New Brunswick’s largest city, Saint John, sits on the Bay of Fundy, at the mouth of the St. John River.
Like Halifax, it was an important shipbuilding hub around the turn of the 19th century, and today its deep-water harbor can accommodate the world’s largest cruise liners.
Don’t expect a picture-postcard harbor town: Saint John is a predominantly industrial city, with large shipping terminals, oil storage facilities, and paper mills. To get past that, take one of the bus-style or horse-trolleys that meet the ships to investigate the restored historic district, known as Trinity Royal.
Top draw Boats head out from the harbor to Reversing Falls Rapids, a much-photographed spot where the Bay of Fundy meets the St. John River, creating a massive twice-daily tidal swing of some 2 billion gallons of water, with all the churning rapids and whirlpools you’d expect. It’s also reachable via a 3-mile bike and walking trail along the waterfront.
Bonus The bustling centerpiece of the historic district is the still-active Old City Market, built in 1876, where you can put together a lunch from various stalls.
Bottoms up Sample Canadian beers like Moosehead at a famous local Irish pub, O’Leary’s (olearyspub.com), which often has live music.
