Back from our trip to Nova Scotia & PEI, which was worth the detour!
 

Just home after a wonderful trip to NS & PEI. Many thanks fodorites for helping us plan where to go and what to see. We flew from London Gatwick to Halifax with Thomas Cook airlines arranged through Canadian Affair, worth a mention as the airfare was resonably priced and the seats have a 35in. pitch which made for a comforable journey.
Not a good start in Halifax as we were badly let down with our accomodation, so only stayed one night instead of the intended four. But as we had visited Halifax before this was not the disaster it could have been. Glad to say from then on the holiday was great, stayed in Shelburne for three nights at the Millstones B&B loved the museums in the historic district and loved the food at Charlotte Lane restaurant. From there drove to Digby via the South Shore and stayed at the Breakers, again nothing but praise for this B&B, took side trips to Annapolis Royal and a Whale watch from Brier Island, only saw two whales but the trip was worth it.
We had prebooked the ferry over to New Brunswick and stayed the night at St Martins before continuing on to PEI via the Confederation bridge.

Part two:-
Stayed at the Beach House Inn, French River on PEI, a big, big thank you to whoever suggested this B&B when we planning our trip. The place was sublime, and the view from our second floor deck just wonderful. We liked the gentle charm of PEI, loved Charlottetown and hiking in the PEI National Park, one of the highlights was seeing Bald Eagles, not many of them around in southern England! From PEI we took the Wood Island ferry to NS and stayed in Pictou for the last couple of nights, while there we visited the Jost vineyard and had a lovely lunch at a little cafe opposite the post office in Pugwash.
All too soon it was time to go back to Halifax and fly home,we did have time for a late lunch at Sweet Basil, brilliant food, and to spend time at Sam the Record Man, what an amazing shop!! Wish we had one in the UK.
Loads of good memories of the Maritimes, but mostly it was the local people that made this holiday memorable, plus the odd bald eagle, many many thanks.

Glad you had a good trip JanG.We will be in Nova Scotia from Friday, you mentioned a shop (Sam the record man)in Halifax. My daughter might find this shop interesting can you give me some information regarding the shop.

Sam's is the best record shop I've ever been in. It is on Barrington St.in Halifax, not far from the main tourist information bureau,on the other side of the road. The main floor is devoted to rock, hip hop, you name it. Lots of copies of older CD's not just new ones, plus as someone old enough to have a vinyl LP collection as well as newer CD's & DVD's I was knocked away by the number of vinyl LP's for sale. Upper floors had classical music, Maritime artists and one of the best range of Blues and World music I have seen. So little time so much I wanted to buy! Even after my credit card had taken a bit of a pasting I could console myself that my purchases would have cost at least treble in rip off Britain.Just about to leave when I spied the bargain shelves, CD's for about 5$ canadian, and not rubbish stuff either, record heaven! Plus the staff were really helpful, if you have a chance do visit but try and allow more time than we did!

Will make time to visit Sam the record man my daughter was most impressed,also will visit Charlotte Lane restaurant many times as we are staying in Shelburne for two weeks.

Your daughter might enjoy the Black Market on Argyle St. just a few blocks from Same the Record Man. Lots of neat stuff for her to pour over. As well the Freak Lunchbox on Barrington St. one of the best retro candy stores around!

A quick tip re Charlotte Lane, do book as its very popular. We were there at the end of June and the place was packed both times we ate there. Luckily our B&B host had booked a table for us as I doubt we would have got one otherwise. Do visit the 4 museums in Shelburne, the Dory shop was just wonderful. We also did side trips to Sable Island, (got lost,landed up in Shag Harbour & heard all about the UFO landing in 1967!), and the seaside adjunct at Kedgi, the hikes there are great.

JanG: What was the "bad accommodation" you had in Halifax? We're headed there in early Sept. and I'm still trying to decide where to stay!

The bad accomodation was The Verandah B&B. We booked it from the description in Canada B&B a website we have used for three previous holidays to Canada very successfully. Obviously the details sent to the site by the B&B owner were not entirely correct as on arrival instead of the ensuite bathroom we thought we were getting we had a 'private' bathroom on a different floor of the property. I say 'private' as on trying to use the bathroom the next morning we were unable to do so as other guests were in there. The owner said they were 'friends' of hers but I still do not know why they had to use what was supposed to be our private bathroom. We showed the owner the description on Canada B&B and her only explaination was that they had 'got it wrong'. We found this hard to believe as we were under the impression that the owners sent in descriptions to Canada B&B themselves. The easiest way out in the circumstances was to leave after the first night. Guess every cloud has a silver lining, if we had stayed we would not have discovered Shelburne!

For anyone traveling to NS with older children--and for adventurous adults as well--I recommend rafting the tidal bore out of Schubenacadie.

The raft trips, of course, go at high tide. Do not arrive late because time and tide wait for no man, but you know that.

"Sam the Record Man" is a popular franchise (chain) music store. We have it in Ontario too. Have fun browsing through all the "stuff" there. And at the Canadian dollar too!