Having just returned from a two-week road trip with the kids from Ontario to the Maritimes, here is a list of things I’d recommend to do that both kids and parents will appreciate:
- Stop in Quebec City on the way and spend a day in Old Quebec. Founded in 1608 by Samuel Champlain, this beautiful old city still boasts relics from its early days, including cobblestone streets and buildings aged in the hundreds. Visit the museum, eat crepes, shop the artisan market and a day is quickly filled.
- See Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy by Moncton, New Brunswick. The kids will love to walk on the squishy dirt that was, only hours earlier, covered by ocean. Wear flip flops or crocks for easy cleaning… They’ll get dirty!
- Drive your car up a hill backwards at Magnetic Hill in Moncton, New Brunswick. This will take about fifteen minutes to do, so don’t plan your day around it – unless you wish to hang out at the adjoining amusement park and zoo. We did not.
- Visit Mahone Bay and Lunenburg in Nova Scotia to see authentic Maritime living. We visited both on one day trip, travelling from a resort called White Point in Liverpool.
- Buy lobsters off a boat. This may not be available every province you visit, so find out lobster season in advance for each region. We finally found boatloads of them in Cape Breton.
- Cook your own lobster. It’s easier than you’d ever imagine and more gastronomically satisfying than buying them already cooked.
- Eat lots and lots of mussels. And learn how to cook these, too (add white wine and garlic for a sensational flavour.)
- Go whale watching in Cape Breton.
- Drive along the Cabot Trail, and better yet, stay in a resort or B&B along the trail for a truly rustic vacation. I’d recommend the Celtic Lodge (higher end) or Glenghorm (the more digs in which we stayed for four days.)
- Sit by a bonfire twenty feet from the ocean.
- Attend a lobster supper in PEI. We joined hundreds of other hungry diners at the New Glasgow Lobster Suppers, crammed inside the church hall for a sumptuous meal that included a pound of lobster each, all you can eat mussels, clam chowder, salads, boiled potatoes, and dessert for an incredible $30. (Kids menu also available.)
- Walk the red beaches in PEI with the kids and swim in the warm ocean water (while dodging jellyfish.)
- Visit every art gallery, pottery store, and gift shop you pass - there are treasures to be found among the hundreds of Maritime artisans.
- Dig for clams in PEI, then cook’em up and eat’em. (Okay, we didn’t do this… couldn’t fathom dragging three boys in the blistering heat to dig in hot sand for something they might not want to eat later.)
- Join a fisherman for a trip out on a boat. My husband and ten-year-old son joined a fishing boat in PEI and each caught mackerel and cod that we later seared for a true fisherman’s dinner.
- Drive back to Ontario through a different route. We drove to the Maine border and stayed overnight in Freeport. Back in the land of commercialism, we embraced the outlet stores and added a few more “souvenirs” to our collection.
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