1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (120 page)

With the abandoned farmlands open for resettlement, a British community, Wolfville, grew up adjacent to Grand Pré. Now at the center of a major orcharding and wine-growing region, it is one of Nova Scotia’s most charming towns, with stately elms and beautiful Victorian homes lining leafy streets. Downtown is especially lovely, with unique shops and fine restaurants. Acadia University has nearly as many full-time students (3,700) as there are residents in Wolfville, which keeps the town lively.

W
HERE
: 56 miles/90 km northwest of Halifax.
Visitor info:
Tel 902-542-7000;
www.wolfville.info
.
G
RAND
P
RÉ
N
ATIONAL
H
ISTORIC
S
ITE
: Tel 866-542-3631 or 902-542-3631;
www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/grandpre
.
When:
grounds open year-round; exhibits closed Nov–Apr.
W
HERE TO STAY
: Tattingstone Inn, Wolfville, tel 800-565-7696 or 902-542-7696;
www.tattingstone.ns.ca
.
Cost:
from US$87/C$98 (off-peak), US$105/C$118 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: summer for weather and the Atlantic Theater Festival (
www.atf.ns.ca
); late July for Acadian Day (
www.grand-pre.com
).

Vibrant and Historic Seaport

Nova Scotia

Despite its pedigree as the oldest British city in Canada, Halifax is a youthful, high-energy place—a beautifully preserved seaport overlaid with more than a touch of bohemia. The area’s dramatic setting induced
British General Edward Cornwallis to establish an army and naval base here in 1749: With a deep, protected harbor, the site was easily defended from a hilltop garrison. Under the watchful vigilance of this stone-walled Citadel, Halifax quickly grew into a thriving seaport. Today, terraced into the steep hillside between the historic waterfront and the lofty Citadel is downtown Halifax, where, in a mix of old and new, beautiful historic buildings stand next to soaring towers of glass.

The waterfront is the oldest part of the city, with many structures dating back to the turn of the 19th century. At its heart is the Historic Properties, an extensive 4-acre restoration that has converted many centuries-old wharves and waterfront warehouses into shops, museums, and restaurants, making this a lively area for exploring and people-watching on sunny afternoons, when it can seem that everyone in Halifax has come here to play hooky. Right on the waterfront is the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the city’s signature museum, with fascinating exhibits on Halifax’s seafaring past, the 1912
Titanic
disaster (many rescue and salvage operations were based out of Halifax, and 150 of the 2,000 victims are buried here), and the tragic Halifax Explosion of 1917, when two warships collided in Halifax harbor, detonating tons of TNT and killing nearly 1,700.

From the waterfront, zigzag the nine blocks up through the heart of Halifax, passing beautifully maintained Victorian storefronts, modern shopping areas, 18th-century churches, and a former military Grand Parade ground that’s now a park. At the crest of the bluff is the Citadel, the enormous star-shaped defensive fort established to protect Halifax from invasion. The fortifications are very impressive—complete with defensive ditches, granite ramparts, a musketry gallery, a powder magazine, and signal masts. Equally impressive are the views over Halifax and the second-largest natural harbor in the world. There was no sneaking up on this place. Now operated by Parks Canada, the Citadel features guided tours of the fort and a living history program: Don’t be surprised if strangers in kilts and ostrich-plume hats approach and start talking about the past.

The Citadel’s massive, star-shaped masonry fortification took 28 years to build.

Of Halifax’s many fine hotels, the small and charming Halliburton House preserves the relaxed feel of a classy country inn. Built in 1809 as a grand home for the Nova Scotia Supreme Court’s first chief justice, Halliburton House offers handsome rooms in three town house–style buildings connected in the back by a flowering courtyard. The attention to detail and the intimate, romantic ambience continues in the hotel’s Stories Restaurant, whose limited but innovative menu has made it one of the city’s favorites.

W
HERE
: 265 miles/426 km from Saint John.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-565-0000 or 902-424-4248;
www.halifax.ca/visitors
.
H
ISTORIC
P
ROPERTIES
: Tel 902-429-0530;
www.historicproperties.ca
.
M
ARITIME
M
USEUM OF
THE
A
TLANTIC
: Tel 902-424-7490;
www.museum.gov.ns.ca/mma
.
When:
daily; closed Mon, Nov–Apr.
H
ALIFAX
C
ITADEL
: Tel 902-426-5080;
www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax
.
H
ALLIBURTON
H
OUSE
: Tel 902-420-0658;
www.thehalliburton.com
.
Cost:
from US$107/C$120 (off-peak), from US$129/C$145 (peak); dinner at Stories US$22/C$25.
B
EST TIMES
: late June–mid-July for the Nova Scotia International Tattoo, a vibrant celebration of Canadian patriotism (
www.nstattoo.ca
); Aug for the Halifax International Buskerfest (
www.buskers.ca
).

A Colonial Town Perfectly Preserved

Nova Scotia

In the 1750s, lured by the prospect of free land, nearly 1,500 Protestant German, Swiss, and French pioneers set sail from Europe under protection of the British Crown to establish a colony on the coast of Nova Scotia.
With them was a set of town plans drawn up by the London-based Board of Trade and Plantations. As part of their agreement with their British sponsors, the colonists would use these plans to impose a pre-designed “model town” onto the wilderness.

