The Perfect One Week Itinerary To Get The Best of The Maritimes By Car

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The Maritimes is a region in Canada in the East side that consists of provinces New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS), and Prince Edward Island (PEI). Why are they called the Maritimes? Most likely because they’re by the coast and surrounded by the water facing the Atlantic Ocean. I explored the three provinces on a one week trip with my two best friends from university. We drove from Ontario crossing Quebec and finally reaching New Brunswick. We stopped at some places along the way going to and coming back.

These provinces by land is smaller compared to Ontario, the province where I live. It was nice to know that it’s doable by car though the destinations seemed like a stretch it was quite relaxing. You pass by hundreds of hundreds of white and yellow birch trees and the road winding to avoid the small bodies of water. My friends and I took turns driving (and napping at the back seat) and we definitely drove quite hefty miles on these provinces. In the morning, during the day, and at night. We drove non-stop and also explored non-stop. I’m going to give you highlights of each provinces in the upcoming posts!

New Brunswick for 2 Days

The gateway to the Maritimes, it’s the first province you’ll encounter coming from Quebec. This province is the bilingual pride of Canada because it is the only province that declared both French and English as their official languages! It was amazing to see the two languages everywhere. On restaurant’s menu, street signs, brochures, etc.

Fredericton is the capital of New Brunswick but Moncton has the highest population second is Saint John (often get confused with Newfoundland’s St. John’s). The big cities have great colonial architecture and rich in Acadian culture. A lot of history in this province on Acadia, the region of New France during French settlement back in the 17th century. There’s awesome nature and outdoor activities here beyond the cities like popular park destinations along the coast of Bay of Fundy. Fundy National Park of Canada being the most popular one.

Prince Edward Island for 2 Days

My personal favourite province out of the three. Why do you ask, it’s because an island girl always always love island destinations. Psych! It’s because I was the Prince Edward Island driver so I got to know this island really well. Plus I got to drive on Confederation Bridge. Canada’s longest bridge and the only means of going in the island from the Mainland and out of the island. Imagine if this bridge didn’t exist and my friends and I had to ferry with our rental car. Oh man, we be on a struggle bus relying on ferry schedule without the luxury of going around the island on our own time.

The two days I was here was full of laid back travel. Charlottetown, the capital, is super cute with colonial architecture and the colourful seaside houses on the island. Coastal drives are my absolute favourite and seeing the Atlantic ocean beside me was breathtaking. The island itself is tiny so you can actually go around the whole island on a day trip but we ended exploring for two days to get the best out of it.

Nova Scotia for 3 Days

Nova Scotia is the largest province out of the three by land in the Maritimes region. It stretches more east than Prince Edward Island. This was the last province we drive to after PEI. What we did it spend most of our time close to the capital Halifax and the surrounding area. That way we can quickly drive up to New Brunswick to come back to Ontario. We also had a friend here in Wolfsville so we spent another day here with her.