Nova Scotia: Crafted By The Coast

Nova Scotia, Known as: The Province with Lobster, Landscape and Folk Art

Visitors to Nova Scotia enjoy the scenic beauty, rich heritage and vibrant culture of one of the friendliest places on earth. (meet some of them here) For centuries, Nova Scotia has been the gateway to Canada, and many Canadians can trace their family tree to here. From the arrival of the earliest explorers like John Cabot, to Samuel de Champlain’s band of hardy adventurers determined to settle an untamed world, to waves of Scottish immigrants and British soldiers, to German farmers from the Rhine Valley - Nova Scotia has welcomed them all.
Ah, and there's also a French connection! The spirit of l’Acadie runs deep in Nova Scotia. Throughout the province, there are reminders of the intrepid French settlers who first claimed Nova Scotia as their home in the seventeenth century: the historical sites, the culture, the language, the music, the food and the crafts.
The first wave of migration to Nova Scotia began in the 1780s when Black Loyalists began an exodus from the United States at the close of the War of Independence. Nova Scotia was both a destination of safe haven for slaves, refugees, and immigrants of African and Caribbean descent, and a hard place to make a home.
Nova Scotia cuisine usually brings to mind lobster – steaming fresh, with melted butter – as well as our famous Digby scallops or smoked cedar plank salmon. But there's much more to Nova Scotian cuisine, from gourmet restaurants with award winning wines to hearty home cooked meals, from plump local blueberries and apples to scrumptious clams n' chips from a roadside stand.

Nova Scotia's blend of dramatic seas, scenic lands, Celtic music and friendly people shape a maritime culture like no other. Witness the world's highest tide ebb out of the Minas Basin and beachcomb the ocean floor for treasures. Drive, bike or hike the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Canada's great ocean highway. Visit the province's capital city, the seaport of Halifax. Or stop by the town of Lunenburg to see the home of the world-famous Bluenose II.