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Travel guide: Nova Scotia historic sites & museums! Road trip to Lunenburg, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Annapolis, Grand Pré.
It’s official: I love Nova Scotia! I spent July road-tripping through the Canadian Maritime province to see the top historic sites and museums — and out of all my travels, this one was an easy 5 out of 5 stars.
Photographer Joey Wong and I started in Halifax and looped south to Lunenburg, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Annapolis Royal, Grand Pré and Wolfville — with lots of stops for seafood and scenic views along the way.
There were so many standout moments from our NS trip, like this sunset at Shelburne, but we’ll never forget the genuinely friendly and down-home people we met along the way. (It felt like going back in time to the happy 1990s, the best era that ever was!)
Read on for our travel guide and itinerary to Nova Scotia‘s best heritage attractions (including quirky museums and UNESCO sites), and see my reel for video footage of each of these places.
From Halifax, we drove about an hour southwest to Old Town Lunenburg. Founded in 1753, this British settlement is filled with beautifully preserved historic architecture.
I’m giving the devil horns in front of St. John’s Anglican Church, a large black and white Gothic landmark in the center of town.
Fun fact: one Halloween night, not too long ago, the original church mysteriously burned down! To this day, locals have no idea who set the Goth church on fire on October 31st… but there are theories…
We took a guided walking tour through Lunenburg, which was a great introduction to the South Shore. The charming town was one of the first Protestant British settlements in Canada.
In 1995, Lunenburg became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its fine examples of 1800s wooden architecture. Another fun fact: many houses were built with identical-looking front and back doors to confuse the Devil, who only entered through the back (which is not surprising!)
Here’s the “wedding cake house,” a pink home built in 1888 that is apparently haunted (it does look straight out of a horror film.)
The tour ended at the Lunenburg Waterfront Marina, which was once a buzzing center of the Atlantic Canada fishing industry.
The original Bluenose racing and fishing schooner was also built at Lunenburg in 1921 (the ship was a Canadian icon until it was wrecked in 1946).
The Bluenose’s legacy is remembered through a Bluenose II replica ship, and is engraved on the back of the Canadian dime.
Loved strolling the waterfront marina and soaking in the seafaring history.
This classic fisherman scene made me think of the song: “I’s the b’ye that builds the boat / And I’s the b’ye that sails her / I’s the b’ye that catches the fish / And brings ’em home to Lizer!”
The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic lets you learn more about the town’s fishing heyday.
Another classic Victorian building: the late 19th century three story wooden Lunenburg Academy.
This Goth loves a haunted graveyard… You can take a ghost walking tour of Lunenburg at night as well to hear spooky tales.
Pit stop at 19th century fishing village Peggy’s Cove. Photographer Joey Wong captured these photos from the deck by Shaw’s Landing restaurant, which is one of the province’s top seafood joints.
With fishing shacks and marine landscapes like this, it’s no surprise that Nova Scotia rocks when it comes to fish (like haddock), lobster, Digby scallops, and other seafood.
My Y2K outfit matches the chill, welcoming vibe of Nova Scotia that reminded us of the late 90s! (If only we could time-travel back then.)
At Shaw’s Landing, we devoured affordable lobster rolls, fish and chips, chowder, scallops and other marine cuisine. Believe me, Nova Scotian seafood lives up to its rep.
We found it relaxing to drive around the province (the roads are easy), and it let us take in the picturesque fishing villages, lighthouses and Atlantic coast landscapes along the way.
We drove an hour and a half southwest and were in Shelburne — a picture-perfect port town that immediately stole my heart.
The 18th century Loyalist town is a photographer’s dream, and is still untouched by mass tourism — so you’ll get a chill, commercial-free experience. Everything is centered around the waterfront and easily accessible.
Stay at Amanda’s The Cooper’s Inn, a charming historic B&B with personalized hospitality. We loved chatting with her and getting to know her story (she moved here to escape the big city chaos, and adores the slower pace and peace of Shelburne).
Can’t get over how kind and welcoming Nova Scotians are. And the food is outstanding everywhere — here’s the French toast that Amanda makes fresh for her guests.
Cooper’s Inn is a boutique bed and breakfast with windows overlooking the seaside, and all the amenities you can think of for a luxurious, cozy stay.
A tribute to the original owner, George Gracie. If there are ghosts in this inn, they’re friendly ones for sure!
