Halifax Day Drive to Lunenberg
 

We will be in Halifax for only one day - Arriving about 8:00AM and leaving 4:00PM - Is that enough time to pickup a rental car and drive to Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg? Does anyone know the approx. distance and time given the local traffic and road conditions? Thank you for your help - Miss Joice

I would skip Peggy's Cove and drive to Lunenburg, visiting Mahone Bay on the way. Blue Rocks, just outside Lunenburg is just as picturesque as Peggy's Cove, and not overrun by tourists and tour buses.

To save time, take Highway 103 rather than Hwy 3. Lunenburg is about 100km (60 miles) from Halifax, and if you give yourself an hour and a half each way it should be OK.

Miss Joice, I think trying to see both Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg in one day would be a bit ambitious. I'd recommend that you select one or the other, and I think laverendrye's advice is perfect. Visit Mahone Bay and Lunenburg. Both are delightful.

Without knowing what your particular interests are, it's difficult to recommend specific things to do, but I would mention that we always look in to Amos Pewter on our way through Mahone Bay. They make wonderful products.

Alselm

I agree with Laverendrye. Peggy's Cove is one of the most over-hyped tourist destinations in Canada. There are equally scenic places in every Atlantic province that are not over run with tourists.

Jerry

They are all pretty close, so you can definitely visit all in a day. Whether you have enough time to see everything in detail is a different question.

During my DRIVING trip 2 falls ago, this is what I did in one day:

Check out of Holiday Inn in Dartmouth; drive to Peggy's Cove, walk out to the light house and have full sit-down breakfast at the restaurant; stop at the Swissiar 111 memorial; take a couple of pictures at Mahone Bay and Lunenburgh; cross over the peninsula on Rte 10, and then some gravel road to Annapolis Royal; walk around there, take some pictures, and drive out to Bay of Fundy; then leave in the afternoon and drive all the way to overnight in Fredericton, NB.

It's all relative, and depend on what kind of trip you're doing. But in my opinion, you can leisurely see Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenberg in your time frame. Halifax-Mahone Lunenburg is only 90km (55miles), and most of it freeway.

We didn't have any problem seeing Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg in one day. We enjoyed Peggy's Cove--we had a wonderful day with fog moving in and out. Sometimes there's good reason for a lot of tourists visiting a place. We only encountered two tourist buses during our stay there--maybe it was a slow day.

Lunenberg didn't impress us all that much, though we did enjoy the Maritime Museum and ships on display. There are a lot of nice "historical" houses, but after the 3rd or 4th one, we got the idea. It certainly doesn't compare to other UNESCO World Heritage sites we've visited around the globe.