Canada and US trip - Part 1 - Travel and Halifax

Travel / Feb 20th, 2024 / 0 COMMENTS / A⁺ | a^-

What do you do when you have 10 days without the kids and a chance to go on a holiday. Plan a 2700km car journey and 900km train ride across the US and Canada, taking in the culenary and natrual beuty along the way. Finishing up in New York.
Part 1 - Journey to Halifax and Halifax area
Part 2 - Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick
Part 3 - US Road Trip - Main to Niagra Falls
Part 4 - Toronto and New York City

In September 2023 we were in the luxurious position of having my mother come over from Australia to spend some time with us, but also she was happy to take the kids (who were in school each weekday) and allow us to go on our own holiday without the kids.

Normally September is not really a good month to travel as Vanessa often has a trip to New York she has to attend. As you might know, we go on a lot of holidays in September anyway and this has caused problems for her work in the past. Anyway, this year we came up with the crazy idea of flying into Halifax (why? Well, because it is random) and then driving around to New York where I would then fly home and Vanessa would stay on to do her work trip.

So we set out planning this trip and first things first, we had to book flights. Well guess what? Vanessa gets her business class flight paid for by her company and they are ok with paying for her flight to Halifax as it is the same price as the flight to New York they would have bought her anyway. But when we looked, the business class flight was just not worth it for me. We could better use that money on something enjoyable while we were there.
The next thing we had to do was book a car. Now, I wanted to get something americana, like convertible muscle car or a US style truck. But it was impossible to find one from Halifax to New York. In fact, in general we found it hard to find nice cars from Halifax for one way rentals. Eventually I managed to find a dodge charger using VIPCars.com as a one way rental from Halifax to Toronto. The actual rental itself was through hertz car rentals. Not the convertible I wanted but it would still be a fun car to drive.

Now our plan was coming together. We had our flights booked, we knew we had a car when we arrived and when we would drop it off in Toronto and we knew when we had to be in New York by for my flight home.

Normally at this point we would start planning the shit out of the holiday and know pretty much everything we wanted to see and for Vanessa, everything she wanted to eat and where she wanted to eat it. But this time around, we decided to make the vaguest of plans and instead we would do a proper road trip of just seeing what we found along the way.

Of course, there was no way that Vanessa was going to adhere to this completely and she booked our first nights accommodation (actually a really smart plan) and then she also booked 1 other dinner which we will get to shortly, but it needed to be booked in advance.

So our trip started with us heading to the airport for our flights to Halifax. Remember that Vanessa has business class and I do not. Anyway, the first flight was a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. This is a fairly standard short haul flight and there is not much difference between the business and the economy seats so nothing to complain about here.

We then had a 4 hour stopover in Frankfurt and normally this would not be a problem as we both have priority passes that get us into lounges and we could just relax in a lounge until our flight. We followed the directions in the app to get to the lounge that was in the terminal where out next flight would be going from and were a little confused when we found ourselves at the check in counters. Yes, the LuxxLounge at Frankfurt airport is landside and not airside. So we would have to go back through security later to get our next flight. So we went into the lounge and it was the most underwhelming lounge we have ever been to. The choice of drinks was limited, there was barely any food other than these hotdogs and some cakes. However, we did get some nice chairs to sit in. Later when I was bored and wandering around the lounge I found a fridge at the back of the lounge and I opened it to see if there might by chance be a different selection of drinks and was surprised that that this drinks fridge taller than me was filled to the brim with frankfurters. People must eat a lot of those sausages.

After leaving the lounge we made our way back through security and then off to the gate. We thought we had booked Lufthansa the whole way but we found out we had actually booked Discovery Airlines (formally Eurowings). When we got to the boarding gate it was rammed full of people as the flight was delayed and it turned out they had overbooked the flight which was causing some problems. We got talking to a couple of nice people who live and work in Halifax and Vanessa got some ideas of things to see and eat for when we arrived and we waited for our respective classes to board.

I had the worse flight I have ever taken. The seats were cramped, my legs were practically in the seat in the front the whole way. There were no headphones provided until you asked for them during the first drinks service, which was 45 minutes into the flight. The food was the worst nondescript food I have ever had on a plane. The tray table was also broken so I could not properly balance my food or drink on it. The staff were friendly enough and so I made the most of it and ordered drinks and watched a couple of films. Vanessa said that business was quite the opposite and she really enjoyed it.

