Acadia to Prince Edward Island

Just an FYI that returning an American rental car in Canada is really not possible.

I am really fond of Acadia NP, but I think combining it with the places in Canada will be tricky. Much of that route will not be in view of the ocean.

On the plus side Nova Scotia is beautiful!

Oh! Good to know, thank you!

With two weeks, i would just do Nova Scotia and PEI, there are so many neat places to see. Lunenburg, Peggy's Cove, Halifax just too name a few. Pei really cashes in on Ann of Green Gables nut the do it well. One of the interesting spots in Nova Scotia id the largest wooden church in Canada something you never thought of but worth stopping by if you are in the area. Have a good trip.

Hmm. Thanks for the feedback and perspective on the driving view. It sounds like I've got too big of a trip to do both in a short time.
My original idea was to see the Fall colors on the east coast and to also see Acadia National Park. Maybe I'll look into that instead and or consider the PEI trip separately.

I think you have time to do Acadia and PEI. (I have not been to PEI, but I have been to Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Gaspé Peninsula. )

If this were my trip, I would investigate flying to Boston or Portland and rent a car there. Portland would save you some driving time, but may be more expensive and have fewer flight options. The Portland airport is super convenient for renting a car and heading on north.

The coastal route in Maine is slow but beautiful. You could also stay on the interstate to save some time. We have enjoyed St. Andrews in New Brunswick. We also enjoyed our time along the coast — beautiful drive by St. Martins. We stayed a couple of nights in Alma. The Bay of Fundy tides are very cool.

Coming back you could do Route 9 in Maine, then the interstate. You could drive back to Boston in 2 not long days.

One more thought — check what’s open before you commit yourself. We’ve done a couple of trips in June and some places don’t really open up until mid-June or later. Shorter season than you would expect!

Thank you!

If I wanted to visit Acadia National Park and PEI, I don't think I'd pick Boston as my start point. I'd look at the nearest decent size airport to the park and rent my car there. Portland is one choice. Bangor is even closer. As noted upthread, there is more than one road to travel. No reason why you can't choose one route going and perhaps the faster route coming back. But don't even think about dropping a US rental car in Canada. You'll have to return it in the US.

You could fly into Bangor which is only about an hour from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Delta, American and I think, United fly there. You would probably connect in Washington DC or one of the three NYC airports. Car rental prices are sometimes a bit more expensive in Bangor. If you have more money than time, you could take the Cat ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I think it’s a 3-4 hour trip. That would make the drive to PEI much faster.
Although I live in DC now, I lived most of my life in Maine, very close to Bangor, and visit often.

My wife and I flew into Halifax last September 6th and home to Seattle via Boston on October 3rd last fall. We stayed in Halifax (seeing Peggy's Cove & Lunenburg while there), Cape Breton - (where we found a lot of closed restaurants - not unusual after September 1s), Charlottetown PEI, Hopewell Cape NB, Wolfville NS, Yarmouth NS, Acadia ME, Yarmouth MA and Boston.

As LIZinPA notes it is really not possible to pick up a rental car in Canada and return it in the US. When I discovered that I posted on this forum and a suggestion was to leave our car in Yarmouth NS and rent a new one in Bar Harbor after getting off the ferry. We had to re-rack our trip a bit as we had originally planned to drive through New Brunswick to Maine. It was a great suggestion and worked out well.

Have a great trip whenever you go!

We did something similar a few years ago. Elected to fly in and out of Boston which I will never do again and don't recommend - a real PIA getting in and out of town. Next time I'll be following the advice of the others who suggest flying into Portland or Bangor and renting from there - much easier all the way around and worth the extra cost just for the saved aggravation involved.
A pleasant stop for us on the way north was the Roosevelt compound at Campobello. It's worth the short detour to get there. Time & interest permitting I'd also recommend Cape Breton Island north of Halifax, and in particular the National Park - it's gorgeous.
We enjoyed a several day meander around the Gaspe peninsula on our way around to Quebec. More beautiful scenery and another terrific National Park (Forillon).
Would add that driving up Rte. 1 was an absolute pleasure ... especially in the Fall. I don't recall there being an issue with seasonal closures along the way.

Thank you! Wow, it sounds like there's a lot to explore on the Canada side especially. Lots of excellent ideas and things for me to think about. Thank you very much. I'll definitely call ahead to some places to make sure they're open that late in the season. I know it will be chilly, too. And flying into Bangor and taking the ferry is a great idea!

I think these are two separate trips. There's so much to see and do on the Maine coast and inland that could take up your two weeks. And there's so much so see in Nova Scotia and PEI that could take up two weeks. I bet if you post on the TripAdvisor Maine forum you'll get plenty of good suggestions. Save Canada for a different trip.

Thanks. Yes, that sounds like good advice. Probably best to keep it simple as I'm gaining experience with trips.

Thank you.
Christine

I go to Maine several times a year and my family just took our summer vacation to Nova Scotia and PEI. Based on my experience, I think you'd be better served combining NS and PEI into one trip and saving Acadia and other parts of Maine for another. Could you combine them into two weeks? Absolutely. But there is so much to do, I think you'd feel like you are skipping too much and rushing through a lot. And there's the rental car issue that others have flagged.

I think PEI and NS would be stunning in the fall. That said, particularly on PEI and the smaller towns in NS, there'll be a lot of restaurants and activities closed by October. A lot of seafood restaurants and outdoor activities were late May to mid-September as best as I could tell. Still, people live here. Most of Charlottetown will be open. Halifax is a real city, over 400k population. I think those are good bases for exploring a lot of PEI and NS, respectively. Having just been to NS and PEI (and a bit of New Brunswick), In NS, we did not go to Cape Breton (which others rave about, but we simply didn't have the time). But using Halifax as our base, we went to Lunenberg, Peggy's Cove, Wolfville/Grand Pre, and of course spent time in Halifax. We loved it. On PEI, we used Charlottetown as our base, and went to all of the beaches in the PEI NP, Cavendish, Malpeque, and also points east. It was a fantastic vacation.

If you choose to go to Acadia/Maine, and you are coming from New Mexico, you are going to have to fly with a connection regardless of where you go. If prices are about the same, I'd suggest flying in and out of Portland rather than Boston - it'll just save you time. Or possibly into Portland and home from Bangor. Portland is a fantastic small city and punches well above its weight with restaurants. It's one of my favorite places. From Portland up to Acadia, there is a ton to do. Freeport, Brunswick, Boothbay, Camden, Belfast, just to name a few. With two weeks, I'd suggest 2-3 nights in Portland, taking your time going up the midcoast, and then ending with another 3-4 nights in Bar Harbor.

Happy to answer any other questions, feel free to send me a message.

Thank you, Steve, this is very helpful!

Just to be contrary - I think you really can do this as a two week trip. You won’t see everything but you will get the flavor of both places. But if you really want to immerse in either - pick one. I am from Massachusetts and have spent a bunch of time in Maine and have done the trip you are talking about once 20 years ago. I would drive up the land route and take the ferry back (or vice versa) if the ferry is still an option. Acadia is a definite and is coastal route one after Brunswick. Honestly - you could skip the southern coast below Portland.

You could also look into renting a car in Portland (or Boston) and dropping it in Bar Harbor, taking the ferry and then renting a car in Halifax. (As a side note - the ferry only runs through September in 2024).

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for your reply! I think I'm going to wait and do this trip earlier in the season next year. All of these insights helped me figure out some details so thank you all. :)