One day in Halifax

We are a group of six, one with limited mobility. We are tentatively planning to rent a car for part of the day. What are the must see places? How is the parking near downtown if we want to spend a portion of our day there?:cool::cool:

One of most beautiful places in Nova Scotia is Peggy's Cove. You will need to drive there.

Halifax itself is very hilly. We usually go up the hill to citadel to watch the city from above. There is parking there. Then go down and walk along the ocean.

Maritime museum (inside and outside) is interesting to visit.

First time we walked around the city first (but if mobility is an issue I believe they have something like HOHO busses) and then had ships tour to Peggy's Cove and Titanic (Fair Lawn?) cemetery.

I would not rent a car unless you are going out of the downtown area. It would cost less just to take a taxi to Citadel Hill. A car cannot go along the waterfront. There are parking garages downtown but parking is at a premium.

There is a HOHO bus which is linked to in the link below. However it is quite expensive.

You would all likely enjoy taking the fun (cheesy) Harbour Hopper tour. It is a great way to have a look around from both land and sea.

This document has lots of information to help you: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BjAtDscML-9Ce3VWUUsOrsVhPL7KIxb7Go_9SRi82dE/edit

Following!

Have you or will you consider at all booking a private tour ?..... Our group of six from our roll call had the most amazing tour with Paul McNeal of Halifax Historical Titanic Tours....one of the best private tours offered in Halifax and for good reason. He books up far ahead and fast...again AMAZING !!

Thank you for all of your wonderful suggestions. :):)

Paul McNeil does a very good tour in Halifax. Very informative

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One of most beautiful places in Nova Scotia is Peggy's Cove. You will need to drive there.

Halifax itself is very hilly. We usually go up the hill to citadel to watch the city from above. There is parking there. Then go down and walk along the ocean.

Maritime museum (inside and outside) is interesting to visit.

First time we walked around the city first (but if mobility is an issue I believe they have something like HOHO busses) and then had ships tour to Peggy's Cove and Titanic (Fair Lawn?) cemetery.

Hi Tatka,

From Ed & Bev from the 2017 sailing.

So nice to have met you.

Ditto on your description of Halifax. We enjoyed many of the areas you described in your listing except for one.

We did like Peggy's Cove since we live near the sea and enjoy the water. But we are disappointed on how crowded the Cove is with tourist like us and also private, limos and Buses. The day we were there it was quite over runned.

We were also disappointed with the lunch that was included at the restaurant connected with the tour. The quality of the selected lobster lunch was disappointed. Cold and Dry and very hard to take apart. I wonder if this is the way it is normally or because of the large group of buses. I love lobster and know how to handle it and this was not normal. I wonder if it was ordered as a separate sitdown guest the quality would have been better.

We have had lunches or meals as part of a tours and haven't been disappointed and even surprised of the quality.

But the tour guide of the Cove was very nice and informative with the history of the area. It was a delightful experience.

Unfortunately since the lunch was not great we order on our arrival back at the ship room service as a added lunch (meal).

Once again, Hello!

Pleasure was all mine!

We had a great cruise and meeting!

I am also missing QM2.

Sorry for this experience. We did have several busses, but it wasn't bad. We do like secluded places, but it's such an attraction. Our cruise when we went to PG was in later September, and weather was not the best, but cooperated.

In St John, NB we managed to lose crowds completely by driving to Hopewell Rocks. Ships don't offer shorex to there.

Maritime Museum right on the waterfront isn't hard to get to or enjoy with limited mobility... can always take cab and there are places for lunch nearby. IMHO Peggy's Cove can be over rated and later in the cruising season you run risk of fog which rather dulls the experience. But renting a car to stay in town would be a lot of hassle, mainly because it's the downtown area with traffic, parking issues etc. Private tour would be the way to go

Pier 39 is a wonderful Immigration Museum. You should dock within easy walking distance.

Pier 39 is a wonderful Immigration Museum. You should dock within easy walking distance.

The Canadian Museum of Immigration is at Pier 21 and is well worth a visit.

https://pier21.ca/home

There is no Pier 39, although Berth 39 is part of the South Container Port.

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The Canadian Museum of Immigration is at Pier 21 and is well worth a visit.

 

https://pier21.ca/home

 

There is no Pier 39, although Berth 39 is part of the South Container Port.

 

 

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Thank you for the correction. I meant Pier 21 and it IS a great museum.

