Trip Report!! ABD Canadian Maritimes: Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island/New Brunswick 8/25 - 9/1/24 - COMPLETE! 5/11/25

[sayhello]

Sayhello - what are you planning for 2025?

I'm finally doing the Southern CA ABD - with Mr. & Mrs @Grifdog22 - next month!

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[Eastridge]

Thanks for the update. The itinerary says there was a kayaking option instead of doing the canoeing and horseback riding. The ABD website has a nice photo of people kayaking around those rock formations.

Kayaking looks fun but I wonder how strong the current was, due to the tides. Did other people on the trip tell you what the kayaking experience was like?

 

[sayhello]

Thanks for the update. The itinerary says there was a kayaking option instead of doing the canoeing and horseback riding. The ABD website has a nice photo of people kayaking around those rock formations.

Kayaking looks fun but I wonder how strong the current was, due to the tides. Did other people on the trip tell you what the kayaking experience was like?

Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think it might have been 50/50 on whether people kayaked or canoed/horseback rode. I know some of the earlier trips, they had to cancel the kayaking due to winds. I didn't really hear anyone talking about it in detail, just a general enjoyment, because we were mostly talking about our tour of the Hopewell Rocks afterwards. I'm still in contact with a few folks from this trip, I could ask if you'd like!

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[Eastridge]

Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think it might have been 50/50 on whether people kayaked or canoed/horseback rode. I know some of the earlier trips, they had to cancel the kayaking due to winds. I didn't really hear anyone talking about it in detail, just a general enjoyment, because we were mostly talking about our tour of the Hopewell Rocks afterwards. I'm still in contact with a few folks from this trip, I could ask if you'd like!

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I was just curious, since kayaking in the bay looked like a highlight of this trip. I'm not familiar with Anne of Green Gables so I'm more interested in the activities and nature parts of this trip.

 

[Alison S]

I was just reviewing your posts on Quebec City and Montreal, since I'm planning a trip there! What tour companies did you use for your walking tours? I'm planning a stop at that french onion soup pub too, yummy!

 

[sayhello]

I was just curious, since kayaking in the bay looked like a highlight of this trip. I'm not familiar with Anne of Green Gables so I'm more interested in the activities and nature parts of this trip.

The activities and nature parts were excellent!! I think everyone enjoyed those parts quite a bit, too! There's a bit more in upcoming days!

I was just reviewing your posts on Quebec City and Montreal, since I'm planning a trip there! What tour companies did you use for your walking tours? I'm planning a stop at that french onion soup pub too, yummy!

For this trip, I booked all of my tours through Viator.

In Quebec City, I did the "Guided Tour of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City" and the "Quebec City Walking Tour". Here's the links to them on Viator:
https://www.viator.com/tours/Quebec...he-Fairmont-Le-Chateau-Frontenac/d626-21799P3
https://www.viator.com/tours/Quebec-City/Quebec-City-Walking-Tour/d626-2994GRAND

In Montreal, I did the "Walking tour of Old Montreal - 16/42 Tours".
Here's the Viator link:
https://www.viator.com/tours/Montreal/Old-Montreal-Walking-Tour/d625-185030P1

They were all excellent tours, and I highly recommend them!

Let me know if you have any questions! I really adored my time in both cities! Do you have a hotel in Quebec City yet? If not, I can highly recommend the Hôtel du Vieux-Québec. My room was small, but they have mostly much larger rooms. The location is excellent, and the hotel was very clean and modern but in an historic building and area, and I loved the continental breakfast, the free coffee and the free water. The staff was very helpful, too.

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[musika]

As a local Nova Scotian it's always interesting to see how tourists perceive our wee provinces!

Looks like you had a great sampling so far of different experiences. PEI is all about the beaches/coastal areas. I agree with you it's a lot of fields otherwise.

Curious how much "Disney" influence there is on these types of trips?

 

[sayhello]

As a local Nova Scotian it's always interesting to see how tourists perceive our wee provinces!

Looks like you had a great sampling so far of different experiences. PEI is all about the beaches/coastal areas. I agree with you it's a lot of fields otherwise.

Curious how much "Disney" influence there is on these types of trips?

That's good to know that the beaches/coastal areas are what folks were referring to.

What do you mean by "Disney" influence? If you're talking about Disney characters, the answer is virtually none. They might play a Disney movie or Disney music during a long bus ride, but except for the Southern CA ABD, whose focus is all Disney, ABDs do not focus on Disney Intellectual Properties, they focus on Disney quality and access/influence. There *was* one ABD, the "Scotland - A Brave Adventure" trip that was originally focused around places that influenced and inspired the movie "Brave", but that aspect of the trip has long since been removed.

