The Atlantic Provinces (Atlantic Canada) are the four
easternmost provinces of Canada located on the Atlantic:
Newfoundland and Labrador and the three "Maritime Provinces" (or
Maritimes for short) New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island.
The four provinces form a culturally
independent region in Canada, despite their different
characters, in which not only English, but also French and
Celtic influences are clearly noticeable.
The Atlantic
Provinces are a destination for individualists who love the sea
and are looking for scenic beauty on vacation, which can also be
a bit rough. The climate in the Maritimes is temperate thanks to
the strong Atlantic influence and the weather in midsummer is
predominantly mild and pleasant; in Newfoundland and Labrador,
the cold Labrador Current and the lack of higher mountains
determine the predominantly cool and humid climate.
Hardcore individualists can try Labrador, which offers endless,
untouched tundra landscapes with subarctic and arctic climates,
is hardly accessible by road and whose coastal region is home to
Innu and Inuit.
At the time of European colonization of
the region, Labrador was home to Innu and Inuit, while
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward
Island were home to the Beothuk, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Abenaki
peoples, among others. The first Europeans to arrive in the
region were Vikings, who reached Newfoundland and Labrador
around the year 1000. In 1961, Norwegian Helge Ingstad
discovered the remains of a Viking settlement near the town of
L'Anse aux Meadows on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland,
which are now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 1497, John Cabot, an Italian sailor in British service,
landed on Newfoundland, which officially became British in 1583,
and in Labrador. After Cabot discovered large cod deposits off
the coast and the sailors Giovanni da Verrazano and Jacques
Cartier explored the region further - Cartier discovered Prince
Edward Island, among other places - many French people
immigrated to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from the early 17th
century onwards and founded the colony of Acadie. After many
years of military conflict with the British, especially in
Europe, the region fell to England in 1713 with the Treaty of
Utrecht. The French-speaking population was deported in 1755 if
they refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the crown. Farmers
from New England followed, and after 1783 many royalists who did
not want to accept the result of the American War of
Independence also arrived. Cape Breton Island, which had also
become British in 1763, took in emigrants from the Scottish
highlands. New Brunswick became a province and separated from
Nova Scotia after the Acadiens who had been deported years
earlier were repatriated and at the same time there was a wave
of Scottish immigration and later an even larger immigration
from starving Ireland.
When the Canadian Confederation
was founded in 1867, which claimed a certain degree of
independence from Great Britain, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
were part of it from the start. Prince Edward Island followed in
1873.
Newfoundland, which had still been a self-governing
colony at the time of the founding of Canada (1931), did not
join until 1949. The island - for centuries the poorhouse of
Canada - has been one of the most prosperous regions in the
country since the turn of the 21st century thanks to an oil
boom.
New Brunswick
The province, located in the northernmost
Appalachian Mountains, is the only officially bilingual province in
Canada.
River Valley · Appalachian Range · Acadian Coastal ·
Miramichi River · Fundy Coastal
Nova Scotia
The peninsula is a
traditional centre of lobster fishing.
Northumberland Shore · Cape
Breton Island · Eastern Shore · Halifax Metropolitan Region · South
Shore · Yarmouth and Digby · Annapolis Valley · Minas Basin
Prince
Edward Island
The densely populated island offers beaches and lovely
hilly landscapes.
North Cape Coastal Drive · Green Gables Shore · Red
Sands Shore · Charlottetown Metropolitan Region · Points East Coastal
Drive · Magdalen Islands
Newfoundland and Labrador
The
northernmost of the Atlantic provinces comprises two parts that are very
different in terms of landscape, climate and culture.
Newfoundland ·
Labrador · Saint Pierre and Miquelon
New Brunswick:
Fredericton
Saint John
Moncton
Riverview
Dieppe
Miramichi
Quispamsis
Edmundston
Bathurst
Rothesay
Nova Scotia:
Halifax
Antigonish
New Glasgow
Sydney
Yarmouth
Truro
Baddeck
Lunenburg
Amherst
Chéticamp
Prince Edward Island:
Charlottetown
Summerside
Tignish
Saint Louis
Alberton
Cornwall
Montague
Cardigan
Georgetown
Souris
Newfoundland:
St. John's
Corner Brook
Grand Falls-Windsor
Channel-Port-aux-Basques
St.
Anthony
Labrador:
Labrador City
Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Churchill Falls
The Anticosti Island, also located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and
the national park The protected Mingan Archipelago does not belong to
the Atlantic provinces, but to the province of Quebec.
The island
group of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, located south of Newfoundland, is
not Canadian, but a French overseas territory.
Gros Morne National Park was designed an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 for its beautiful views, diverse ecosystem and unique biosphere.
