Description
The 2500km/1500mile-long all-season loop route is entirely paved. TCH portions are generally freeway, while the rest is often high-quality super-2 highway. The most significant exception is in PEI and northern NB, where it is a regular 2-lane highway. Driving at night is OK except on the Cabot Trail in NS, where moose are quite common.
This trip takes you on the Bay of Fundy coast, followed by a comprehensive coastal tour of Nova Scotia, capped by a short tour of PEI before finishing with a coastal tour of NB and returning to ME. Suffice to say that there are sights and attractions galore. The Bay of Fundy boasts the highest tides in the world, the effect of which is quite visible. NS's west coast follows the Evangeline Trail through Acadian areas and to the Digby Neck for great whalewatching. The South Shore is dotted with lighthouses including famous Peggy's Cove, and is home to Lunenburg, kept as an late-18th century fishing village and a World Heritage Site. Lunenburg is also home of the Bluenose II, found on the Canadian dime. In short, Halifax is an awesome city of 300,000 perched on the world's second largest harbour, home to Canada's east coast navy. The Eastern Short is pretty rugged, leading to Cape Breton.
If Nova Scotia is literally New Scotland, then Cape Breton is literally the highlands. Known for the scenic Cabot Trail through CB Highlands National Park, plus 18th Century Fortress Louisbourg, puffin/seal/bald eagle/whalewatching, the summer home of Alexander Bell at Baddeck, the (tourable) coal mines of Sydney, and of course, east coast fiddling and scotch distilleries.
PEI is known for golfing, endless green rolling hills Anne of Green Gables and the Confederation Bridge that links it to NB. Shortly after the bridge is Shediac, NB, the lobster capital of the Maritimes, followed by Kouchibouquac National Park. Beyond Miramichi is the heavily Acadian portion of NB.
Essentially, there's so much to see and do that it's easy to spend 2 or 3 weeks on this trip rather than the minimum 1 week.
Getting There
The Maritime tour is most easily joined via Maine, either at the terminus of I-95, or via ME-9 from Bangor to Calais. Alternatives include arriving from Quebec via the TCH. Southern NS is also reachable via ferries from Bar Harbor and Portland ME, including the high-speed Cat (2 hour crossing instead of 7 or 11 hours).
Alternatives / Spurs
The area is criss-crossed with roads that allow loops to be cut off or alternates to be taken.
There are a few notable spurs among the many available. The Digby Neck in southern NS juts into the Gulf of Maine. It is a peninsula and a series of islands connected by ferry. Near the end of the chain great tours for whalewatching are available. The area is sparsely populated, and offers fabulously cheap seafood. In Cape Breton, spurs from Sydney lead to Fortress Louisbourg and another to the tourable coal mine in Glace Bay. In PEI, a spur can be taken to the Madeleine Islands Ferry. However beautiful, the islands are fairly unusual as a destination, and only reachable by air charter and this ferry (April to January only, daily except Tuesday).
Sights / Attractions
St.-Andrews-by-the-sea, Bay of Fundy, highest tides in the world, Fundy National Park, Annapolis Valley, Evangeline Trail, Digby Neck, Kajimkajuk National Park, Lunenburg, Peggy's Cove, Halifax City and Harbour, Eastern Passage, Cape Breton and CB Highlands National Park, Louisbourg, Glace Bay Miner's Museum, Anne of Green Gables, Confederation Bridge, Shediac, Acadia.
Claims to Fame
Canada has the most coastline of any country in the world, this trip allows you to cover some of the best of it accessible via road.
Estimates
Allow 5 days round trip from NYC, more with sightseeing or side-trips.
Links
2002 Trip to NS Lighthouse Route
2003 Trip to Cape Breton
Honeymoon Travelogue