Uncover New Brunswick, Canada’s, Many Family-Friendly Experiences

The seaside town of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, has been voted One of the Top 10 Places to Visit in Canada, in a poll run by CBC Radio, Canada’s national radio. This only confirms what our family has known since we first began traveling to Canada’s Maritime Provinces: St. Andrews packs a lot of activities for a small town.

After checking into our family-sized room at the imposing Algonquin Hotel, a favorite with the kids for its large outdoor swimming pool and an indoor pool with a three-story water slide, we headed for nearby Kingsbrae Garden. Flowers bloom everywhere, but the gardens have a lot more to interest families.

The Children’s Fantasy Garden is designed for younger children, with playhouses and activities; an alpaca and other animals live next door. Winding paths lead past a real Dutch windmill and a sensory garden with plants chosen for fragrance and textures. There’s also a garden maze, and hidden in the woods is a secret garden.

St. Andrews is fun to walk around, with small shops; cafés; family-friendly restaurants; and McGuire’s Chocolate, a rare bean-to-bar chocolatier, always a favorite stop. Activity centers around the busy waterfront, where one can sign up for a variety of boat tours.

When our girls were younger, they clamored to sail on Jolly Breeze Tall Ship, a trip full of onboard activities. Later they chose more active zodiac rides with Fundy Tide Runners. In August, when we usually vacation, 12 species of whales and other marine animals gather in the Bay of Fundy to feed on fish and krill swept in by Fundy tides.

We might see minke, finback, humpback and even rare North Atlantic right whales, along with dolphins and porpoises. Onboard naturalists at Island Quest Marine Whale and Wildlife Cruises not only help visitors to identify what they see, but they also add information on the bay’s tides and marine habitat.

Kids — and parents — can learn a lot more about sea creatures in the Bay of Fundy with kid-friendly interactive exhibits and aquarium at Huntsman Marine Science Center. Here, they find live intertidal creatures in the large touch pool; watch fish through underwater viewing windows; and watch as seahorses, seals and salmon are fed each day. One-hour tours — in rubber boots — take families inside the working parts of the center, where they can meet and feed sea animals not in the public exhibits.