Our East Coast Canada Trip 2019

Since a lot of folks ask me about it, I thought I would summarize the total East Coast trip (Canada, done in 2019) in one post.

We drove nearly 6000 km, but it was an epic road trip!

Here is the detailed description of each of our days.

Days 1,2 - Drive from Toronto to Moncton, NB via Quebec City, QC
Our initial base was Moncton, NB and we took 2 days to get there.

Day 3 - Hopewell Rocks, Magnetic Hill
Truly a wonder of nature, to see the difference between high and low tide.

Day 4 - Saint John, Fundy National Park

Day 5 - Shediac, Confederation Bridge, Cavendish, Prince Edward Island
This was the day we toured most of the famous beaches of PEI. If only we had more days in this beautiful island!

Day 6 - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
A must see for any lover of history, especially Canadian history!

Day 7 - Baddeck, Nova Scotia (and the Bell Museum)
Get there early, as the museum closes at 5 pm, and ferries can be notoriously busy.

Day 8 - The Cabot Trail
A beautiful day of driving and sight seeing.

Day 9 - Peggy's Cove
Oh, how I wish I had spent more time here! This was more of an after thought, but such a highlight of any East Coast trip.

Day 10, 11 - Halifax

Day 12, 13 - Return to Toronto

The main reason we took to days to get there, and two days to get back is because we had kids and seniors in the group. Moreover, we did not want to rush and spend most the time just driving, but rather seeing the sights and soaking in the experience. I would advise anyone to do this trip, but keep time on your hand. If I was doing it all over again, I would add 1 more day each to PEI and Peggy's Cove.

East Coast: Halifax (Days 10 and 11) and the Return (Days 12 and 13)

Continued from Day 9

Note: This post was slated to be published last year (yes, last year!). For whatever reason, it was missed. Now, as we are stuck in our homes during the Covid19 pandemic, I was reminiscing about a fantastic trip to Canada's East Coast last year, and realized I hadn't posted about Halifax.

Halifax is home to Dalhousie University. It is a small campus, very beautiful, neat and tidy. For some reason, when I visit cities, I like to visit their famous university campuses. Dalhousie is also one of the first universities in Canada I had applied to, and got admitted to, though I never attended as I eventually chose University of Toronto. So, in a way, it was seeing a "what-if-alternate-situation" scenario!

Halifax and Dartmouth are twice cities, separated by a body of water that empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The Halifax Harbourfront is a great place to sit and relax, and watch the big ships come and go.

Tired of seafood all through the trip? Well, we weren't, but when we discovered this fantastic Turkish halal eatery, why not get some meat? :-)

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a must-see attraction when you are in Halifax, primarily because it houses some relics from the most famous sunken ship of all - the Titanic. This museum is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection of over 30,000 artifacts.

A special permanent exhibit explores the sinking of the Titanic with an emphasis on Nova Scotia's connection to recovering the bodies of Titanic victims.

The museum has the world's foremost collection of wooden artifacts from Titanic, including one of the few surviving deck chairs.

In the exhibition on the Halifax Explosion, there were fully detailed models on how the city looked a hundred years ago.

Citadel Hill (Fort George), also known as the Halifax Citadel, is another National Historic Site and you can enter with your national park pass. It offers good viewpoints to look at the city.

Halifax was a lovely city, full of greenery and parks. I don't know how it was in winter, but it is lovely during a hot summer's day.

Theodore Tugboat is a Canadian children's television series about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. Now, when you visit the harbourfront you can see "Theodore" still sailing there.

The last night on our East Coast trip (before we start to head back), we once again tried some halal Turkish.

The Long Return

It was now time to return home. The long drive would take two days. On the first day, we would have to make the big journey to Quebec City.

Fuel up before the drive

Crossing into New Brunswick

Irving gas stations - this was a common sight in the East Coast

Leaving Quebec City early the next morning

Finally, after so many days, you see on the sign "Toronto"

About to enter into Ontario

Finally, after 14 days, we were home! 5,731 km , lots of great seafood, adventures, memories - this was one epic road trip.

East Coast: Peggy's Cove (Day 9)

Continued from Day 8 ...

Peggy's Cove is an iconic East Coast destination. And to think - we nearly skipped it!

If I had to do the trip completely my way, I would have put a whole day here. Simply because I would love to photograph this famous lighthouse in the morning at sunrise, then in the middle of the day when it's busy, and then again at sunset with the famous golden sky behind it, and then at night when the lighthouse actually lights up.

As it was, we only spent a couple of hours there, enough to explore the site and take lots of pictures. I don't have a lot to share here as most of the pictures have people in them, and it's the same lighthouse but at different angles, but still I will try to recount the journey.

Clearly lighthouses are Nova Scotia's most

popular souvenir as well

Nova Scotia is home to over 160 historic lighthouses, some of them world famous (such as Peggy's Cove). Peggy's Point Lighthouse is one of Nova Scotia’s most well-known lighthouses and may be the most photographed in Canada. It was built in 1915.

