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Road trip, NYC to Nova Scotia, PEI. Home to Australia via San Francisco.

Road trip, NYC to Nova Scotia, PEI. Home to Australia via San Francisco.

Old Jul 24th, 2022, 07:38 PM
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Road trip, NYC to Nova Scotia, PEI. Home to Australia via San Francisco.

Further to my previous post we have made a couple of firm decisions and will now fine tune the details. We will be travelling from Australia to NYC (Direct from Sydney b/class) May 23 2023, we have booked 3 nights to catch up with friends and 'wander'. It will be our 4th trip to NYC. We will then pick up a mid size RV and head north.

As we have been to the States many times and to the West Coast of Canada, we really want to explore the East Coast. Our interests are largely beautiful scenery, walking, eating & drinking local produce and shopping

So we're thinking that after collecting the RV, which we know can take a very long time, we will only go to the region of Woodbury Common and Storm King. Figuring this 'slow' start will be a fun way to begin, stock up the RV and take a good walk around Storm King Art Center. After this we will have a couple of day on the road towards Nova Scotia, we have done a driving holiday in New England previously, so will try to find a fun place each night. I'm looking at joining https://harvesthosts.com/ basically you have access to Wineries, Breweries and Sites to free camp, which is very much 'our thing'.

We're giving ourselves 3 nights in both Nova Scotia and PEI before heading back to NYC via Quebec and Montreal. We will have at least 2 nights in both these cities. The benefit of the RV and the free camping we can be reasonably flexible with how long in each place. We will finish with 2-3 more nights in NYC before home via San Francisco (3 nights booked)

All these flights have been booked using FF points, b/class. Please note, driving in the States has become second nature and long distances are all relative.....remember we live in Australia, where we are happy to drive 100kms to have lunch. ;-)

I'd love to hear suggestions of not to be missed places to visit, dine at etc. I'm researching like crazy and have found a couple of great blogs about how to spend 2/3 nights in each of our choices.

I hope this finds you all well.........its so nice to be even 'thinking' about traveling again
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Old Jul 25th, 2022, 12:53 AM
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Dreamer,

3 nights in NS & PEI is not much time. Many tourist places ie restaurants, stores, etc. outside of the larger places on PEI that would be Charlottetown and Summerside will be closed. Most do not open until mid June, but the beautiful island scenery is always open. Do not misunderstand me business do stay open for most of the year since the island has 150K population. But the business that tourist go to will not open since students are still in school and foreign workers have not arrived.

I posted a lot of information here

Halifax and PEI

Please review and let me know if you have any questions. Do not miss the National Parks in Cavendish, Brackley Beach and Greenwich they will be free to enter when you visit.

Tom
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Old Jul 25th, 2022, 02:05 AM
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will do and thank you
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Old Jul 26th, 2022, 12:12 PM
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aussiedreamer, do you mean three nights in NS and three nights in PEI, for a total of six, or three nights divided between the two provinces? There other question that comes to mind is how you will be arriving from Maine? Ferry to Yarmouth NS or the land border into New Brunswick?


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Old Jul 26th, 2022, 02:18 PM
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Hmmmmmmmmmmph...

If it were me, coming halfway across the world... I think I would spend two nights on PEI and four in NS.


That still certainly isn't a grand amount of time, but PEI is about 150 miles tip to tip while the path to drive from top to bottom in NS is about 450 miles.


Outside of that, if you click on my name here, you'll find lots and lots of NS posts that I've answered over the years, and from those, perhaps various specific scenic spots will come to you.


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Old Jul 26th, 2022, 11:35 PM
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For free camping in Maine check out this web site:

https://www.cruiseamerica.com/rv-adv...cking-in-maine

For free camping in New Hampshire: https://www.campendium.com/new-hampshire/free-camping

To find this type of information just Google "free camping in" + the name of the state or province..



