Maritimes Trip Wrap-up

2026-08-11
PA

This is where I get to look back on the trip and talk about whatever didn't make the cut earlier. First, let's look at the numbers:

• Total driving miles: 3343
• Days spent: 15
• Nights in a tent: 0
• Canadian National Parks: 3 (bringing my total to 4 of 48)
• Other parks, recreation areas, museums, etc.: 7
• Lighthouses: 5
• Provinces Visited: 3 of 10
• Pictures taken: 976 with my camera, plus a smattering with the cell phone
• Entry fees not paid due to free summer: $92 CAD per person
• Gallon jugs of water used: 10 (plus copious water from other sources)

This itinerary was originally slated for 2024, but my medical issues prevented us from doing the trip. At that time, we just visited New Hampshire at the selected inn and saw the area. The slightly-revised itinerary we used this time added a day and several stops to the original plan and I think it was overall a bit better (of course). However, it was a fully-planned schedule with all rooms booked beforehand rather than a plan-as-you-go roadtrip. Both work fine, and I was happy not to have to plan beyond "which of these hikes do we want to do this morning?" I'm also learning to add some slack time to the schedule, especially on a planned trip. Sometimes we used that time to go on another hike, other times it was used for laundry or shopping/blogging.

This was definitely more of a vacation than a camping trip, especially since we didn't bring the camping gear. I didn't have a guess on the weather in Canada (now I can say there were very strong winds and thunderstorms at times as well as some very cool nights). It was relatively easy to find hotels near all of our destinations, which is more challenging near US national parks. Some of them were perfect, like the Cornerstone, but most were more tourist town than peaceful. Overall the food was better than what I normally consume on a road trip, with at least one meal a day at a restaurant and often breakfast supplied by the hotel. Many of the restaurants were pubs, but in the cities we went a bit more upscale. I think we always shared a meal though; we didn't always have a fridge or an opportunity to consume leftovers. Val did not object to my hotel-only plan despite being forced to spend seven consecutive days in a tent on our first trip. Go figure.

Speaking of weather, we didn't always have AC in the rooms. That didn't turn out to be a problem though; even in some rooms with AC we'd use the windows. In the rooms where we did use the AC, I'd set the temperature to 23 C which is a good compromise for us when we're sleeping. However, the temperature never got up that high in the room just because it wasn't hot enough outside. It was much warmer in the States, and we had to rely on the AC to keep it cool as well as drown out the sound of the water drip from the AC upstairs.

I was surprised how few US license plates we saw in Fundy and Nova Scotia. PEI really tried to make up for it. I guess the Island is where people go to the beach with their families. It really does have a New Jersey Shore vibe.