Rolling Down Hills and Drinking Beer in Annapolis Royal: Exploring Nova Scotia with Kids

Travel dates June 26-29, 2018

Remember a few posts ago when I was telling you guys how completely charmed we were by Parrsboro, Nova Scotia? Yes, well, it’s possible I’m going to be saying the same kind of thing about a number of towns in Nova Scotia before I’m finished.

We adored Annapolis Royal:

I gather that Annapolis Royal is a fairly hoppin’ tourist town during the high season, but when we were there in late June it was quite sleepy and uncrowded. The site of the town, on the Annapolis River, is part of traditional Mi’maq territory and, after the town was founded, it changed hands between the British and the French a ridiculous number of times. So there’s a lot of history to learn about in the area as well as a lot of pretty stuff to look at.

We spent three nights in the Annapolis Royal area (at Dunromin Campground), but we spent one of our days at Kejimkujik National Park, which I’ll talk about in another post. But that still left plenty of time to see most of what we wanted to in Annapolis Royal and to spend time just wandering around in the town. Here’s a rundown:

Port-Royal National Historic Site

The settlement at Port-Royal dates to 1605, one of the first European settlements in North America. The historic park is less than 15 minutes from Annapolis Royal and, if I remember right, the main reason why we decided to make the town one of our base camps.

So…Port-Royal is a cool place and definitely worth seeing, but it turned out to be smaller, with less to do than I had anticipated. This was partly because we were there in the shoulder season, before area schools let our for summer. The only organized activities going on were for the school groups that were there; had we been a week or two later there likely would have been more going on.

But we did have a great time exploring the recreated settlement and poking around in all the different areas. And Abe picked up anther Xplorers tag.

Note Abe’s brand new rain boots here. We made the mistake of coming to Canada with no boots at all for Abe. But Abe LOVES boots, so we picked up a pair at a Walmart a few days before this, and, I have to say, Canadian Walmarts have a way better selection of boots than American Walmarts (or at least than Georgia Walmarts). I still love those boots.

Admission to Port-Royal is $3.90CDN for adults and free for kids 17 and younger.

Fort Anne National Historic Site

Surprise hit! I thought that Port-Royal was going to be the main attraction for this leg of the trip and Fort Anne an afterthought, but that was because I didn’t know about these hills:

 

The hills are actually defensive ditches, historically speaking, but today they’re great for rolling down:

When we first encountered the hills and the kids starting enthusiastically running up then and rolling back down, I was a little worried that we were breaking the rules. But it turns out they encourage people to play on the hills!

The kids had SO MUCH FUN doing this. So much that it was all Abe could think about, and we wound up going back two days in a row so he could get his fill of hill rolling.

But there’s more! There’s also a surprisingly extensive museum inside, detailing the history of the area, offering up a chance to earn an Xplorers tag, and, of course, dress up:

And outside there are historic buildings to explore and great views to take in:

And have I mentioned the hills?

Eating, Drinking, and Wandering in Annapolis Royal

So you’re going to need some refreshment after all that hill rolling, right? Good news is that Annapolis Royal has a beautifully walkable little downtown area. You can stop right across the street from Fort Anne for some local craft beer at Annapolis Brewing Company (you can even do this while your kids are still rolling on hills, if you have big kids to supervise younger ones like we do):

You can get some ice cream at 1 Scoop 2 Scoop:

You can grab a bite to eat at any of a number of restaurants. We went with Ye Olde Towne Pub:

More local beer! (It was a different night from Annapolis Brewing Company!)

And you can just wander around looking at stuff:

Annapolis Tidal Station

An interesting little stop, the tidal station uses Fundy tides to generate power, and there’s a free interpretive center to tell you all about it. The downstairs of this space also houses the Annapolis Royal visitors center, with lots of brochures about area attractions and helpful people to answer your questions.

Historic Gardens

We were surprised at what a kid friendly stop the Historic Gardens was and how much there was to see here. Lots of lovely flowers, of course, but also an Acadian house to explore:

….a walk through the historic dykelands:

A scavenger hunt to find all these adorable little birds:

and tons more! I didn’t know mountain laurels came in this color!

It’s a great place to have your kids pose angelically for group photos. Look at their sunshine-y faces!

And they have a family rate of $32 for 2 adults and all dependent children, which is always nice.

And that was our time in Annapolis Royal! One of my favorite stops of the summer!

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