The main area, Dock Street, borders Shelburne Harbour. Here, you’ll find historic buildings and attractions like The Dory Shop Museum. Set in a building dating from 1865, it celebrates the classic wooden boats built here by hand.
The Ross-Thomson House & Store Museum lets you get immersed in the 18th century life of two Scottish families that settled here.
Then, learn about local history at the Shelburne County Museum, starting from the arrival of the Loyalists in the 1780s.
In the next post, I’ll do a full run-though of the restaurants we recommend throughout Nova Scotia — as there were so many highlights.
The fabulous pink sunsets at Shelburne’s 18th century waterfront are unforgettable.
The Cooper’s Inn glows at night. Shelburne is a photographer’s delight. (All images by Joey Wong)
Check out the Discover Shelburne County site for more info on planning a trip here — a must if you’re coming to the province.
We did a detour to the nearby Sandy Point Lighthouse, a highly Instagrammable historic site. Nova Scotia has many adorable red and white lighthouses that add to the classic Maritimes feel. (We also stopped by the tall Cape Forchu, but foggy weather conditions didn’t make for good photos.)
Nova Scotia’s specialty museums are well worth the visit for an intriguing look at the past. At Barrington Woolen Mill, I saw how river-powered turbines turned fleece to cloth in the late 19th century.
Watch my reel about Nova Scotian museums for footage from the mill and the other historic places covered in this blog. It was an important local business that used ingenious water-powered machinery to spin cloth.
Visitors can learn how to use a spinning wheel straight out of Sleeping Beauty, as well as other old-timey activities like soap-making.
In The Collapse era, it’s more important than ever to recall the history of slavery and never-ending fight for freedom.
At the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre & Society in Birchtown, Nova Scotia, I learned about the largest free Black settlement in North America (founded 1783).
An arsonist destroyed a large number of its archives in 2006, but the Black Loyalist museum meticulously maintains its history through displays of period clothing, broken shackles, and documents relating to the immigration of African Americans to Nova Scotia.
The Birchtown Schoolhouse is a one-room school from the 1800s that was run by the community.
The museum is well-designed, and the glass floor holds an Archaeological Pit with artifacts and the engraved names of former slaves.
The interactive exhibitions recall how Black Loyalists came together in Birchtown to overcome innumerable challenges, and the importance of continuing this work today.
Museums are vital if we want to remember our past and not repeat mistakes — and Nova Scotia is doing its part through vivid cultural attractions like these.
We continued our loop around the province to Yarmouth, an hour away (Nova Scotia is ideal for road trips with easy driving conditions and short distances between spots). I’m fueled by microplastics in front of Yarmouth County Museum & Archives, filled with 20,000 fascinating artifacts from the town.
My black square belt is by The Plain Circle Vintage — upcycled leather all the way. No plastics here, and I’m all about the Y2K style of the belt that Jennyfer sourced (she has lots of curated Goth-friendly vintage on her site).
Yarmouth County Museum is a treasure trove for oddities like Cape Forchu’s former lighthouse lens, which floated in mercury (the microplastics of that era!)
Potentially haunted dolls, questionable medical devices and other funky historic remnants kept us amused as we went from room to room.
Yarmouth’s little niche museums are all within walking distance of each other. The Firefighters’ Museum of Nova Scotia fascinated me with its firefighting archives…
… especially the steampunk-y fire engines from the 1800s to 1930s. Watch out if you see me steering this big truck!
Wild to see the evolution of fire engines, from these wood and metal hand trucks to steam-powered colossuses.
Firefighters from around the world added their patches to the display (I was tickled to see an “Emo department” one!)
Watch my IG reel here to see me goofing around this museum and others.
W. Laurence Sweeney Fisheries Museum took us back to Yarmouth’s fishing heyday through reproduced waterfront buildings and trawlers, yarrrr.
The museum houses artifacts from companies owned by Sweeney as well as scaled-down boats and buildings from the early 1900s.
We kept driving northeast to Grand-Pré National Historic Site, which remembers the Acadian settlement and 18th century deportation. This powerful statue is of Evangeline, an Acadian icon of resilience during the Great Upheaval (when the British sent French-speaking Acadian settlers into exile).
The exhibits tell the tale of Evangeline, the protagonist of a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1847.
As she and her lover were separated by the deportation, Evangeline has become an a symbol of strength and perseverance.