Torngat Mountains National Park is one of the newest addition to Labrador and Newfoundland province of Canada. It covers 9,600 km2 (3,707 sq mi) of pristine lakes, mountains and glaciers.
You can get by well with English everywhere in the Atlantic
provinces.
In New Brunswick, 32% of the population are native
French speakers, in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island around 4%, and
in Labrador and Newfoundland less than 1%. Real opportunities to speak
French only arise in the north and east of New Brunswick and in parts of
Digby County (Nova Scotia).
Even where French is the dominant
native language, English is usually spoken at a very high level as a
second language. In cases of doubt, people greet people with "Bonjour,
hello" and then present their concerns in the language they speak
better.
In eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, many
residents speak Scottish or Irish Gaelic in addition to English, a few
hundred of them at native level.
By plane
The most important airport in the Atlantic provinces for
international traffic is Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
in Nova Scotia, which is served not only by Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa,
Boston, JFK and Newark, but also by Frankfurt, London and Reykjavik. St.
John's International Airport (YYT) in Newfoundland is served by Newark,
Dublin and London, among others.
The international airports in
Gander, Stephenville (both Newfoundland), Fredericton, Moncton (both New
Brunswick) and Charlottetown Airport (Prince Edward Island) are only of
regional importance. In addition to those mentioned here, there are
several smaller airports in all four provinces.
For a visit to
Labrador, it is generally recommended to travel by air. The airport in
Happy Valley - Goose Bay is served by flights from Halifax and
Newfoundland. You can also travel to Labrador by car, but this takes 1
hour, for example. For example, from Montreal to Labrador City takes
more than 16 hours, and if you want to go to the sea, e.g. to
Cartwright, it takes 30 hours.
By train
The state-owned
Canadian railway company Via Rail operates the Ocean Line in New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which connects Montreal and Quebec with the
following cities:
in New Brunswick: Campbellton, Charlo, Jacquet
River, Petit Rocher, Bathurst, Miramichi, Rogersville, Moncton,
Sackville
in Nova Scotia: Amherst, Springhill Junction, Truro,
Halifax
The journey from Montreal to Halifax takes around 22
hours and costs $233.86 one way for 2 adults ($660.20 in a 2-bed cabin;
as of summer 2015).
By bus
In the Atlantic provinces, numerous
bus companies offer intercity connections. Here is a selection:
MaritimeBus. Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick.
Nova
Scotia
DRL. Newfoundland.
Newfoundland
On the road
In
most parts of the Atlantic provinces, your own (rental) car is not only
the cheapest but also the most practical means of transport. Except for
Labrador, there are motorways in all regions that allow you to get
around quickly, including the Trans-Canada Highway, which - interrupted
only by the Channel-Port-aux-Basques - North Sydney ferry connection -
runs from St. John's in Newfoundland via Truro, Amherst (both Nova
Scotia), Moncton and Fredericton (both New Brunswick) to the Canadian
west coast. Traffic density in this part of Canada is low - especially
for Central European travellers - and driving is quite relaxed. In the
Atlantic provinces there are some of the continent's dream roads,
including the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. If you are not in a
hurry and do not have a child in the back seat who gets embarrassed by
cornering, the best thing to do in this region is to drive on coastal
roads, as they are always extraordinarily beautiful. A vacation in the
Atlantic provinces can actually be spent driving one coastal road after
another, stopping every now and then to take in the beauty of the rocky
shores, beaches and cliffs in peace.
Labrador can be reached by
land from Baie-Comeau, Qc on Route 389. The road is paved except for two
sections of approximately 100 kilometers each. From Labrador City, the
Trans Labrador Highway, which is paved throughout, leads to Happy Valley
- Goose Bay. From there, the Labrador Coastal Highway leads via Red Bay
to Blanc Sablon, Qc. The first and last 80 kilometers of it are paved.
The majority of the coastal towns can only be reached by plane or by
water.
On the water
The following ferry connections exist to
and within the Atlantic provinces:
Portland (Maine) – Yarmouth (Nova
Scotia), Nova Star Ferries
North Sydney (Nova Scotia) – Argentia
(Newfoundland), Marine Atlantic
North Sydney (Nova Scotia) – Port au
Basque (Newfoundland), Marine Atlantic
Blanc Sablon (Québec) – Saint
Barbe (Newfoundland), Labrador Marine
Saint John (New Brunswick) –
Digby (Nova Scotia), Northumberland Ferries
Caribou (Nova Scotia) –
Wood Islands (Prince Edward Island), Northumberland Ferries
Caribou
(Nova Scotia) – Pictou Island (Nova Scotia), Pictou Island Charters
Souris (Prince Edward Island) – Magdalen Islands (Prince Edward Island),
CTMA
For the curious
Visit museums to study the culture and history of
the indigenous people, the Acadians, the Scottish and Irish immigrants,
and regional seafaring.
