Canada Road Trip Itinerary: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI

Summer Road Trip from Boston to Canada

Hiking, Kayaking, and Camping in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia

Summer vacation 2.0: a 16-day road trip through the Canadian Maritimes! We’ve wanted to visit this area of the world for years and never had the time. When we had to make a sudden pivot from our Pacific Crest Trail summer plans (see blog 1 and blog 2) to something less physically demanding, getting to do this trip was a huge silver lining. We literally planned this trip in two days. You can, too.

Our route took us through New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. It included a lovely mix of physical activity (kayaking, walking, hiking), leisure, delicious seafood and beer, and camping. We struck a great balance between living an active lifestyle outside and treating ourselves to a real vacation. The Canadian National and Provincial Park system and facilities were really nice and made the entire experience super pleasant.

Here is an overview of our trip with highlights broken down roughly by province. If you are planning your own Canadian Maritimes trip, we will include links to posts with much more detail about each leg of our trip soon.

Ask us any questions in the meantime! We cannot recommend this trip enough. In a little over two weeks, we really felt like we experienced the Canadian Maritimes fully.

Maine and New Brunswick, Canada

Day 1: Boston to Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.
- Highlights: Quoddy Head State Park hike and lighthouse; Lubec, Maine: the Eastern Most Point in the Contiguous US
Day 2: Saint Andrews, New Brunswick
- Highlights: Chamcook Mountain hike, Char & Chowder, Saint Andrew’s Brewing Company, Minister’s Island Perimeter Trail Hike
Day 3: Saint Andrews to Hopewell Rocks
- Highlights: Split Rock hike, Fundy Trail Provincial Park, and Holy Whale Brewery in Alma
Day 4: Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park
- Highlights: Exploring extreme tide changes by walking on the ocean floor and kayaking at Hopewell Rocks, Mary’s Point Trail, camping at Ponderosa Pines

Prince Edward Island

Day 5: Prince Edward Island
- Highlights: Cape Jourimain Nature Centre, Prince Edward Island National Park Cavendish Beach, Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place, Blue Mussel Cafe, and Stanhope Campground and Beach
Day 6: Prince Edward Island to Inverness, Nova Scotia
- Highlights: Robinson’s Island, Leonhard’s restaurant, Cow’s Creamery, a ferry ride to Nova Scotia, Pictou pizza, Inverness Beach, camping by the beach at MacLeod’s Campground

Nova Scotia: Cape Breton

Day 7: Inverness to Cape Breton Highlands National Park
- Highlights: Marguerite boutique et provisions, Le vieux chemin de Cap-Rouge trail, Corney Brook Trail, camping by the beach at Corney Brook
Day 8: Cape Breton Highlands National Park
- Highlights: Skyline Trail Loop, The Rusty Anchor, Theodore Fricker Mountain Trail, Jack Pine Trail
Day 9: Cape Breton Highlands National Park to Beaver Cove
- Highlights: Franey Trail, Middle Head Trail, North Bay Beach, Beaver Cove

Nova Scotia: Kayaking in the 100 Wild Islands and Kejimkujik National Park

Day 10: 100 Wild Islands
- Highlights: Sea kayaking at Murphy’s Camping on the Ocean
Day 11: Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site
- Highlights: Kayak camping at Kejimkujik National Park
Day 12: Lunenberg, Nova Scotia
- Kayak camping at Kejimkujik National Park, Lightship Brewery, Lunenburg Art Galleries