We learned more about Acadian culture at Rendez-vous de la Baie, an educational center in Baie Sainte-Marie. Fun fact: instead of saying “ouch,” Acadians would yell “AYOYE” (pronounced ah-yoy)!
Before returning to Halifax, you’ve got to swing by Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal. The scenery reminded us a bit of our time on Easter Island.
Fort Anne was built by Scottish settlers in 1629, making it the oldest fort still standing in Canada.
I’ll be showing you Halifax’s museums and historic destinations in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned for that. Until then, you can see my reel about Halifax history sites.
This triangle is the oldest military building in Canada, a powder magazine from 1708 designed to keep gunpowder dry.
Fort Anne (formerly Charles Fort) was built in Annapolis Royal as this was the center of the early British and French settlements.
Throwback to the days when warfare involved canons, thigh high boots and tricorn hats.
The Annapolis and Allain rivers come together at this spectacular site. Photographer Joey Wong and I can’t thank Visit Nova Scotia and HMI Creator Coast enough for making this journey possible!
In a time when many destinations are pricy and over-touristy (and I’m avoiding going to the US), it was a relief to travel in Nova Scotia and relax in small, friendly Maritime towns. Wouldn’t you like to hang here with me?
I think you can tell that we had the best time road-tripping around this ocean playground! Check out Nova Scotia’s website for everything you need to plan a trip to the province.
For video footage of all these Nova Scotian sites, enjoy my reel here — and see more snaps on IG @lacarmina. Next up, I’ll feature Halifax’s museums and historic destinations, as well as all the outstanding food I enjoyed on this trip!
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Puerto Vallarta Goth travels! Gothic sugar skull art, Marriott beach hotel resort day pass, Omega Seamaster Cosmic watch.
Postcards from Puerto Vallarta. I didn’t do much while lying flat on the west coast of Mexico… and that was the whole point!
Puerto Vallarta is one of the best places to be a “Beach Goth.” It’s an accessible and inexpensive destination with gorgeous beaches as well as street eats, sugar skulls, and mezcal cocktails (what more do I need?)
Read on for a Gothic travel guide to relaxing in Puerto Vallarta! (Wearing a Beach Goth cropped tshirt by Cat and Bat Designs, an indie Canadian company.)
This time, I took lying flat to the next level at Marriott Puerto Vallarta. Hot tip: the beachfront resort does day passes – so you can enjoy a Bali bed, swimming pool and private beach access for the day like I did. (See a video of my beach day on IG @lacarmina.)
Wearing blue light blocking glasses by Gunnar Optiks, and a brown sports bra by Reebok (get it here).
Marriott’s Puerto Vallarta property is large and filled with gardens and greenery — making it the ideal spot to kick back for a day. I took the opportunity to shoot quite a few outfits here.
(Wearing a white sleeveless turtleneck bodysuit by Reebok (get it here) and a red denim mini skirt by BDG (find it here).
I brought my gold Omega Seamaster Cosmic watch out for golden hour at the beach. This belonged to my grandfather — he got it in the late 1960s! (It’s a vintage Omega Seamaster Cosmic Automatic, model 166.026, tool 107.)
See modern versions of this Omega Swiss watch here, and check out video of the watch and sunset in my IG video.
Let’s pretend it’s the millennium and not the collapse.. Feeling Matrix-y at the private beach at the Marriott Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My Y2K rimless sunglasses are these Adidas Dunamis Evo S in grey. The black leather headband is Sylvain Le Hen / Hair Design Access.
Always wishing that I could get a Time Machine to take me back to 1999. (At least I can dress the part with baggy cargo pants.)
My chunky red highlighted hair is by Katya at Kore Salon Vancouver. The mermaid length is giving Ariel the Little Mermaid.
Marriott PV in Marina Vallarta is an upscale beachfront all-inclusive (just check out the location!)
The hotel offers day passes, so you can relax in the cabana beds and enjoy food and drinks poolside without having to stay at the resort overnight.
No need to get up, as the staff brought fresh coconut water and food right to my lounger. Gotta love a coco hydration station.
I enjoy tropical beach destinations as long as there aren’t mosquitoes or humidity, so Puerto Vallarta (West Coast of Mexico) is my happy place.
Of course, I wear layers upon layers of sun protection. My shield rimless sport sunglasses are Adidas x Marcolin Dunamis Evo S (get them here).
The Marriott Puerto Vallarta’s private beach gives you exclusive access to these calm waves. (Watch this video for a peek at my PV travels.)