Halifax

After landing we made our way through all the security and customs (do there really need to be so many steps to get through?) and then went to find the car rental place. The staff at the counter were really friendly and nice but our car was not yet there and given that we had a one way rental booked and one of the higher classes they had, we could not really get any other car that they had there. We waited about twiddling our thumbs for about an hour, which incensed Vanessa as she hates to wait around, but eventually our bright red Dodge charger arrived and we were able to start our road trip.

We headed off on the highway to Halifax and got a pretty good night view of the city as we were driving in. Because of the dark we didn’t see much else. We were headed for the Halliburton hotel that Vanessa had booked for us in the centre of Halifax. It is a collection of 19th-century townhouses that have been meticulously preserved and transformed into a boutique hotel. The hotel, or townhouses, I am not quite sure, date back to 1809 and Vanessa had read some good reviews on the hotel. The location was also perfect as it was close to the lively areas of town and the waterfront. When we arrived, the nice staff member on duty came out to show us where we could park the car while we unloaded the car and she showed us to our room. The whole hotel is furnished in period furniture and the staircase was a bit wonky and creaky but the room was more than acceptable. They also pointed us around the corner to an offstreet car park that was free for guests.

After sorting out the car and the room we headed off into Halifax. We had been given an explanation of which way to go to find some good nightlife and food places. Too bad that we forget all of the directions at the first corner. We just kept walking in the direction of lights and where we thought we could here lively sounds. We ended up walking up Spring Garden Rd which did have a number of different places to eat and possibly drink as well, but it was already 10pm and places seemed to be winding down on this road. We ended up eating at the Meltwich Food Co eatery. It is a fast food place that “specialises” in the comfort foods including Putine (a beloved Canadian comfort dish featuring crispy fries topped with squeaky cheese curds and smothered in rich, savory gravy) which we decided to try in two different variations. The portions were far too large for the two of us, however I am pretty sure at least I finished mine.

With food in our stomachs we headed back through town to see if we could find anywhere else to hang out. But by this time all the places that were still open were properly heaving with people that were in varying states of inebriation. We saw a few people who had enjoyed their drinks a little too much and had decided to bring them back up. It was at this point that we felt quite old and were more than happy to just laugh at the people we saw out and to keep walking around town for a bit. We saw a couple of shops we would maybe go back to the next day and then we went home to have a look ahead to the next day.

We started the next day by heading out for a walk along the waterfront. It is a nice walk but many of the stalls and businesses were shut as it was 8am on a Saturday. There were many joggers out and we saw a Navy ship docked at the wharf as well (which explained all the navy people we saw bar hopping the night before). We read the historical information plaques (learned a thing or two about the history of this part of Canada, mostly about the French colonisation and then what the British did to the French after they took control) and started heading towards Annie’s Place café, which we had just found on google a few minutes before and had good reviews and a menu that interested us. On the way there we got a glimpse of the Halifax Citadel which looks really cool from street level and also saw the homeless camp that was set up in central park (Grande Parade). At Annie’s, I had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and Vanessa had some eggs with hash (she had food envy).

After breakfast we did some more wandering, looking in shop windows and checking out old and colourful buildings. At one point we found this really dilapidated building in a really good location with a for sale sign on it. We thought it was interesting that such a prime location had not been taken and were looking at the property when this really friendly guy from Malaysia started talking to us, Vanessa hit it off right away with him, busting out her broken Hokkien, whilst he gave us another little history lesson and some tips. We continued until we got to Jennifer’s Of Nova Scotia shop. It is a cute little boutique that Vanessa would have bought nearly everything from if I was not there to stop her. We also walked through the central square which had a cemetrary and homeless people in it along with the war memorial.

We headed back to the hotel to get the car and drove up over the citadel before leaving on the drive to Prince Edward Island via the Caribou Ferry to go to the Fireworks Feast. This was one of the few things that we booked in advance. The ferry runs a few times a day so we didn’t have to wait too long to get on it. However, while we waited we did go for a little walk around the dock area and looked at some of the commercial fishing boats there. Once on board we grabbed a few snacks and a drink. The ferry took about half an hour.