Cheticamp is still on the Cabot Trail, so when we left the morning after our Cabot Trail trip, we still continued on the trail for some time.

There were still some nice coastal vistas to occasionally stop the car and take in the scenery. We were enroute to Halifax, which was some 4 hours away, and Peggy's Cove was another 45 minutes further from Halifax.

The East Coast is the true definition of a Road Trip. It's not just the destination, but the journey. There were so many things to see on the way. Just little road side stops. Small attractions. Memories. You really have to take your time and explore this part of Canada. Soon though, we left the coast and started to move inwards into the province of Nova Scotia. Interestingly, nowhere in Nova Scotia is more than 67 km (42 mi) from the ocean.

Nova Scotia, another interesting point of note, is the second most densely populated province in Canada (first being PEI). It is also the second smallest of Canada's ten provinces (again, PEI is the smallest).

Almost five hours after leaving Cheticamp, we entered the Peggy's Cove area. We passed a small memorial on the way to the lighthouse. This memorial is dedicated to the victims of Swissair 111. This memorial is about 1 km from the lighthouse.

To be honest, our initial itinerary had us travel back to Fredericton from Cheticamp, and then onwards and back towards Toronto. Suddenly we discovered we had one extra day, and Halifax wasn't too far of a drive from Cheticamp, hence we made the decision to visit Halifax. And of course, if you visit Halifax, you HAVE to go to Peggy's Cove. And boy we were glad we did!

How can you not visit Peggy's Cove! Every east coast trip from anyone I know includes a picture by this iconic Canadian lighthouse. This lighthouse, by the way, is an active lighthouse, unlike some of the other ones we saw on the trip - which were once active but now are only tourist attractions. This lighthouse is operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.

The area surrounding the lighthouse is also pretty in its own right. It was typical Atlantic Canada. Small, rustic, pristine, clean, natural, beautiful, picturesque and simple.

This cove was the scene of a youth novel by Bryan Doyle called You Can Pick Me up at Peggy's Cove (1976), which was made into a film directed by Don McBrearty and into a video released by Beacon Films, Inc., in 1982.

Peggy’s Cove is famed for its picturesque and typically East-Coast profile, with houses perched along a narrow inlet and on wave-washed boulders facing the Atlantic. Although this unique environment has been designated a preservation area, it is still an active fishing community.

The lighthouse was built around 1914 and stands almost 15 metres (49 ft) high.

The village of Peggy's Cove is likely named after Saint Margaret's Bay (Peggy being the nickname for Margaret). Another popular legend claims that the name came from the sole survivor of a shipwreck at Halibut Rock near the cove. Some claim she was a little girl too young to remember her name and the family who adopted her called her Peggy.

If you are there for an extended period of time, you can spend the day watching the waves and exploring around the rocks. There are many signs reminding visitors to exercise caution at all times, as the ocean water around Peggy’s cove is dangerous. Rogue waves (unpredictable, rough waves) commonly splash up over the rocks, even on calm, sunny days. We saw many during our time there.

Today, Peggy's Cove is a major tourist attraction, although its inhabitants still fish for lobster, and the community maintains a rustic undeveloped appearance. The regional municipality and the provincial government have strict land-use regulations in the vicinity of Peggy's Cove, with most property development being prohibited. Similarly there are restrictions on who can live in the community to prevent inflation of property values for year-round residents.

Once you are done visiting the lighthouse, you can take a stroll in the nearby village and surrounding area. There's lots of artists there, and many have shops nearby. The area around the Swissair memorial is also excellent for capturing pictures of the Milky Way on a clear, moonless night. Be cautious driving though, as the road is not illuminated at night.

It was with a bit of sadness that we bid adieu to Peggy's Cove as we headed back to Halifax. We knew this was our last stop on the East Coast trip, after which it was going to be a couple of days of driving back home. One last glance back at the historic lighthouse, and we were on our way.

East Coast: The Cabot Trail (Day 8)

Continued from Day 7 ...

The Cabot Trail is one of the world's most famous drives. Every travel list in North America has the Cabot Trail as one of its must drive highways.

Rising from the sea and clinging to mountains, the 298-kilometer-long Cabot Trail is a winding mix of roadway, paths, stairs, and stunning beauty that takes you from unreal ocean vistas to quaint fishing villages.

Since the Cabot Trail is a circular trail, every one debates whether to go around the Cabot Trail clockwise or anti-clockwise. We decided to do it anti-clockwise, starting from Baddeck, so this meant we were on the outside lane with the water. I would recommend the anti-clockwise route, as this means you can immediately stop on the side if you see something interesting, and the elevation keeps going higher and higher as you drive.

As a sidenote: fill up on the gas before you head out.

It was a cloudy start to the day. It had been raining in Baddeck the night before, and the forecast called for more rain. We were hoping the forecast was wrong, and thankfully, soon it brightened up.