I indulged in Mexican enchiladas and chocolate volcano cake with ice cream, and requested a custom drink (coconut cream, banana, dark rum & ice blended – try it next time you’re somewhere tropical).
The Marriott’s oceanfront resort includes an infinity pool, landscaped gardens, a range of restaurants and bars, and access to this beautiful beach.
This is my second time in Puerto Vallarta — you can see my previous PV travel guides here and here for more tips. (This time, I focused on lying flat at the beach!)
I’m heading to another oceanfront destination in July… It’s somewhere I have never been. Keep your eyes on @lacarmina Instagram to see where I’ll be!
Instead of staying at the resort, I booked an inexpensive private Airbnb in the local 5 de Diciembre neighborhood, which was a 5 minute walk to the nearby beach.
Took my grandfather’s Omega Seamaster Cosmic Automatic watch (166.026 Tool 107, from 1967) to catch the sunset! Ω Founded 1848, Omega is famed for their Swiss movement — and this 60s design is inspired by the sea and outer space. (Browse Omega watches here.)
Playa Camarones is one of the most magnificent spots for the sunset. Locals come here to hang — and fish!
Closeups on my vintage gold Omega Seamaster Cosmic 166.026 tool 107 watch from the late 60s.
Omega was founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848. The Swiss watchmaker has been the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 1932, and its Speedmaster watch landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
Watch the video of my Omega watch and the sun setting at Camarones Beach in Puerto Vallarta.
My grandpa got this Omega Seamaster Cosmic Automatic in Hong Kong in the 60s and it still works perfectly. Ω Are you an aficionado of vintage watches? Who’s your favourite timepiece designer? (See more Omega Seamaster watches here.)
What to do after the sun sets? Puerto Vallarta has a fun LGBTQ scene in Zona Romantica, but my favorite hangout is…
El Colibri, a speakeasy in 5 de Diciembre! There aren’t really Goth clubs in PV, but I always visit this alternative-coded bar for witchy mezcal cocktails.
El Colibri’s ever-changing menu focuses on craft cocktails made from artisanal Mexican liquors – raicilla, mezcal, etc with fresh herbs and fruits.
Puerto Vallarta is a very walkable destination. During the day, I enjoy strolling the waterfront (Malecon) and popping into Mexican art stores around Zona Romantica.
You’ll run into demons, skeletons and other Day of the Dead creatures!
There’s a fab selection of La Catrinas (elegant skeleton ladies), sugar skulls and Mexican devils at Vallarta Anglo Mexican design group.
Stop by Plaza Lázaro Cárdenas to see mosaic skulls and bones. (Wearing Reebook Hammer Street leather shoes.)
I’m drawn to Mexico’s culture of Día de los Muertos (October 31st to November 2nd), where families honor those who have passed with lively rituals and celebrations. (I celebrated Day of the Dead at a parade in Merida one year!)
Colorful sugar skulls represent how in Mexico, death is not to be feared but embraced.
All the skull imagery makes this a rather Gothic destination! (See more about Day of the Dead in my older Mexico blogs.)
And of course, I was here to eat alllll the Mexican food… My favorites were chilaquiles, Kosta shrimp tacos and guacamole, tacos el pastor at Tacos El Gato, and fish tacos at Marisma Fish Taco. (Each meal was about $10 US — if you avoid the tourist spots, you can eat very well on a budget in Puerto Vallarta.)
I also loaded up on green juices and iced coffees since they are cheaper here than in Vancouver.
As you can see, I didn’t “do much” in PV — but I sure got a lot out of my relaxing beach vacation.
Have you been to the west coast of Mexico? If you’re feeling the urge to get away… perhaps you should look into flights!
Finally, some roundups of recent press. I chatted with Abelson Magazine about luxury Japan travel experiences, and did a podcast with Intrepid Times about my travel writing work. “In this episode, we talk about how she carved a distinct niche in a crowded field, and she shares tips for new writers on how to do the same. We also talk about fringe cultures, and making meaningful connections while traveling.”
Don’t forget to watch this reel of my Puerto Vallarta “Goth in Hot Weather” adventures! You can also read my previous blogs about skulls / Zona Romantica and the Elizabeth Taylor / Richard Burton restaurant for more travel tips.
And now, off to a yet-unexplored place in July… add me @lacarmina Instagram to see where in the world is La Carmina!
LA CARMINA
