Nova Scotia

NCWriter wrote:
From Roanoke, if you want to avoid the whole New York and Boston traffic corridor, head up 81 to:

Interstate 78 East toward Allentown - 51 miles to US Hwy 22 East,17 miles to PA Hwy 33 North toward Stroudsburg. 20 miles to US Hwy 209 North about 40 miles.

(We stopped for the night at Milford area - Montague, NJ at Rockview Valley Campground; Chose it only for the location but might not stay there again. It was right at the border where PA, NJ and NY come together. OK but somewhat deserted.)

Interstate 84 East (partial toll road) about 176 miles through Connecticut to Interstate 90 East about 12 miles to Interstate 290 East(partial toll road) about 21 miles to:

Interstate 495 North about 56 miles (this takes you way around Boston) to:

Interstate 95 North (partial toll), about 24 miles passing through New Hampshire into Maine. You can stay on 95 if you want to skip Maine. Enter Canada and get on Highway 2 to Moncton.


Around Moncton, you can make your choice to head up to Prince Edward Island via the bridge first (we used the bridge both ways, on & off the island), or drive to Nova Scotia first via highway 104. You could tour Nova Scotia, then take the ferry to PEI, leave via bridge, and head home.

There are more leisurely options - We got off 95 in Maine at Exit 7 for York and stayed on US 1 for almost all our coastal drive and really enjoyed Maine and Acadia NP for a couple of weeks. Very scenic of course.

We also chose to go to Lubec, Maine crossing the border into Canada onto Campobello Island, then took a couple of fun ferries to reach the New Brunswick mainland via Deer Island. Another faster option would have been to cross the border up at St. Stephen and be on the New Brunswick mainland right away.

The major highways in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are excellent so you can make good time.

If you have the time to linger, New Brunswick's Fundy coast has great things to do such as drive the scenic Fundy Parkway and walk around the base of the Hopewell Rocks before the tides rush in. If you wish, you can take a ferry from the city of St. John to Digby, Nova Scotia.

Depending on the time you have, I would recommend spending a few days visiting Halifax to see the Titanic cemetery, maritime museum and Citadel atop the hill. Shubie Campground in Dartmouth is very convenient for touring the city.

There are lots of scenic places in NS - and Cape Breton Island especially has a host of things to see and do, worth at least a week. You might want to consider devoting a two-week trip to just Maine. Another trip for Nova Scotia. Then return another time for New Brunswick & PEI.

Hello, thanks again for the info,,,,,planning to use your directions...can you tell me if the pilot/flying j's have gas in the truck fuel lanes and if there are any along this route...I'm towing and need all the room I can get to refuel....thanks...

We rode over and back to PEI on the bridge. Going was free, coming back cost us $55.

Children: Beginning June 1, 2009, U.S. and Canadian citizen children under age 16 arriving by land or sea from contiguous territory may also present an original or copy of his or her birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, a Naturalization Certificate, or a Canadian Citizenship Card.

We stayed in the central part of the island so we could use our toad to go all four directions easily. I think our campground was in Oyster Bed Bridge and was very nice.

To answer question re waterfront campground, we stayed at Linkletter Provincial Park in PEI on the south shore a couple of nights. It's not really a swimming beach but fun to see the tidal changes. You can walk way out on the mud flats at low tide. The CG itself is really just a grassy field with electricity hookups, but friendly folks. Fairly close to the Confederation Bridge.

I believe the National Park on the north coast has campgrounds and there are pretty swimming beaches on that coast. Water may be colder than most of us southerners are used to.

We loved the New Glasgow Highlands RV park another poster mentioned. I would stay there to explore the island and make day trips to the beach and sights. There are a lot of family friendly activities in that Green Gables area.

Don't know the answer on the kids and passports.

We visited NS in 2005 with our 25' TT. Took the ferry from St. Johns, NB to Digby, NS. Traveled there for about 2 weeks, including Cape Breton. I have names & phone numbers of some of the campgrounds. If you'd like them, send me a PM with your E-Mail address and I'll send them to you

NCWriter wrote:
From Roanoke, if you want to avoid the whole New York and Boston traffic corridor, head up 81 to:

Interstate 78 East toward Allentown - 51 miles to US Hwy 22 East,17 miles to PA Hwy 33 North toward Stroudsburg. 20 miles to US Hwy 209 North about 40 miles.

(We stopped for the night at Milford area - Montague, NJ at Rockview Valley Campground; Chose it only for the location but might not stay there again. It was right at the border where PA, NJ and NY come together. OK but somewhat deserted.)

Interstate 84 East (partial toll road) about 176 miles through Connecticut to Interstate 90 East about 12 miles to Interstate 290 East(partial toll road) about 21 miles to:

Interstate 495 North about 56 miles (this takes you way around Boston) to:

Interstate 95 North (partial toll), about 24 miles passing through New Hampshire into Maine. You can stay on 95 if you want to skip Maine. Enter Canada and get on Highway 2 to Moncton.


