time in New Brunswick towns and cities. If you like nature, the Fundy national park is breathtaking. St. John NB - sorry but don't bother. Moncton - OK but Charlottetown is nicer and more charming. St. Andrews - golf.

PEI: Basically all of PEI is out of a storybook and I always love visiting. Depending on what you enjoy, the Rustico area is gorgeous, Cedar Dunes park is beautiful, Charlottetown is a surprisingly fun little city and the art gallery is great, Souris area is more out of the way/less touristy but beautiful and great seafood, and my husband and I always try to drive some heritage roads when we are there. I also really enjoy the New Glasgow PEI area which has a nice toystore, PEI preserve company, great river scenery and a nice angel gardens - do not confuse with New Glasgow Nova Scotia which is not a tourist destination. Can't go wrong on PEI.

Nova Scotia: I'm from here, so I'm biased, but NS probably has the most spectacular scenery that's within an easy drive from the main city. Top highlights for me:

Annapolis valley, Wolfville area and Gaspereau Valley - great scenery, wineries, charming university town (Wolfville), Acadian heritage (Grand Pre), interesting beaches and scenery (Evangeline Beach and Blomidon). Acadia university has a very nice campus and botanical garden and the farmer's market in the fall will be divine with lots of fresh local produce.

South Shore - frigid, beautiful beaches, scenic seaside towns (Chester, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay), great antiquing. Stay off the 100 series highways and go on the older roads for the best scenery. Take the ferry across the Lahave river and stop in at Lahave bakery.

Halifax - need only a couple of days here at most, good restaurants, scrappy old port town, lots of old Canadian heritage, farmer's market here is great.

If you care for a rather extensive side trip, it is worth it to drive up to Cape Breton and go around the Cabot trail. Cape Breton has a lot of unique Gaelic heritage, lovely town of Baddeck to stay in near the base of the trail, world class golf at Cabot Links in Inverness, and the scenery in the Cabot Trail is truly amazing. To make it an easy trip you would take the ferry from PEI to Caribou (Pictou area), drive up to Cape Breton on the old roads from there, stay in Inverness that night, go around the trail the next day, stay in Baddeck the night after and drive back to Halifax the next day. So it would add two days to the Nova Scotia end of things but you would see the most spectacular scenery the Maritimes has to offer.

Proposed itinerary

Cabot Links golf course - spectacular.

PEI red clay heritage road

Annapolis Valley

Wow, after Robo's descriptions and pictures, sign me up. I want to go!

I love my area <3!

View from the Seaside Shanty restaurant in Chester Basin, NS.

Halifax Waterfront from the Halifax Dartmouth ferry - best $2.50 water tour ever

Lupins in North Rustico, PEI

hoping to go on a little biking trip on PEI next summer... really hoping to go now!! :)

Although the ocean is still quite cold at that time of year, North Rustico is like the Canada Day capital of Canada on July 1. I was there during Canada Day a few years ago and it is extremely charming. Get there early for the parade however as traffic lines up for miles.

In Nova Scotia don't forget how small it is, either, especially North-South - you can drive across from the Annapolis Valley to the South Shore in 90 minutes or so. That goes triple for PEI.

Although maybe not great for the rest of Canada, Maritimes love when the Canadian dollar is weak because we love tourists!

We did nearly a month-long tour of the Maritime provinces when our children were young. Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were glorious. We enjoyed the Fortress of Louisbourg, and Cheticamp, an Acadian fishing village. Check out the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (several Titanic artifacts; 121 passengers are buried in Halifax) and a moving display about the WWI Halifax explosion. We liked PEI, but it seemed more sedate. We loved the Bay of Fundy. We went on to Quebec and Montreal. Really a stellar vacation. I've dreamed about repeating it someday.

I went back and looked at our itinerary. We drove to Burlington, then Quebec City. Flew to Niagara. Then flew to Halifax, drove to Cape Breton, took the ferry over to PEI, took the bridge back. Drove to BOF. Then drove to St Andrew. Then to Rockland to take a ferry out to Vinalhaven and onto our Goose Rocks lighthouse. Then to Ogunquit, then home to CT. 3 weeks IIRC.

PEI is hands down my favorite part of the trip after Quebec. So many lovely areas (and the "Anne of Green Gables House". I have to say, we did not see what was so spectacular about Cape Breton. It looked like a lot of other scenery we saw on our trip, it was a time killer, and we thought the whale watching was sub-par. I kind of dont get the big draw there. Also, so many awful restaurants there, compared to every place else we went.

FWIW, here are some places we stayed in places you are considering.

At the BOF, we stayed in a Canadian Park Service yurt. Surprisingly good beds and a stove for heat, perfect view of the bay. About a 50 yard walk to the facilities, which were very clean.

On St Andrews, we stayed at an inn called Kingsbrae Arms. Lovely setting and rooms, very good restaurant. We wanted to stay at the Algonquin, a grand old hotel, but the refurbishment was behind schedule.

In Cape Breton near Ingonish, there is a high end inn (forget the name) but it is a bit run down. We stayed at Lantern Hill Hollow. Spectacular location on the beach.

In PEI, we stayed at the Inn at Bay Fortune. Very charming, great food, a bit away from everything. Go to Dalvay by the Sea for tea.

