New England to Nova Scotia by Land and by Sea

[GeorgiaandherJeep]

Hi everyone,

I am planning a trip from CT up to Nova Scotia the week of July 4th and would love any help this awesome community could provide in planning, finding great camping spots, trails to ride, or sites to see along the way.

The backbone of the plan right now is to head up to Portland Maine on July 3rd to see some friends up there, then take the ferry to Yarmouth Nova Scotia on the 4th, then drive from there up through Nova Scotia and then back down through New Brunswick and Maine along the coast.

The focus of the trip isn't really to do hard core off roading or rock crawling kind of thing, but getting off the highway once we get up to Canada and then back down through Maine would be preferred.

Thanks guys and gals!!

 

[Burton58]

Same trip I've been wanting to do. I live near portland and was planning on a 3 or 4 day loop. Haven't started researching what to do yet so I'll be watching this thread for ideas. Enjoy it!

 

[AlysonH]

I did a trip from CT to Nova Scotia about 13 years ago during August and it was so beautiful. This was before I got into overlanding so it was in a sedan. I'm excited to see your planning and hopefully pictures of your trip. I took so many pictures and then my sister did something really lame to my hard drive and I lost them all.

 

[The84Shula]

I'm in Nova Scotia, if you want the full experience and you aren't in a hurry you should stay off the 100 Series highways and travel the coastal highways. Yarmouth then head up the south shore to Halifax, then head out the Eastern Shore to Cape Breton....do the Cabot Trail, then travel the north shore Passing through Cape George to Tatamagouche back through to New Brunswick. Ambitious....but worth it.


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[GeorgiaandherJeep]

Thanks for the quick feedback everyone. As usual, it seems I bit off a little more than I could chew. Spending some time this morning to put together a potential itinerary I quickly realized my original plan was a little too aggressive for the amount of time we can take off. In case anyone is interested, this is what I came up with, which includes some highway runs for the longer hauls.

Day 1 - 7/3 - Home to Portland, ME - 4 hrs drive
Day 2 - 7/4 - Portland to Yarmouth, NS - Ferry at 2:30pm
Day 3 - 7/5 - Yarmouth, NS to Halifax, NS - 6-7 hrs drive
Day 4 - 7/6 - Halifax, NS to Cape Breton, NS - 7-8 hrs drive
Day 5 - 7/7 - Cape Breton, NS to Saint John, NS - 8-9 hrs drive
Day 6 - 7/8 - Saint John, NB to Bar Harbor/Acadia, ME - 3-4 hrs drive
Day 7 - 7/9 - Bar Harbor, ME to Portsmouth, NH - 3-4 hrs drive
Day 8 - 7/10 - Portsmouth, NH to Home - 3-4 hrs drive

I would still love to do this trip, but would rather take two weeks and be able to spend more time exploring and less time on highways. So for that same timeframe I am now instead thinking we take the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth round trip on the 4th, then spend 4 days on Nova Scotia, taking the ferry back to Portland on Saturday the 8th. This will give us more time to explore the island, enjoy some camping and hiking, and also that we are not just driving the whole time (which I don't mind so much, but Liz and Georgia prefer to explore on foot)

Cabot Trail and Cape Breton are definitely on the top of the list, and as @The84Shula suggested I am definitely thinking we will stay more along the coast than the highways as much as possible. This is what we did when we drove from Seattle to San Francisco and it makes a huge difference. What else should be on the must see list?

 

[Jeffromarks]

I am in the process of planning the same type of trip just starting from western New York in august. Hope to check in and see where you've made it and what you come up with. Good luck!

 

[CampWithChin]

@GeorgiaandherJeep Are you planning to camp inside the National Park? i.e. Cape Breton highland national park or fundy national park? Since it's 150 yrs anniversary, you might want to check if camping spot still available inside the national park. Also, it's free entrance to Park Canada in 2017, hence more crowded with visitor.

I would highly recommend take a ride up to Meat Cove NS while visiting Cabot Trail. For News Brunswick, I would visit Hopewell rock/Cape Enrage.

 

[GeorgiaandherJeep]

Sorry I haven't updated this in a long time. The plan for next week has changed significantly due to a good friend getting married in NYC on the 3rd and celebrating another friend's birthday on the 4th. The plan now is to head up to Vermont for the birthday on the 4th, then head to Acadia from the 5-7th, then make our way back home over the weekend. I already thought the trip was a little heavy on the mileage per day but losing those first few days would have made it even tougher. @Jeffromarks I can't wait to see what you come up with for when I do get the time to finally take this trip..


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[Jeffromarks]

Sorry I haven't updated this in a long time. The plan for next week has changed significantly due to a good friend getting married in NYC on the 3rd and celebrating another friend's birthday on the 4th. The plan now is to head up to Vermont for the birthday on the 4th, then head to Acadia from the 5-7th, then make our way back home over the weekend. I already thought the trip was a little heavy on the mileage per day but losing those first few days would have made it even tougher. @Jeffromarks I can't wait to see what you come up with for when I do get the time to finally take this trip..


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Hey it happens! I'll be sure to try keep updates as the trip occurs


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[tritonl]

We did a Boston to Nova Scotia and back in 6 days, wish we had more days. There was a lot of driving. We went in March and almost nothing was open but still had a lot of fun.


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