A day tour from Saint John to the bay of fundy and st martins
 

We will be on a cruise and will be renting a car instead of doing a ship excursion. We are thinking of going to St Martins. What is there to do there and on the way? Where is the best place to walk the floor in the bay of fundy. Where is it located?

I believe one of the best places to walk the floor in the bay of fundy is at Fundy National Park/Alma which is about 1.5 hour drive from Saint John. Some would recommend Hopewell Rocks which is about 45 minutes farther. Remember to check the tide tables in order to time your trip around low tide (which would likely be limited by the timing available to you from your cruise ship).

St Martins is closer and from there you can drive the Fundy Trail Parkway, which I did once a number of years ago but didn't walk on the ocean floor there. When are you visiting?

We will be there on the 10 of october

The Fundy Trail website mentions that they close on October 10. However assumedly they mean they close at the end of the day on October 10. Check out http://fundytrailparkway.com/.

How much time will you have?

What are the cruise excursion options and are you 100% set against them?

Another option might be to drive in the other direction towards Saint Andrews. It's a charming tourist oriented town although I'm not sure how easy it is to walk on the Fundy floor there. Also, I suspect that their high season being the summer months, it is possible that some shops and services could be closed in October. October 10 actually is a holiday in Canada - Canadian Thanksgiving - so many things could be closed although sometimes tourist attractions and shops/restaurants in tourist areas are open on holidays.

we have from 8-2 so not long. I am pretty set against the ships tours because they are so $$$. What do you recommend we do? We have 2 kids aged 17,12 and thought it may be fun for them to walk the floor. what do you think

Hopewell Rocks will take 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours of driving. It is a short hike down through woods (nice trail maybe 10 minutes) or you can ride the shuttle for $2.00 per person. As suggested check the tide schedule.Then you'd need to allow time to walk on floor. Depending on how long it takes to get your rental car/return car, you might not have enough time. We were at the Rocks on September 12th and some places in the area were already closed. Closed after Labor Day. We were told that most things in the area close when Hopewell Rocks closes on Thanksgiving Day. I know sidetrips arranged by crusie can be costly, but sometimes it better to pay the $$$ to have things arranged for you to enjoy rather to spend your valuable time finding rental car, etc. Enjoy your trip.

If you decide to go as far as Hopewell Rocks, you will drive through Alma going and coming which, again depending on timing, might allow you to see some of the dramatic contrast between low and high tide.

Another option is to take a look at the excursions and if any sound interesting, go on your own to some of the destinations/activities they are suggesting if you can save money that way. The advantage is that the cruise company will have researched what is open and closed and accessible within the time limits.

Tide schedules are available online if you use a search engine like google.

Sadly, the timing of the tides STINKS on October 10 of this year:


11:44 8.9m 29.2ft

HIGH TIDE at St. Martins is at 11:44am local time


It takes about 90 minutes to GET to Alma, so, by 90 minutes for the return trip that's 3 hours of your 6-hour window.

You wouldn't even be able to afford time after the point of high tide, AND you couldn't stay long enough to witness a significant difference (that could matter to you, I mean).


I LOVE the idea of getting off of a cruise ship and high-tailing it to the Bay of Fundy for the tides, but the timing just won't do you any good in this case.

http://www.lau.chs-shc.gc.ca/cgi-bin...gion=5&zone=30