If you are talking about the Adventure Guides being the crème de la crème of employees, and that the ABD trip developers are very creative and focus on unique cultural and natural experiences, then yes, that part of Disney influences ABD a lot.

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[sayhello]

Day 6: The First Canadians - The Mi'Kmaq and travel to Halifax.

This day was our travel day from New Brunswick back to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Luggage was to be out at 8am, meeting up at 9am to leave.

Our first stop once we were back in Nova Scotia was at the Millbrook Cultural and Heritage Center. This center is run by the Mi'Kmaq First Nations people. We were given some time to walk around and check out some of the beautiful exhibits in the center.











We then had an arts & crafts project, painting and decorating "talking sticks". They are wooden sticks that we painted however we wanted with the provided paints, and then got a leather strip tied on with feathers and beads of our choice. I kind of wish they'd given us some sort of smocks or something to wear; I was pretty afraid of getting paint on my clothes, although I'm pretty sure it's washable paint we used. It's always fun to do projects like this.



A lot of the Talking Sticks were very creative! This is mine.



Next we attended a presentation given by two of the folks who helped run the Center. They discussed some of the history of the Mi'Kmaq in Canada, and how they had to take over running the center themselves to keep it up and running. It was very interesting, as I didn't really know anything about the history of the First Nations in Canada, and the human rights issues they had in Canada until relatively recently. Along with attempts at reparations and the issues they still face.





After the presentation, we lined up and were each given what I believe was called a smudging blessing, where herbs and leaves were burnt in a shallow bowl, and the smoke was wafted over us while the blessing was said. It was cool, and the smudge smelled really nice!



Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

We had some additional time to look through the exhibits and check out the wonderful gift shop they had. Many of the items in the gift shop were made by members of the Mi'Kmaq community.







I bought this dream catcher and an adorable pair of tiny moccasins for my nephew, whose baby shower I was going to soon after returning from this trip.



Then we were off, continuing on our way back to Halifax. After about 20 or 30 minutes, we arrived at our stop for lunch: Masstown Market. This was an actual market/grocery store that also had souvenir areas, drug store and general store types of areas, etc. We first had lunch, which consisted of boxed lunches we'd ordered earlier on in the trip. There wasn't a whole lot of seating, and we kind of just hung around outside at a tiny "picnic" area while our Adventure Guides went inside to get the lunches. Fortunately, it was nice outside, as there was virtually nowhere to eat inside. But more shade would have been nice.



It was a lot of carbs, but very tasty!



We were given a little over an hour to eat our lunch and explore the market. While it was an OK stop, most of us agreed that it was way too much time for something that was really quite an ordinary tourist rest stop. There was nothing special about Masstown Market. A lot of us were saying that we would have preferred more time to see the exhibits at the Center, and then just picked up the box lunches and maybe stopped at a park for ten or fifteen minutes to eat and then continued. I noticed that the 2025 itinerary just says "Lunch at a local restaurant" so it looks like they are changing this to *something*. I wonder what it will be.







Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

After another hour and a half-ish drive, we arrived back at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel. We checked into new rooms, and I realized just how nice the upgrade to the oceanfront room had been, as this was a "regular" ABD room. It was a nice enough room, but just did not compare to the one I'd had at the beginning of the trip. That had been a really good decision!







It definitely did not have as nice of a view as the other room!





Our motorcoach!



That night was dinner and evening on your own. I unpacked, and then decided to head down to the waterfront to have dinner at Salty's, the restaurant I remembered from my previous trip to Nova Scotia. When the hostess went to seat me, I saw a couple from the ABD already seated, and they asked me to join them for dinner, which I happily did. It was a lovely dinner and conversation!

Afterwards, we wandered the waterfront, and ended up having dessert at Cows.



We spent some time just wandering the beautiful area (yes! the weather was still gorgeous!) and eventually returned to the hotel.

Tomorrow would be our last full day of the ABD, spent exploring Halifax and an area called the Salt Marsh.

Next up - Day 7: Ahoy, Halifax!

 

[Eastridge]

Interesting that both of the ABD trips in Canada include cultural elements to cover some of the history of the First Nations in Canada. However, this trip does a lot more on that topic than the Canadian Rockies trip.

 

[sayhello]

Interesting that both of the ABD trips in Canada include cultural elements to cover some of the history of the First Nations in Canada. However, this trip does a lot more on that topic than the Canadian Rockies trip.

That is interesting! I hadn't really looked at the Canadian Rockies itinerary in a while, so I didn't realize that.

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[sayhello]

Day 7: Ahoy, Halifax!

