Beautiful Nova Scotia (Except Blue Rocks Negative Experience)!
 

We just came back from a one week trip to Nova Scotia that includes the Cabot Trail, Bay of Fundy and Lunenberg. We have been postponing this trip in favor of other sites/countries not realizing how beautiful this area of Canada is. We started planning not knowing that during the week, the Cape Breton Celtic Music Festival was scheduled to take place. The foliage, good weather, good food, good lodging, and good music made a very wonderful experience except for a very negative experience that happened in Blue Rocks. We kind of got lost locating the Blue Rocks Harbour and when we stopped by a local welding shop to ask for direction (which that time, unknown to us, is just about a block away from the entrance of the harbour). The person that we spoke to told us that Blue Rocks Harbour does not exist and that we are misinformed... Even after we showed him a travel book and forum print out describing the place. If someone gets lost finding Blue Rocks and have the misfortune of stopping at this place, DO NOT be deterred...Blue Rocks EXISTS and it's beautiful... haunting, surreal, and peaceful. To go there, while driving the Blue Rocks Road, and once you see a small harbour, make a quick right on the 1st street... in a minute or two you'll be looking at it. I must have taken at least 50 shots there. Enjoy!

Two years ago we were trying to find Blue Rocks as well with no luck.

Glad your Nova Scotia experience was so great. I love Celtic Colors and the Cabot Trail in the fall. And you were lucky with the fantastic weather.

One more person who tried to find Blue Rocks and failed. Bizarre, isn't it?

I don't know what is going on in NS... come to think of it, in our 20+ years of travelling this is the first time we encountered this kind of negative behavior. We had 2 other experiences, not as bad as the Blue Rocks: 1) 1st one was at the Halifax airport, after picking up the car from the garage, we asked a rental car company employee on the exist towards our Halifax hotel and was given the opposite direction (towards Cape Breton!) instead. 2) 2nd one was from Visitor Center at Bay of Fundy in Wolfeville. We were given the wrong hour for viewing low tide at Hall's Harbour so we arrived one hour late! Even the staff at the harbour/restaurant was surprised because those times were provided by them to the visitor center. This is really bizarre!

Oh we never had any bad experiences and didnt ask anyone how to get to Blue Rocks, just couldnt find it based on signs.

NYC88, and anybody reading this:

Given that TIDES are predictable years in advance, it is unwise to wait until mere hours/days prior to viewing to learn the times of high and low tide, particularly in the Bay of Fundy, where tides really matter!


Fundy tide tables can be found at this link:

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

It is always a good idea to have the tables printed out for the entire window of your trip, for a few strategic spots around the area. Then it's handy when you're winding around some rural road with nothing but the clock on the dash and poor radio reception from somewhere.

Sorry to hear that you had a less-than-stellar experience in Nova Scotia. I was down there a month ago and the people and locales were stellar.

From your description, it sounds like it must be about here
N44.36352 W64.21264
Is this in the ballpark?

u

Thanks for the advise Northwest...but we did not really plan to drive to Bay of Fundy; it was a last minute decision. Don't see why I cannot get a reliable information from the visitor center, esp. if a specific site provides them a daily update? Btw, though the VC did not include Margaretsville among possible places to view the tides, we thought it's beautiful! I would rate it as the best among the 4 that the VC recommended to us.

Yes, U, that's the one....this site should not be missed! Good for you, our experience is just bizarre!

I agree that you should have been able to get reliable info from the visitor's centre, and the fact that it was "one hour" off hints at a time zone snafu.

It would all make sense if someone were traveling from California, and not (remembering) that NS has its own time zone EAST of east coast U.S. time, and just plugging the wrong time into the tide tables.

I still wish that anyone who happened to look here, in the future, with plans to go to Nova Scotia (anywhere!), would take the initiative to print out the tide tables for 3 or 4 spots on the bay shore, for the entire window of their trip.

As "Truro" is a spot through which lots of NS travelers pass, with the Bay of Fundy right there, it just... makes sense.

Northwest,don't understand your assumption of "one hour snafu"? We were in NS for 4 days already (coming from NYC) and is very much aware of the time difference! It is what it is....the VC gave us the wrong time which even the Hall Harbour cannot understand when SHE SAW THE TIME WRITTEN ON THE VC Bay of Fundy map/brochure.

NYC,
Sorry to hear that you encountered "negative behaviour" in NS. However, you have been remarkably fortunate in your 20+ years of travelling to have never been pointed in the wrong direction. It seems to happen to me a lot. One time when we landed in Palm Beach International Airport, I asked the rental car agent how to get to our hotel. She directed me West instead of East. The mistake was almost immediately apparent when I realizd I was driving toward the sun in late afternoon, obvioulsy heading West instead of East! How far did you drive towards Cape Breton b/f you realized you were going the wrong way?

It's too bad that you had the unpleasant experiences you have described while you were in Nova Scotia. I do hope that, in the end, the positive experiences of "foliage, good weather, good food, good lodging, good music" far outweighed the negative.

Ocean

NYC88,

I think we are already clear on the fact that the mistake was NOT YOURS.

However, IF indeed somebody had SOMEthing down, (vs. having no information down at all), and it was ONE HOUR off, it may well have been pre-prepared, and POSSIBLY one-hour off steadily (implying that a totally different person could have approached 12 hours later, and been given information that was also ONE-hour off).

That is a far cry better than their just giving you haphazard incorrect information. (in that SOMEbody was making SOME sort of effort, and it was consistent, vs. nobody making any...) (though the effect on you is the same)

It all continues to suggest to other onlookers that they take the few minutes needed to PRINT OUT THE TIDE TABLES when planning a visit to the Bay of Fundy at the very moment one finalizes travel dates.

This isn't like the circus, or a concert tour, or a thunderstorm... tides are predictable years in advance... and Nova Scotia and surrounds are mostly comprised of rural roads miles from anywhere. You just can't beat the convenience of having the tide tables with you, all for the cost of a couple of sheets of paper.

I just got a kick out of your letter. Blue rocks do not exist, there is a village named Blue Rocks, I have lived here all my life. As for Blue Rocks harbour, that doesn't exist either, the village sits along side Lunenburg harbour. The people that write their little tourist books should really do their homework.

I have to correct myself, Blue Rocks lies along side Lunenburg bay, not the harbor, don't want to add to the confusion. I am also the guy at the welding shop (or my dad) and we can't give you directions to somewhere that does not exist. If youj can find me a chart or map of any kind that have Blue Rocks harbor on it I will fly you and your family here for a week, take you sailing, deep sea fishing and put you up for the week. I have also posted this article on my facebook page and my friends and I are having a great laugh. If you don't know the difference between a bay, a harbor and a cove maybe you should do some homework as well. Thanks for the visit :)

NYC88:
We're planning a trip to Nova Scotia in mid August beginning in Halifax. Would like to see the South Shore, Annapolis Valley and the Cape Breton area before returning back to Halifax to fly out. Since you mentioned a similar adventure, I was wondering what your route was and where you spent the overnights. Any help would be appreciated. I thought we would spend the first 2 nights in Halifax and do the South Shore down to Lunenberg as a day trip. On the third day I was thinking about driving to the Annalpolis area before heading north toward Cape Breton. Thought we could spend the night in Wolfville or surrounds. What are your thoughts so far? After Wolfville, where and for how long to see Cape Breton. We would have 3-4 more nights to spend.

lol Joshua....good letter!

Joshua -- Although you were correct, you were not helpful. Which do you think would have made the tourists think more highly of your little town?