Car Travel

New Brunswick is the largest of the Atlantic provinces, covering nearly 78,000 square km (30,000 square miles): around 320 km (200 miles) north to south and 240 km (150 miles) east to west. Unless you plan to fly into one of the hubs and stay there for your visit, you'd be wise to have a car. There's a good selection of car-rental agencies, but book early for July and August, and be aware that debit cards may not be accepted (thus you'll need a credit card); call or visit the websites to search for pickup and drop-off locations throughout the province (bear in mind that rentals from airports carry a surcharge).

From Québec, the Trans-Canada Highway (Route 2, marked by a maple leaf) enters New Brunswick at St-Jacques and follows the St. John River through Fredericton and on to Moncton and the Nova Scotia border. From Maine, Interstate 95 crosses at Houlton to Woodstock, New Brunswick, where it connects with the Trans-Canada Highway. Those traveling up the coast of Maine on Route 1 cross at Calais to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, or via the Fundy Islands car ferries. New Brunswick's Route 1 extends through Saint John and Sussex to join the Trans-Canada Highway near Moncton.

A well-designed, well-marked system of provincial scenic drives takes you to most of the places in New Brunswick that you'd want to go. Begin in the south, on the phenomenal Fundy Coastal Drive (watch for the lighthouse-on-a-cliff logo). At the upper end of the bay it connects with the Acadian Coastal Drive (the logo is a white starfish on a red background), which hugs the gentle eastern shore. In the middle of the Acadian Drive is a bit of a detour for the Miramichi River Route (a jumping salmon logo). The Acadian Drive eventually meets the Appalachian Range Route (mountains logo), which takes you across the rugged northern part of the province, where the hardwood ridges ignite in a blaze of color in fall, and then connects with the River Valley Scenic Drive (a fiddlehead logo), which runs down the entire western side of the province and back to Saint John, on the Fundy Coastal Drive.

Route 7 joins Saint John and Fredericton. Fredericton is connected to Miramichi by Route 8. Route 15 links Moncton to the eastern coast and to Route 11, which follows the coast north to Miramichi, around the Acadian Peninsula, and up to Campbellton.