Home / Region Guides / Best attractions and things to do in Nova Scotia, Canada

Best attractions and things to do in Nova Scotia, Canada

Nova Scotia is a province in eastern Canada. It is the most densely populated of Canada’s three maritime provinces.


Hide Map

Nova Scotia is a province in eastern Canada. With a population of 923,598 as of 2016, it is the most densely populated of Canada’s three maritime provinces and four Atlantic provinces.


1. Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada

Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, Nova Scotia, Canada
Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, Nova Scotia, Canada

Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a Canadian national park on northern Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The park was the first national park in the Atlantic provinces of Canada and covers an area of 948 square kilometers. It is one of 42 in Canada’s system of national parks. It includes mountains, valleys, waterfalls, rocky coastlines, and the Cape Breton Highlands, a tundra-like plateau. Forest types include Acadian and Boreal.


2. Halifax Citadel National Historic Site

Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, Canada
Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, Canada

Citadel Hill is a hill that is a National Historic Site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Four fortifications have been constructed on Citadel Hill since the city was founded by the English in 1749, and were referred to as Fort George—but only the third fort was officially named Fort George. According to General Orders of October 20, 1798, it was named after King George III. 


3. Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site

Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, Canada
Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, Canada

Kejimkujik National Park is a National Park of Canada, covering 404 km² in the southwest of the Nova Scotia peninsula. It consists of two separate land areas: an inland part, which is coincident with the Kejimkujik National Historic Site of Canada, and the Kejimujik National Park Seaside on the Atlantic coast. The Historic site is a cultural landscape 404 square kilometers forested upland plain between the South Shore and the Annapolis Valley.


4. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Nova Scotia, Canada
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The museum is a member institution of the Nova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection of over 30,000 artifacts including 70 small craft and a steamship: the CSS Acadia, a 180-foot steam-powered hydrographic survey ship launched in 1913.


5. Point Pleasant Park

Point Pleasant Park, Nova Scotia, Canada
Point Pleasant Park, Nova Scotia, Canada

Point Pleasant Park is a large, mainly forested municipal park at the southern tip of the Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries and still contains the Prince of Wales Tower – the oldest Martello tower in North America. The park is a popular recreational spot for Haligonians, as it hosts forest walks and affords views across the harbor and out toward the Atlantic. Plays are performed in the park every summer by a professional theatre company called Shakespeare by the Sea.