For the connoisseurs
Drive along
coastal roads and stop at every beach, every viewpoint, every bay to
admire the landscape.
Drive from lighthouse to lighthouse.
Walk on
the beach. Swimming is only possible on the Northumberland Shore because
the water is mostly ice cold.
Whale watching. In addition to fin
whales, humpback whales, blue whales, and porpoises, the waters around
the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland are also home to dolphins and
seals. Whale watching is offered on Zodiacs (turbo inflatable boats) and
on excursion boats; here and there you can even snorkel with whales.
For those hungry for exercise
Kayaking.
Hiking. Beautiful and
well-documented trails can be found primarily in the national and
provincial parks. Cycling is very popular in the region, but due to the
many hills, it is more for advanced cyclists.
Motorcycling. The
coastal roads are full of curves, and New Brunswick and Cape Breton
Island also have attractive low mountain ranges.
Seafood dishes such as lobster (steamed or on a lobster roll) are
popular with tourists and locals alike, but also fish and chips and
other fish dishes, seafood chowder, crayfish, crabs and mussels.
In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, traditional Acadian cuisine can be
found here and there, with dishes such as poutine râpée (potato
dumplings filled with pork) and rappie pie (a stew or pie-like potato
dish filled with meat).
A typical dish for the Annapolis Valley
in Nova Scotia is hodge podge, a stew made from fresh garden vegetables.
Seaweed (dulse) is also traditionally used in regional cuisine,
often as a snack to nibble on. Blueberries grow in abundance in the
region and are also often used in regional dishes. Maple sugar, which is
made from maple syrup, is often used as a sweetener.
A must-try
on Prince Edward Island is the ice cream products from
Charlottetown-based manufacturer Cows Creamery. A particularly popular
type of ice cream, which is found almost exclusively in the Atlantic
provinces, apart from New England, is grape-nuts (grape-nuts are not
nuts or grape seeds, but a breakfast cereal made from wheat and barley).
In all parts of the region - except Labrador - wine is grown at
least here and there. There are 3 wineries on Prince Edward Island, 5 on
Newfoundland, and 13 in New Brunswick. Nova Scotia leads the way with 32
wineries, the most famous of which are in the Annapolis Valley.
As in the USA, the serving and sale of alcoholic beverages in Canada is
also subject to strict government supervision. In all four provinces,
alcohol may not be sold to people under the age of 19. Anyone who wants
to buy alcoholic beverages outside of a restaurant can only do so in
state-run liquor stores; in Nova Scotia, these are often connected to
supermarkets. The most liberal regulations are in New Brunswick, where
licensed small wineries and breweries are also allowed to sell directly,
and designated restaurants are entitled to allow guests to drink wine
they have brought with them. Alcohol should generally only be consumed
where it is served, or in the privacy of a hotel room, for example.
Anyone who drinks in public places such as parks or beaches is
committing an offense throughout the Atlantic provinces; the same
applies to drivers who find an unopened bottle of alcoholic beverage in
the passenger compartment; such bottles should always be placed in the
trunk.
In larger towns - especially those that are a bit more touristy - you will find taverns, alehouses, cafes, bars, pubs, wine bars, lounges and nightclubs everywhere, many of which also offer live music. On Cape Breton Island, it is worth keeping an eye out for places that play Irish or Scottish folk music in the evenings.
Crime rates are low, especially in less populated areas. Major risks to beware of include getting lost in the wilderness, being caught in bad weather in remote locations, or colliding with wild animals in your car, especially at dusk or in the dark, bearing in mind that a moose can weigh as much as an old VW Golf, 800 kg.
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have mild summers
with daytime highs of 23 degrees. It is slightly cooler in the southern
tip of Nova Scotia, and slightly warmer in inland New Brunswick. Rain is
frequent, but usually only in the form of short showers; the majority of
summer days are sunny. Newfoundland has average daytime highs of 16 to
20 degrees in mid-summer, with the St. John's region being slightly
warmer than the west and north. If you get cold easily, it's best to
visit Newfoundland in July or August, as summer is very short here.
Winters are mild in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia
and the coastal regions of New Brunswick; because the ocean stores the
sun's heat well into winter, average temperatures are rarely below -10
degrees Celsius even in January. If you like icy and snowy weather, it's
best to travel to the interior of New Brunswick, where -15 degrees is
normal and average in January.
Labrador is much further north and
has a subarctic or arctic climate. In the interior, i.e. around Labrador
City, July temperatures are similar to those in Newfoundland, but in
January you have to be prepared for average temperatures of -22 degrees.
Winters are slightly milder on the coast, but even in midday summer
temperatures are usually only 15 degrees.