As Mtn likely already well knows, the trick to travelling in Nova Scotia is to stay off the main highways. not a problem on PEI - there's only one. Agree about the restaurants in Cape Breton though - having to travel to Cape Breton for work is what turned me back into an omnivore as the vegetarian fare on the island is far from palatable. I do think the Highlands national park is a jewel, though, and you'll have no better chance of spotting a moose outside of Newfoundland. Having been to both lately and I always confuse the names, I think Inverness is a much better vacation destination now than Ingonish, because of the golf course and because the beach is way warmer (on the Northumberland Strait side) and just beautiful. I did swim at Ingonish but it was far from temperate, being basically directly on the North Atlantic.

The best whale watching is at the very far other end of Nova Scotia on Brier Island, which is about two hours outside of Digby, which is already at the far Western tip of the province (North of Yarmouth). If whale watching is important to you, this is the place to go, but it is quite the trip and involves a ferry.

If you do end up in that general area, it's worth it to take a drive along the French (western) shore of the province to experience the lively Acadian culture where many people speak French as a first language. I just got some great quilts there a couple of weeks ago. It is a beautiful, but rugged and cold, coastline

Driving along the French shore

Westport, on Brier Island.

We did spot a few pods of whales! My gosh the sea was a bit too rough for me that day.

Also on the Digby end of the province, the village of Annapolis Royal is quite lovely and has a great garden, and the tiny artist village of Bear River is enjoyable for a short stop for shopping and lunch.

A "half size" strawberry shortcake at Leo's Cafe in Annapolis Royal.

I forgot we also stayed in Acadia and Bar Harbor! Lovely.

IDK, maybe we did it wrong but Cape Breton was a disappointment. Not to mention, to me, it was repetitive vis a vis some of the scenery we saw in BOF and Maine. Moose, yes, but having seen them before that was not enough to make up for all the driving on Cape Breton!

You're right, it's a lot of driving! I wouldn't take any side trips to Sydney or Louisbourg either.

Finally booked flights for mid-September. Regardless of what the weather is there, it will be cooler than here! I need to re-read all of the information here and start planning an itinerary. Because it will only be DH and me, the itinerary will be very flexible. We probably won't make reservations before we leave except for the first night and the last night.

robo, that strawberry shortcake is amazing! I'd hate to see a whole one! All of the pictures whet my appetite for the trip!

Is Campobello worth the trip?

Don't forget to take your passports.

I'll add a few recommendations not already mentioned:

From Halifax, a nice day trip is to drive to picturesque Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg. There's a popular restuarant in Lunenberg called the Old Fish Factory where we enjoyed a nice seafood meal, and there's an attached fisheries museum.

In Halifax proper, walk the boardwalk, explore the Maritime Museum, visit the public gardens and ride the ferry as robo said. In the Halifax waterfront photo robo posted, I spotted the hotel we stayed in, which is located next to a yummy ice cream shack and a few waterfront restaurants serving wonderful fish, lobster and craft beer.

In Acadia, eat lunch at Jordan Pond House on their lovely outdoor terrace, and stroll the trail around the pond. Very pretty. The Ocean Trail is another easy, beautiful walk, and you'll of course visit Cadillac Mountain. We really liked our stay at West Street Hotel, which is a cozy, modern boutique inn. Bar Harbor Inn offers great views in their restaurants. Grab a guide map of the island once you arrive, hop in your car and explore. Lots to see outside outside of BH and Acadia.

We are home! We drove a total of 1900 miles - way too much driving, but was it worth it. Our first night was in Bar Harbor. Lovely little town that I would like to visit for longer next time. Then on to Saint John by way of Campobello. Campobello was great and I'm so glad we went.

I LOVE PEI. Another place I would like to go back to for a longer visit. We stopped at a little out of the way fish place near Stanley Bridge. I have never had oysters on the half shell that fresh and that good! I fear from now on other oysters will be a disappointment.

Highlands Provincial Park in Cape Breton was beautiful. The first day was rainy and foggy. :-( But, the second day was gorgeous.

It was rainy again when we got to Halifax, so we just kept going. Lunenburg was charming; touristy, but charming. The old houses and the academy have been well-maintained and gave us a glimpse into what the town must have looked like 150 years ago.

From Lunenburg, we went to the Luckett Vineyards in Wolfville, where we did a small tasting (driving prevented a larger tasting). I brought home a small bottle of ice wine. Loved the red phone box in the middle of the vineyard (not my photo)

We were told we could call anywhere in North America for free, but everyone I tried to call was unavailable. Mom, Sister, and DD were all having lunch together and not answering phones!

We drove through Annapolis Royal on the way to Digby and had a quick lunch at the German bakery and cafe across from Fort Anne. Lunch was good but the palmier I had for dessert was fantastic!

Many thanks to all of you who gave me information and ideas for planning my trip. I would like to especially thank robo who answered dozens of questions by PM (she would probably have her cottage totally finished by now if it weren't for helping me!).

I think we are home for a while, now, except for weekend jaunts. I slept 15 hours last night/this morning!

bbstx, I just want to apologize AGAIN on behalf of our climate, I think you came on the worst two weeks of the year!!!! Good on you and your DH for making the best of it and enjoying your trip anyway.