Transport from Sydney NS to Coal Mine Museum in Glace Bay

[donaldsc]

We are doing a Canada cruise which stops in Sydney. We want to visit the Coal Mining Museum in Glace Bay. The distance from the port in Sydney to Glace Bay is about 13 miles. The ship offers a tour that includes the museum but it is grossly overpriced at $90 per person and you do not get enough time at the museum.

 

I e-mailed the museum to see if there was any public transport to the museum and they said that there was at a cost of about $4 each way but they also said to allow about 1.5 hours transportation time both ways which seems like a lot of time for 13 miles each way.

 

I asked them what a taxi would cost and they said that taxi fare would be about $30 each way which seems reasonable since we can put 4 people in a taxi for $60 round trip instead of overpaying the cruise company $360 ($90 x 4) for the same trip.

 

My question is whether anyone has done this and did they have trouble finding a taxi at the dock and in Glace Bay to do a long haul for a one way fare. I would hate to be stranded in Glace Bay and not be able to get back to the ship in time.

 

I have been trying to get hold of a taxi company in Sydney and none of them seem to have an e-mail address. I guess I could cal them and ask.

 

Any other ideas on how to get to and from Glace Bay from Sydney.

 

DON

[maryann ns]

I try to help on this forum because I live in Nova Scotia (not Cape Breton). I have collected reports over the past few years. There will be taxis at the dock but maybe not enough. There is a shortage of tour operators.

 

People have gone to the Glace Bay Miner's Museum by bus:

In Sydney the cruise ship will make port at 60 Esplanade, Sydney, NS Canada
 B1P 1A1. The Route 1 bus can be caught at Wentworth St. and Charlotte St. ~11 minute walk.

In Glace Bay the bus stops at Main St. & Union St, and the museum is located at Museum St. & Birkley St. ~20 minute walk

http://www.cbrm.ns.ca/route-1.html

http://www.cbrm.ns.ca/images/stories/Transit/Route%201-1.pdf

 

See post #9: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1768421

 

 

Renting a car would be a good way to do this and will cost way less than the ships tour:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1840164

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1863077

Car rental in Sydney:

Here's what I found out from the phone, they all p/u and drop off:

 

1. Discount, on 195 Prince St., Tel. 902-563-2806/2807; call them upon arrival, but only <1K from pier, one minute car ride

 

2. Budget, 224 Welton, 902-564-2610; no call needed, continuous running shuttle b/w pier and the lot (about 3 K).

 

3. Enterprise, 440 Grand Lake Rd., 902-539-6700; call upon arrival. 10 min. car ride to lot.

 

No one offers rental car delivery on pier and no booth or kiosk on pier.

 

The location of the p/u shuttle is near where the tour buses park. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1824562

Car rental in Sydney on a holiday: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2047539

 

 

You can find taxi companies by going to http://www.canada411.ca/ and doing a search.

[Smack664]

I live in Cape Breton about 20 minutes from the pier. Public transportation is hit and miss and probably a lot of waiting around. A cab would be easy but I'm not sure how much of an issue it is to get one at the pier. Glacé Bay has its own cab company (Sonny's) so you shouldn't get stranded there, if you call them you might be able to arrange something (902-849-1584).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[trabeler]

We were in Sydney a few weeks ago on the Maasdam and used the public bus to get to/from the miner museum. We took the #1 bus at 9 am and it reached the end of the line around 9:45 am. There were 5 people on the bus that were all going to the museum, so when the bus driver realized we would all be walking there, he took us there directly on the bus, so we arrived before the museum even opened.

 

There were several tour guides standing outside the museum chatting and they opened up the building for us and we started the underground tour around 10 am. We were done with the underground part around 11 am, spent around an hour looking at the exhibits and left the museum around noon. It was about a 20 minute walk back to the bus stop (across from a Tim Horton's). We had time for a donut and coffee and then took the 1 pm return bus. We were back at the ship around 2 pm.

 

We were surprised to find that the bus offered free wifi, so we had a chance to catch up on emails, etc during the trip each way!

[maryann ns]

Now that is what we call Maritime hospitality! It sounds like you had a great day.

[p_mori7]

Here is a link to the #1 bus schedule.

 

http://www.cbrm.ns.ca/images/stories/Transit/Route%201-1.pdf

 

The bus stop is at the corner of Commercial St. & York St.

 

From there, it is about a 1 mile walk to the museum.

 

 

 

:)

Edited July 13, 2014 by p_mori7