Around Moncton, you can make your choice to head up to Prince Edward Island via the bridge first (we used the bridge both ways, on & off the island), or drive to Nova Scotia first via highway 104. You could tour Nova Scotia, then take the ferry to PEI, leave via bridge, and head home.

There are more leisurely options - We got off 95 in Maine at Exit 7 for York and stayed on US 1 for almost all our coastal drive and really enjoyed Maine and Acadia NP for a couple of weeks. Very scenic of course.

We also chose to go to Lubec, Maine crossing the border into Canada onto Campobello Island, then took a couple of fun ferries to reach the New Brunswick mainland via Deer Island. Another faster option would have been to cross the border up at St. Stephen and be on the New Brunswick mainland right away.

The major highways in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are excellent so you can make good time.

If you have the time to linger, New Brunswick's Fundy coast has great things to do such as drive the scenic Fundy Parkway and walk around the base of the Hopewell Rocks before the tides rush in. If you wish, you can take a ferry from the city of St. John to Digby, Nova Scotia.

Depending on the time you have, I would recommend spending a few days visiting Halifax to see the Titanic cemetery, maritime museum and Citadel atop the hill. Shubie Campground in Dartmouth is very convenient for touring the city.

There are lots of scenic places in NS - and Cape Breton Island especially has a host of things to see and do, worth at least a week. You might want to consider devoting a two-week trip to just Maine. Another trip for Nova Scotia. Then return another time for New Brunswick & PEI.

Wonderful info....2 quick things - 1)could you maybe recommend a campground in the PEI area preferably beach front but not set on it. We will be renting a car to see the sites..usually use Enterprise. 2)Linda and I have current passports but what about our 18 and 11 year old grandaughters..do you know if birth certificates will do?

From Roanoke, if you want to avoid the whole New York and Boston traffic corridor, head up 81 to:

Interstate 78 East toward Allentown - 51 miles to US Hwy 22 East,17 miles to PA Hwy 33 North toward Stroudsburg. 20 miles to US Hwy 209 North about 40 miles.

(We stopped for the night at Milford area - Montague, NJ at Rockview Valley Campground; Chose it only for the location but might not stay there again. It was right at the border where PA, NJ and NY come together. OK but somewhat deserted.)

Interstate 84 East (partial toll road) about 176 miles through Connecticut to Interstate 90 East about 12 miles to Interstate 290 East(partial toll road) about 21 miles to:

Interstate 495 North about 56 miles (this takes you way around Boston) to:

Interstate 95 North (partial toll), about 24 miles passing through New Hampshire into Maine. You can stay on 95 if you want to skip Maine. Enter Canada and get on Highway 2 to Moncton.


Around Moncton, you can make your choice to head up to Prince Edward Island via the bridge first (we used the bridge both ways, on & off the island), or drive to Nova Scotia first via highway 104. You could tour Nova Scotia, then take the ferry to PEI, leave via bridge, and head home.

There are more leisurely options - We got off 95 in Maine at Exit 7 for York and stayed on US 1 for almost all our coastal drive and really enjoyed Maine and Acadia NP for a couple of weeks. Very scenic of course.

We also chose to go to Lubec, Maine crossing the border into Canada onto Campobello Island, then took a couple of fun ferries to reach the New Brunswick mainland via Deer Island. Another faster option would have been to cross the border up at St. Stephen and be on the New Brunswick mainland right away.

The major highways in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are excellent so you can make good time.

If you have the time to linger, New Brunswick's Fundy coast has great things to do such as drive the scenic Fundy Parkway and walk around the base of the Hopewell Rocks before the tides rush in. If you wish, you can take a ferry from the city of St. John to Digby, Nova Scotia.

Depending on the time you have, I would recommend spending a few days visiting Halifax to see the Titanic cemetery, maritime museum and Citadel atop the hill. Shubie Campground in Dartmouth is very convenient for touring the city.

There are lots of scenic places in NS - and Cape Breton Island especially has a host of things to see and do, worth at least a week. You might want to consider devoting a two-week trip to just Maine. Another trip for Nova Scotia. Then return another time for New Brunswick & PEI.

If you like boats then the ferry is OK for going to PEI, but it will be more expensive than the bridge. I think a must see is Fort Louisburg just south of Sydney in the northern part of Nova Scotia.

We went to PEI and Nova Scotia a few years ago. I would recommend that for Nova Scotia that you have a updated GPS or a current map available from visitors center, as road markings and directions we found out to be bad. AS for getting to PEI island, you have the choice of the ferry or the bridge. You pay to get off the island, ferry is by the length of your rig, and bridge is a flat rate. We saved about $30 by leaving on the bridge. At Anne of Green Gables stayed at New Glasgow Highland campground and liked it very well. They even had free passes to Green Gables for campground guest. Nice clean place with good size sites and lots of trees.