East Coast Day #2 – Peggy’s Cove & Crystal Crescent Beach

Ahh! How relaxing it is to be on the East Coast breathing all the salty ocean air. Today is going to be incredible as we are renting a car and exploring some nearby places all day! There are several locations easily reachable from Halifax as day trips and today and tomorrow we are going to explore some of them!

After a slow wake up after last night’s festivities, Steph and I went and picked up our rental car this morning. We ended up with a huge GMC Yukon which makes us feel very fancy. It drives just like my boyfriend Andrew’s truck though so it hasn’t been bad at all! I got out of a super tight parking spot today which was probably hilarious to watch but very rewarding.

We then headed straight to Crystal Crescent Beach. It’s a provincial park 40 minutes away from Halifax with three beaches, one of them being a nudist beach. The water at these beaches is supposed to be very clear and blue so we decided to go see for ourselves! The oldest working lighthouse in North America is apparently here as well. Let me tell you. The water is gorgeous and blue and very cold! We walked around in the sand and dipped our feet in the Atlantic Ocean which was an unreal feeling. The last time I was in the Atlantic was off the coast of France, also with Stephanie! What a great start to the trip! I’m glad we came here early because this beach gets very crowded during the summer and I think we beat most of the rush by coming here first thing. We took our time watching the waves and people watching. We did not run into any nudists LOL! Our friend Charly said to stay away because they get mad if you go there clothed!

Next stop is Peggy’s Cove. Peggy’s Cove is the location of the most photographed lighthouse in the world and it is only about an hour drive away from Halifax. It’s located in a small fishing town on the Blue Nose Coast of Nova Scotia. The drive there was gorgeous and it was hard not to stop at every little town along the way. I absolutely loved loved loved the lighthouse and walking on all the rocks right beside the ocean. A man playing bagpipes was right there and every one just looked so happy, just like us. Everyone on the East Coast is so friendly!! If you come here, make sure you do not go on any of the black rocks because they are super slippery and many tourists have been sucked into the tide and died due to this.

I cannot even comprehend the beauty.

Our next stop of the day is a town called Lunenburg, about an hour and a half away from Peggy’s Cove. I’ve been really excited to come to this place to take colourful pictures of the coast. It’s actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it’s the birthplace of the famous Bluenose ship which is on the Canadian dime! The Bluenose II replica is still present in Lunenburg and you can go on board and look at it. This town was a British colonial settlement and it’s obvious just looking at all the buildings and narrow streets. We grabbed some food and a beer and literally just sat and stared at the beauty below us. We are so lucky to be here!!! It is so calm and chill and peaceful.

We headed back towards Halifax but drove through Mahone Bay which is also an adorable little town. If you come here on a road trip, there’s signs for the Lighthouse Route which I highly recommend. You’ll drive past so many cute places and tiny towns including Peggy’s Cove. Mahone Bay was great and there was this one street with three cute churches on it that we stopped to see.

When we got back to Dartmouth, we headed out for dinner with Charly and went to Battery Park, one of her favourite spots, for this amazing chicken burger. It was SO good. Then we went across to Halifax and walked around a bit before heading home!