Marine Drive

The traditions and legends of the sea come alive along the Marine Drive. Follow this special route through a land of pristine coastal beauty, where quiet shoreline roads lead through romantic seaside villages and the past is a colourful part of everyday life.

Explore the rugged natural coastline along the Eastern shores with superb hiking trails, idyllic picnic spots and some of the province's finest beaches. A world-class destination for outdoor enthusiasts: surfers, windsurfers and fishermen abound. The lumber and shipbuilding history of the area can be found at Sherbrooke history museum, and the gold mining history at Goldboro and Goldenville museums.

Experience the sights and sounds of Nova Scotia's living-history museums: a fishermen's store and a goldmining complex in a 1940s village at Memory Lane in Lake Charlotte; a blacksmith's hammer ringing at his forge and a picturesque sawmill in a thriving 19th-century town at Sherbrooke Village.

At Canso, step aboard for a short boat ride to Grassy Island National Historic Site, one of our earliest European settlements. An interpreted trail around the island leads past the remnants of a once-thriving fishing and merchant community of the early 1700s.

The Marine Drive is a playground for nature lovers-a world of magnificent coastal beauty where unspoiled beaches and tidal inlets beckon, and salt marshes teem with birds and wildlife. The ruggedly diverse coastline is a world-class destination for sea kayakers, and the seaside parks provide picnic facilities and superb hiking trails at some of the province's finest sand beaches. Inland, you'll find a vast but accessible wilderness whose myriad lakes and rivers are legendary with anglers and paddlers.

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