Attractions

The Bay of Fundy is defined by tides that rise and fall up to 16 metres twice daily, and its attractions measure them out: Burntcoat Head Park, where the world's highest tides hit 16.3 metres, Joggins Fossil Cliffs with its 300-million-year-old beach, and Cape Forchu, the apple-core lighthouse. Sixteen attractions fill in the rest - a provincial park, a UNESCO Geopark, and the odd and wonderful, from giant pumpkins to fairy cottages. The most-reviewed stop is Cape Forchu Lighthouse at 4.8 across 1,686 reviews; Nova Scotia's largest provincial park holds 200-metre sea cliffs at Cape Chignecto - now in our outdoor guide - and a free ride-on miniature railway runs at Windsor's Trecothic Creek.

Burntcoat Head Park is where the number is set: the Bay of Fundy rises and falls an astonishing 16.3 metres twice daily, 4.8 across 1,578 reviews. Near Truro, the Fundy Discovery Site stages the tide's arrival as the tidal bore - a tumbling wavefront that rolls up the Salmon River twice daily at predicted times, with tide charts, a natural playground, and the Cobequid Trail on site. Our Minas Basin guide explains the basin these tides fill.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where every high tide uncovers fresh 300-million-year-old fossils, including Hylonomus, the oldest known reptile - time your visit for low tide (the interpretive centre is open daily May 1 to October 18, 2026). The Cliffs of Fundy Geopark Welcome Centre orients you inside the UNESCO Global Geopark, complete with Canada's only original WWII observation tower. Parrsboro's Fundy Geological Museum displays Bay of Fundy fossils, including some of the world's smallest dinosaurs. Our Joggins guide goes deeper.

Cape Forchu Lighthouse is the shore's signature tower - the distinctive apple-core light on a rocky headland 11 km from Yarmouth, and the tallest climbable lighthouse in Nova Scotia at 77 steps to the lantern room. The museum in the keeper's residence is free, the grounds are free and open year-round, and climbing tours run mid-May to late September. It carries 4.8 across 1,686 reviews. Our Nova Scotia lighthouses guide places it among the coast's classic lights.

Five Islands Provincial Park fronts the highest tides on Earth across 1,000 hectares on the Minas Basin - red-sand beach, 92 campsites, and low-tide ocean-floor walks between the five offshore islands it is named for. Our Five Islands guide covers the park in full. For the province's biggest coastal wilderness, the Fundy outdoor guide now lists Cape Chignecto alongside the shore's trails.

Yarmouth County Museum & Archives fills a historic 1890s granite church with 20,000+ artifacts and Canada's third-largest ship portrait collection. Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre presents Mi'kmaw culture near Truro beneath a 40-foot Glooscap statue, with 7,500-year-old artifacts and year-round opening. Add the Maud Lewis Replica House in Rossway, Trecothic Creek & Windsor Railway's free ride-on miniature trains, and Fort Edward, North America's oldest surviving blockhouse (1750).

The shore's strange side is worth the detours. Howard Dill Enterprises in Windsor is the farm where four-time world champion Howard Dill developed the Atlantic Giant pumpkin - the variety behind every world-record pumpkin since 1979 - with a seed shop and record-size pumpkins in the patch each fall. At remote Huntington Point past Halls Harbour, the Huntington Point Fairy Cottages are four vividly coloured Depression-era concrete cottages built in the 1930s, viewed from the public beach. Pair both with the Cliffs of Fundy Geopark guide for the drive between.