On 8/17/2018 at 1:43 PM, Ashland said:

Have you or will you consider at all booking a private tour ?..... Our group of six from our roll call had the most amazing tour with Paul McNeal of Halifax Historical Titanic Tours....one of the best private tours offered in Halifax and for good reason. He books up far ahead and fast...again AMAZING !!

I would second a tour with Paul.  His tour was absolutely amazing and we feel like we saw SO much of Halifax and a bit of Fisherman's Cove, where we had a terrific lunch. You might have to share the tour, but if you are the first to reserve, you have first choice in the seats you want.

We second the Peggy's Cove.  I had pretty bad mobility issues a year or so ago, and found (while rated moderate) Peggy's Cove manageable.  I've never taken the path to the lighthouse, but saw a great view from the road.   They DO caution about not climbing the rocks.  They also have a few benches to rest.

They also have a restaurant near the bus drop off, and the last time we had lunch there.

For some up to date Halifax information for cruisers check this out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BjAtDscML-9Ce3VWUUsOrsVhPL7KIxb7Go_9SRi82dE/edit

deciding on a halifax tour for next september --anyone take a tall ship cruise on the silva ?

how is murphys restaurant for lobster ??  thanks for any help

arl_nocaps

If you wish a plain steamed or boiled lobster then any place is good. Murphy's is a restaurant for tourists right on the waterfront, but since it has a large volume the lobster should be fresh (not hanging around in the tank for days.)

For Peggy's Cove there is a take out truck which cooks fresh lobster to order. That is a great way to have it rather than at the huge, touristy Sou'wester Restaurant.

On 8/17/2018 at 2:43 PM, Ashland said:

Have you or will you consider at all booking a private tour ?..... Our group of six from our roll call had the most amazing tour with Paul McNeal of Halifax Historical Titanic Tours....one of the best private tours offered in Halifax and for good reason. He books up far ahead and fast...again AMAZING !!

Ashland, thanks for the info.   I was in touch with Paul and have arrangements to join Emerson in July for that tour.  Paul was fully committed but has a group of highly competent drivers to assist.  Looking forward to seeing Halifax again.

Many of you have shared your experience with excursions. So helpful! Can you give feedback on the ships process for people who do not book their tours?  We have a HA cruise scheduled for end of September, New England and Canada, and have booked several tours which involve tenders(Newport, Bar Harbor, Sydney). Any suggestions or thoughts on this?

Thank You

Jan, you may get more help by posting this on the board for HA or the Roll Call for your cruise. Go back to the main forum and poke around: here

4 hours ago, Jan3 said:

Many of you have shared your experience with excursions. So helpful! Can you give feedback on the ships process for people who do not book their tours?  We have a HA cruise scheduled for end of September, New England and Canada, and have booked several tours which involve tenders(Newport, Bar Harbor, Sydney). Any suggestions or thoughts on this?

Thank You

As Maryann said above, you will probably get more answers by posting on the HAL board.  That said, we just cruised with HAL this summer, and had several tender ports (in Iceland and Greenland).  On our cruise, HAL used tickets for the tenders, and gave them out, first come first serve, in a lounge the same morning we were in each port. There are folks who get priority tendering (I think certain Mariner levels, maybe suite guests).  We had no priority and had no trouble getting on an early tender by getting to the lounge early to get our tickets.   (If there are ship's tours in those ports, I suspect HAL will take their own shorex guests in the first tenders, but you'll want to ask about that on the HAL board.)

Enjoy your cruise.

On 4/3/2019 at 1:00 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

As Maryann said above, you will probably get more answers by posting on the HAL board.  That said, we just cruised with HAL this summer, and had several tender ports (in Iceland and Greenland).  On our cruise, HAL used tickets for the tenders, and gave them out, first come first serve, in a lounge the same morning we were in each port. There are folks who get priority tendering (I think certain Mariner levels, maybe suite guests).  We had no priority and had no trouble getting on an early tender by getting to the lounge early to get our tickets.   (If there are ship's tours in those ports, I suspect HAL will take their own shorex guests in the first tenders, but you'll want to ask about that on the HAL board.)

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks for the tip about the tender tickets. We are early risers so will get to lounge area and also check in with guest services the day before. 

Paul does book up. I reached out because w interested and he is sold out for the day that I needed..

Now looking for a different option.

He is sold out on our date, 10/3, also. ☹️