Last edited by Michael; Jul 26th, 2022 at 11:42 PM.
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Old Jul 28th, 2022, 09:40 PM
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Thank you all for the great advice, yes 3 nights for each of NS & PEI.
re: There other question that comes to mind is how you will be arriving from Maine? Ferry to Yarmouth NS or the land border into New Brunswick?
I had yet to 'discover' the ferry option.......love your opinion, we would probably love the ferry but appears to be quite expensive.
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Old Jul 29th, 2022, 09:55 PM
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The ferry option is entirely absurd for most NS tourists... for once you get to NS, you're still miles and miles from the parts that most will want to visit... while you can cover a little of that during the drive up and around.
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Old Jul 30th, 2022, 09:16 AM
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aussiedreamer, the ferry runs from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. https://www.ferries.ca/thecat/overview/ It's a 3.5 hour crossing, but there is a significant disadvantage which many people do not recognize until they look at the schedule. Eastbound, there is one sailing a day, which arrives in Yarmouth around 6:30 pm. All passengers then have to go through Canadian border formalities, and by the time they're through all those jigs and reels, most people end up staying the night in Yarmouth, which is not the most appealing place in our province. And if you only have three nights in Nova Scotia, the Yarmouth area would chew up one of them.

As NWM points out, Yarmouth is a long way from where many people want to go, but either route from Yarmouth to Halifax (101 north and east through the Annapolis Valley and 103 south and east along the south shore of NS) offers attractions: Annapolis Royal and Wolfville/Grand Pré, for example, along the 101, and Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, and a lot of beaches along the 103.

On the other hand, crossing at a land border into New Brunswick will similarly offer you interesting things to do along the way to Nova Scotia. You'll just have to priorize what you most want to see.

One resource that I can point you to is the Doers and Dreamers Guide, which is published by Tourism Nova Scotia. https://www.novascotia.com/travel-info/travel-guide

In addition to being able to download the guide, that site also suggests several three-day itineraries within the provence.




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Old Aug 4th, 2022, 02:45 PM
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So, I've had a thought.....hope I don't get 'slammed'.

As we've been to NYC a few times and driven up from there as far as Wells ME, I'm looking at different options. Remembering a part of this trip is to SHOP, a fav' past time for us Aussies visiting the States, I'd like to visit the outlets on Long Island. So I was thinking after a few days with friends in NYC we will need to collect the RV in New Jersey (transfers organised with RV company), so after the pickup routine we could drive to Riverhead on Long Island. Please note husband is quite adept at driving in the States, in fact we love 'finding' our way in new places. We would stay (I've found a couple of RV campsites, if someone wants to suggest the best, that would be great) 2 nights, have a good shop, stock the RV etc, then take the Cross Sound Ferry over to Connecticut. Then head to Kennebunkport for a night and then up to the border........undecided if we should cross that day or wait till early the morning to avoid lines??

Googlemaps is telling me its a couple of hours drive from the depot in NJ to Riverhead and about 5hrs from LI to Kennebunkport inc. ferry crossing. I know this isn't completely accurate but do you think ts a reasonable estimate?

Thanks as always
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Old Aug 4th, 2022, 02:53 PM
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Originally Posted by NorthwestMale
Hmmmmmmmmmmph...

If it were me, coming halfway across the world... I think I would spend two nights on PEI and four in NS.


That still certainly isn't a grand amount of time, but PEI is about 150 miles tip to tip while the path to drive from top to bottom in NS is about 450 miles.


Outside of that, if you click on my name here, you'll find lots and lots of NS posts that I've answered over the years, and from those, perhaps various specific scenic spots will come to you.
Thank you NWM.......I've read all our great suggestions and have researched lots of your suggestion's. I am thinking 4 for NS and 3 for PEI, does make more sense
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Old Aug 7th, 2022, 08:06 AM
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Originally Posted by aussiedreamer
Thank you NWM.......I've read all our great suggestions and have researched lots of your suggestion's. I am thinking 4 for NS and 3 for PEI, does make more sense

Hi, yes, you are nudging your way in a good direction.
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