How to travel to Novia Scotia
 

We would like to plan a trip to Canada visiting Montreal, Quebec City and Nova Scotia. What is the best way to get to these places. We are starting from Washington DC. We are open to any type of transportation options. From my research we can fly into Montreal directly from Washington, or if we start in NS we will need to fly to Boston and then Halifax. Does this make any sense?

I'm not sure anyone will want to step-up before everyone and declare "THE best way..." is THIS:


When I consider your listed spots, my first impulse is to contemplate flying to Montreal and then doing a one-way vehicle rental returning in Halifax and then flying home from there.

And you might even weigh the costs of a one-way rental from Montreal to Sydney, NS to perhaps better optimize.

By MY standards, a person targeting Nova Scotia should visit Hopewell Cape, NB (not far from Moncton), AND should drive the Cabot Trail in northern NS.

By MY standards a person visiting Montreal should drive to Quebec (City) as well.

So by the time you consider flying into two different Canadian spots, AND doing round-trip circuits from each one, it might not be too far-fetched to instead do a one-way rental from Montreal to Halifax or Sydney.

Of course this depends in large part on how much time you have and what you can afford (one-way rentals can get pricey).

But much of the appeal to both Quebec and Nova Scotia is found when driving around the hinterlands in each. So to cause yourself to cross through the hinterlands will have its upside.

To justify some of my idea, consider this:

Montreal to Quebec City = 156 miles

Halifax to Hopewell Cape = 162 miles


So JUST for those two, you'd make a 312-mile round-trip from Montreal, followed by a 324-mile round-trip from Halifax.


So that is 636 miles that way.

And a straight line (er, well, not 'straight', but 'DIRECT' line) between them is 781 miles, so why would you add the hassle to save just 150 miles.

The car gives you more freedom and fewer deadlines, so at least price the differences.

My two cents, fly to Montreal, stay at least 2 days
drive to Quebec city along the north shore, far less truck traffic, 2 h 54 min (276 km), stay at least 2 days
cross to the south shore at Levis, drive to Fredericton, along the Trans-Canada 5 h 53 min (593 km) yes a longish drive, but you can stop and look at scenic views and stretch your legs, change drivers etc, stay overnight, spend the next day exploring Fredericton
drive to St John NB 1 h 13 min (110 km), stay overnight, explore St John the next day, stay overnight,
next day drive to Hopewell Rocks Park, explore then stay overnight in Moncton, next day drive to Baddeck, on Cape Breton, there's a really nice small hotel on the shore of the lake, no idea what it is called, but have stayed there,
then do the Cabot trail, stay in Sydney overnight, next day go to the Fortress of Louisbourg, overnight in Sydney
drive to Sherbrooke NS, 2 h 59 min (238 km) explore along the way, maybe stay overnight
drive to Halifax along the coast, 2 h 38 min (200 km), stay at least 2 days, fly home from Halifax
I have done several one way rentals and while on the surface it may seem expensive, in reality returning a car to your start point, means seeing the same roads twice, and reduces your vacation time by increasing your driving time, or means adding to the total vacation time by adding 11 h 47 min (1,244 km) to drive Halifax to Montreal, which means at least one stay overnight along the route. So even in a basic motel probably $150 overnight, probably another night in Montreal before your flight out, food and up to two tanks of gas, subtract those amounts from the cost of dropping the car in Halifax and it suddenly is not expensive.
You haven't said how long you plan for this trip, how many are travelling and what time of year, so this is pretty much only a driving plan. I have done the Toronto to the Maritimes drive twice.If this is a one time trip you should consider adding Prince Edward Island.

We are a moderately active 61 & 70 year old couple celebrating my husband's 70th with a long anticipated road trip from Virginia to Nova Scotia. We left our home (road trip!) and worked our way up visiting family and friends along the way, crossing into Canada at Calais on Sept 4. We toured Nova Scotia staying in Annapolis Royal, Wolfville, Halifax, Baddeck, Cheticamp, Antigonish, Advocate Harbor, and Alma leaving Canada on Sept 29. I am blogging the trip (it continues as we head home with stops along the way but the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick part is done) so rather than detailing the trip here I'll post a link to the blog and tell you just that we LOVED Nova Scotia and eastern Canada in general. We used a combination of maps and the GPS to get us where we wanted to go, used ATMs to get cash finding the standard charge on the Canada side to be $3, and would not do anything different in retrospect. We left some things not done and are already talking about going back. I have tried to review all the places we stayed. I use tripadvisor extensively to plan trips and there was only one place (in Cheticamp) that we were not thrilled with and it was acceptable and was not my first choice. I found that many of the places fill up quickly and even making reservations in April for our fall trip was too late to get my first choice in a couple of instances. The free parks pass was wonderful and we found all the National Parks as well as the Provincial Parks we visited to be well run. The Information booths throughout Nova Scotia - amazing! Staffed with knowledgeable, helpful people. Use them! Thank you to all who provided input on this forum to help make this trip such a success.