The Lunenburg colony survived and prospered as a fishing and well-known shipbuilding center. Little change came to its Old Town and waterfront—with the result that, two and a half centuries later, this tiny coastal hamlet is in near pristine condition, minimally different from its 18th-century beginnings. Dignified homes and buildings have been beautifully maintained, and the streets of the Old Town still follow the original town plan, with accommodations for the unexpected steep hills they found upon arrival. In recognition of Lunenburg’s extraordinary level of preservation—70 percent of its homes and structures are from the 18th and 19th centuries—the United Nations has declared Lunenburg’s entire Old Town district a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Fishing and marine-related industries have been central to Lunenburg for over 200 years.

While it’s fascinating to wander the picturesque streets, with colorful Victorian and Georgian houses marching up the hillside from the bay, the heart of the village remains the waterfront. The sprawling Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic combines an aquarium of local sea life with exhibits on the history of Lunenburg’s seafaring past. Moored off the museum wharf (and part of its operation) are a number of historic ships you can tour. They were built right here in Lunenburg, including a replica of the legendary 1921 racing schooner
Bluenose
that you might recognize from the back of the Canadian dime.

The bustling harbor is filled with fishing boats (scallop fishing is still an important industry) and a surprising number of both new and old wooden tall ships, which call here for repair, ship-fitting, or provisions. You can catch the spirit of Lunenburg’s wooden boat heritage aboard the
Eastern Star,
a 48-foot wooden ketch that offers tours of Lunenburg harbor. Setting out with the sails snapped taut and the hull cleaving the water, you’ll relive the days when sailing ships ruled the seas and Lunenburg was one of colonial North America’s most important ports of call.

W
HERE
: 62 miles/100 km southwest of Halifax.
Visitor info:
Tel 888-615-8305 or 902-634-8100;
www.explorelunenburg.ca
.
F
ISHERIES
M
USEUM
: Tel 866-579-4909 or 902-634-4794;
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fmamuseum.gov.ns.ca/fma
.
When:
daily May–Oct; closed weekends Nov–Apr.
E
ASTERN
S
TAR
: Tel 877-247-7075 or 902-634-3535.
When:
June–Oct.
W
HERE TO STAY
: Boscawen Inn and McLachlan House, tel 800-354-5009 or 902-634-9293;
www.boscawen.ca
.
Cost:
from US$67/C$75.
B
EST TIME
: 3 days in early Aug for Lunenburg Folk Harbor Festival.

Rugged Beauty at the Top of the World

Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut

Glenn and Trish Warner, founders of Bathurst Inlet Lodge, wrote the proverbial manual on ecotourism. They had the Arctic’s foremost lodging, outfitting, and naturalist programs up and running long before there was
much of a request for it. Located in Nunavut, on an arm of the Arctic Ocean, the lodge opens for the month of July for weeklong programs focused on the natural and human history of the North. Nunavut is Canada’s newest territory, created in 1999 as a homeland for the Inuit people. It is the largest of Canada’s territories and provinces—approximately the size of Western Europe—but has a population of only 30,000.

For millennia, the area around Bathurst Inlet has been the homeland of the Kingaunmiut people, Inuits who live off the bounty of this harsh but beautiful land. As a young Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) staff sergeant, Glenn Warner patrolled the Bathurst Inlet area in the 1960s, and when the community’s Hudson’s Bay Company trading post buildings and the Catholic mission church were both closed and offered for sale, Warner and his wife, Trish, bought the structures, transforming them into a guest lodge and comfortable accommodations. The lodge opened in 1969, and in 1984, the local Inuit residents of Bathurst Inlet joined the Warners as full partners in the operation, one of the first such joint ventures in the North.

For lovers of nature and adventure, Bathurst Inlet Lodge offers a level of personal comfort rarely found in such remote and rugged territory. With professional naturalists, historians, and local Inuit guides leading its operations, the lodge is dedicated to the natural history of the North and is noted worldwide for the excellence of its weeklong programs. Naturalists lead guests on day trips to visit rocky islands where musk oxen graze and barren-ground caribou gather. Guests might watch as grizzly bears, Arctic wolves, and foxes seek their prey along the coast or a peregrine falcon brings food to a mate. For bird-watchers, the draw of the North is truly magnetic: During the brief Arctic summer, such birds as yellow-billed and red-throated loons, Lapland longspurs, horned larks, gyrfalcons, and golden eagles migrate here to build nests and raise their young before returning south. The lodge also offers day trips to 1,000-year-old stone camps built by the Thule people, ancestors of the Inuit, and explores the proud and vibrant culture of the local Inuit and the history of early European explorers.

The North is like no other place. Few people travel to the Arctic, but those who do experience the subtle yet powerful beauty of the remarkable landscape and witness the explosion of life that is the Arctic summer, when 24-hour daylight ignites a kaleidoscope of wildflowers.