Canada - YHZ things to do/trip home

Hello all!

I will be doing a cross Canada train trip this May and am wondering if there are tips on what to do once I get to Halifax.

I presume renting a car will be the best option for getting around in Nova Scotia? My current plan has me arriving in Halifax mid-May and having around 10 days before flying home to YVR. Should I stop in Moncton on the way through or go to PEI after Halifax? Is there somewhere in particular I should be for the Victoria Day long weekend?

No matter what I do, I know there isn't enough time to do the East Coast justice and I will have to return some other time to get the bits I miss.

Final question, is $418 all in a good rate for a oneway YHZ-YVR? Seems like it, but if I just need more patience, I can wait.

Thanks in advance!

I would end the train ride in Moncton and rent a car from there. Then tour around that part of New Brunswick. Hopewll Cape rocks, Saint John, maybe down to St Andrews By The Sea. Then head to PEI. Cross over on the bridge and take the ferry back to Nova Scotia. Drive up around the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton, maybe take in Fortress Louisbourg. Then head down to Halifax and spend the remaining time there. Of course, you'd have to do some research on areas to see how much time you want to spend in each place.

We recently did two weeks in Nova Scotia and never left the province. Halifax warrants several days. We stayed for about four days in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island and wish we'd stayed a day or two more (Louisbourg is amazing and was one of the highlights of the trip). We also spent some time with friends near Kentville/Wolfville and did some day trips, including a lovely one driving down Digby Neck all the way down the chain of islands off the coast of the mainland.

The year before, we did New Brunswick and PEI and felt no need to return there - four weeks in total is plenty to see the highlights and that's what we had. I agree about the Fundy shore of New Brunswick. Hopewell Rocks is worth a visit twice, at both low and high tide. St. Andrews is lovely as is St. Stephen (visit the chocolate museum, fun even if you don't eat much chocolate), and from St. Stephen you can do a fun little morning or afternoon in Calais, Maine to cross Maine off your US-states-visited list. (Have a lobster roll at the quirky little fast food stand along the river on US 1 just a mile or two from the border crossing.)

I enjoyed PEI less than New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but the opposite is true for most. I liked the more rugged scenery in NB and NS more than the calmer landscapes of PEI. The people of PEI, however, are amazing.

You can actually take a ferry from eastern PEI to Nova Scotia (or vice versa) so you can incorporate a trip to the island into a combined NB/NS/PEI holiday easily enough.

My only caution: do a few things well rather than doing a ton of things poorly. There is a lot of land to cover and you will not do all three provinces any justice if you try to visit them all in two weeks.