 A small inlet of water, beautifully reflecting the sky,

somewhere just north of Baddeck

I had assumed this would be a challenging drive - somewhat like Highway 99 from Whistler to Vancouver. On the contrary, it was pleasurable drive. There were some ascents and descents, but nothing crazy.

The first stop was the Wreck Cove General Store. Now why did we stop here? Simply because almost every guide book and Tripadvisor post said to stop here. I wouldn't say there was anything much. Their lobster sandwiches are apparently "world famous" (you beginning to see a theme here?) but at $16 wasn't worth it.

You also get curious souveniers such as this. Now I am hoping this is really chocolate. I don't know though. In any case, we were soon out from the store after getting some magnets and what have you. And once again, it was starting to be a clear sky (even though it was slightly overcast) and bright sun breaking out from the clouds.

Soon we stopped at a spot that I can probably describe as an inverse Lake Louise. It was really beautiful - the mountains, the grass, the trees and then the wide expanse of the ocean. Just like anything natural - photos (particularly phone photos) do not do it justice.

Phone pictures seem to flatten out the colours, but in reality it was vibrant and the contrast was vivid. No wonder lots of cars just pulled over to take pictures!

As we started out again, it was surprising that without much elevation change being apparent, suddenly we were back at ground level with the water. I really don't know how the mapping of the road was; but sometimes we were quite high up and sometimes we were quite low on the ground.

We stopped again some time before Ingonish Beach. I don't know what the name of this Cove was, but it was not hard to imagine that at times of yore, this would have been the perfect place for smugglers to bring their wares onto shore, where known people would be waiting, perhaps in the middle of the night with lamps, to ship those goods into Canada.

It was now bright and sunny - no sign of those clouds or rain. And soon we entered Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This park occupies a huge terrain north of the island, and the Cabot Trail touches the park in many places, and you need a park pass to drive through it.

The beautiful Ingonish beach

The ocean, the rocky beach and the 

winding road hugging the coast 

line, with breeze blowing through your 

hair as you drive into the sunset

The beautiful Cabot Trail, with the

sun now beating down quite mercilessly

Waves crashing into the rocky beach,

with no one around for miles

Lakies Head is a beautiful place to stop and soak in the scenery, just north of Ingonish on the Cabot Trail. There are plaques describing the seasonal migrations of animals into the area.

It's an easy stop along the highway with great views of the ocean and sea birds. There's some warnings about the dangers of rogue waves so just be mindful.

It was now getting to be way past noon, and thus time for lunch. And for that, we stopped at one of the restaurants that almost every guidebook and tourist post seemed to praise. The Rusty Anchor.

I don't have to describe the sea food. Fried haddock. Pan crusted cod and haddock. Mussels. Clam. Corn. More haddock. And it was all so good, and disappeared from the plate so fast also!

An interesting take on the fish burger

You can never go wrong with the

standard order of a fish and

chips - just make sure there's

no beer batter if you don't

drink alcohol

They had some interesting signage

demarcating the mens' and womens'

toilets

A great restaurant - the hype is definitely

worth it - and I highly recommend
The Rusty Anchor if you are

visiting The Cabot Trail

Views of the road and the ocean

from behind The Rusty Anchor

The ocean - so blue!

The Skyline Trail: Most people who visit the Cabot Trail also hike the famous (or shall we say "world famous") Skyline Trail.

At the end of this level trail, a dramatic headland cliff overlooks the rugged coast. You can enjoy an eagle's view of the Cabot Trail as it winds its way down the mountain and vehicles look like toys. And you can watch for whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the viewing decks. Moose, bald eagles, bears and numerous boreal birds live in this habitat.

This was the start of the Skyline Trail. Now since our group included kids and seniors - we simply were not going to do the 7 km trail. It just wasn't going to happen. Instead, we did the next best thing. The lady at the Park Canada told us a secret.

The very next stop on the route AFTER the Skyline Trail was a stop that was at the end of the trail. So you essentially get the same view as if you have just hiked the trail. Minus the boardwalk, of course.

AND WHAT A VIEW!!!

And once again I have to say pictures, as usual, do not do the scene justice. You JUST cannot take proper pictures that show the beauty of such a place. We would return to this spot after checking into our hotel at Cheticamp, the small village we were staying overnight, nearly at the end of the Cabot Trail (and close to Baddeck since this was a loop).

Our cottage (or chalet, as they called 

it) at Cheticamp

Cheticamp is a very small village. So small - there is one grocery superstore that closes by 5 - after which you only have a small convenient store to shop from. It's a beautiful French town though, and you can explore the fishing boats and the little houses. We decided to drive back to the trail to catch the sunset.

There's something to be said about sunset into the ocean. It is so pretty.

Dinner time - and why not pizza. Plus ... wait for it ... they have a world famous pizza store (but of course).

Overall, the Cabot Trail was one of the highlights of the trip. It was definitely worth the hype, especially the northern portions where you are so high up and you get some excellent views. You need a brilliant sunny day though - which is what we had - and not rain if you were to explore the Cabot Trail's beauty.