So here we were, at the last full day of our ABD already!! This day started at 8:30am. We took our motorcoach to the Cole Harbor Salt Marsh.

On the way out, Kira and Josh helped me celebrate a big anniversary with the group: 40 years as a Cancer Survivor! It felt really great to hear the cheers and applause from my fellow Adventurers!

This morning started out with a wonderful walk/stroll/powerwalk/whatever pace you wanted along the well-paved walkway that crossed the Salt Marshes. According to ABD, the path we walked was a part of the Trans-Canada Trail. They described it as "a renovated railway trail that is surrounded by tranquil wetlands."

The day was once again gorgeous, and the area was seriously beautiful. The walk was invigorating and inspiring at the same time. Everyone pretty much started out together, but spread out based on the pace that people wanted. We had everything from runners to slow walkers. We were given the time we needed to return to the motorcoach by, so you kind of had to judge for yourself at what point you wanted to turn around and head back. We were given the landmark of the Ready Aye Ready Bridge, which was 1.8 miles each way (for a round trip of 3.6 miles).

I really, really, really wish there was a place like this near me where I could walk on a regular basis. It was just lovely and peaceful. There were quite a few people out there walking or biking, but it didn't feel at all crowded. Honestly, walking out in nature like this is just one of my favorite things to do.

I took a kajillion pictures (OK, dozens and dozens) as it was just so pretty, and the light changed depending on the angle and how far into the morning you were. We had a little over an hour, and I have to admit I took every minute of that hour-plus enjoying the walk and taking photos. I was *not* late, but I was definitely bringing up the rear by the end of the walk, and Josh came to the back to walk along with me and keep me moving.





















Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

Once we were all back on the motorcoach, we headed back to the Marriott. At this point we had to get everything off the motorcoach and say farewell to our motorcoach driver, as we wouldn't be using it again. We were given around an hour and 15 minutes to change if we wanted to, do lunch on our own, and then meet up at 1:30pm to walk over to Alexander Keith's Brewery for a tour and a tasting.



I ended up eating lunch at the restaurant at the hotel - a large bowl of seafood chowder and some bread that I totally wasn't even able to finish (partly because I was full, and partly because it took so long for the restaurant to get me my food, I kind of ran out of time!)





The Brewery was in an interesting courtyard that used to be the outside of these buildings, but had been enclosed. It was a nice area.





Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

It was a very nice Brewery tour. They gave us some beer right off the bat, and then took us through some areas of the Brewery while explaining to us how they made their beers.



I really loved her Scottish-sounding Halifax accent!







We then were led down into the cellars, where they have a pub set up!



We were given a choice of beers to have for a second taste, and then treated to a bit of a cèilidh with traditional music and singing.











Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

Next we were set free and told to meet up at the Tall Ship Silva out on the waterfront (near the Cow's creamery -- we all knew where that was!) by 3:30pm. It wasn't a huge amount of time - maybe half an hour to make our way to the ship.

It was still a totally gorgeous day. Honestly, we were SO lucky with the weather on this trip!!





This was not an exclusive sailing. There were tons of other people on the ship. We were set free to find seating wherever we wanted to sit.



Around 4pm, the ship headed out (via engine, not sail) into Halifax Harbour.







A good portion of the time on the Harbour took us along an area with some seriously expensive and gorgeous houses. It was really nice to just sit along the side of the boat, feel the fresh breeze and ooh and ah over the homes.









Continued in next post

 

[sayhello]

After about an hour and a half of blissfully motoring along the Harbour, they turned the ship around and then unfurled it's 3 sails. Unfortunately, it was for show only, as they caught zero wind, and we continued to travel via the engine. But it did make for a pleasant atmosphere and photos.







They had a young man singing on the ship. He was quite good, and did take requests.





Eventually, after about 2 hours, we returned to the ship's mooring on the Waterfront. We were given free time to return to the Marriott and get ready for our farewell dinner at 7pm! The farewell dinner was in a banquet room at the hotel. It was not the fanciest farewell dinner I've been to, but then, the welcome dinner had been much fancier than usual. But the food was good, and we had musicians/singers to entertain us! And the company was great, of course!









The next day was back to the airport at Halifax for my flight home. Fortunately, I had booked the flight home using miles with Delta, so I did not have to deal with Air Canada anymore! I was SO glad I was able to end my trip without that stress! It was a relatively unremarkable trip home, and a nice end to a really fun and very special ABD!

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[aggiedog]

Great trip report! It looks like a fantastic itinerary, and quite beautiful.

 

[sayhello]

Great trip report! It looks like a fantastic itinerary, and quite beautiful.

Thanks! It was! I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased by this trip!

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