Montreal is fantastic, my kids loved it. Awesome food scene, gorgeous parks, museums, etc. We stayed in an Airbnb near La Fontaine Park so we could take the metro to the old town but didn’t need to stay there. Was glad we didn’t—the old port was pretty crowded when we went in July; the rest of the city was not. My kids are also young so beautiful old architecture and history aren’t their thing yet. But the Science Center, Botanic Gardens, Insectarium, Biodome, and just playing at all their beautiful parks (plus ice cream and bakeries) were all huge hits. We parked in a secure indoor garage that our airbnb host arranged for us and just took metro and walked everywhere.
I would look soon, my experience was that accommodations booked up fast for June-August in Montreal. |
We’ve been to NS. It’s beautiful. For the sake of OPs trip timing, I would not mix it with Acadia as it does take some time to get to. If you have to choose between the two, and the fact that you want to hike a lot, Acadia is your better choice. Much more hiking and outdoor activities than NS. |
I would ask this question first: how I will be treated arriving in Canada with my US passport and then coming back to the US after my visit to Canada.
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99% of visitors to MDI will have/want a car. A huge number of those will have a rental car. |
I mean it’s 3 hours or so on the ferry to Yarmouth— I don’t consider that a lot of time. Yes it would be more of you want to see Cape Breton but we had a really nice trip a few years ago just sticking to the mainland (Lunenburg, Peggy’s Cove, Bay of Fundy, Halifax, etc). |
Not sure why everyone keeps saying that they will have problems finding lodging. I just did search on Airbnb for Bar Harbor and it returned over 100 places available for the last week of July, and 46 of you limit it to Mt. Desert Island alone. We’ve been traveling a lot this summer and the Airbnb market is saturated everywhere. I’ve booked several very nice places with great reviews and they have very few bookings on the calendar for the summer. I feel bad for people who own STRs, but I think the Airbnb bust is upon us. |
Interesting! I made the comment about it being hard to find lodging. In July of 2022 it was very difficult even 6 months ahead. We ended up at a hotel - which actually worked out really well. Do they do Airbnb rentals for less than a week now? If OP wants to do multiple locations in the 7 days, I’ve found that you have to book a whole week in bc Acadia. But maybe that has changed too! |
We just booked a place in Acadia the last week in August. There were a bunch of options but also a bunch of places we wanted to stay that were booked up, so I guess it depends a little on how picky you are. |
We liked the Sonder in Montreal (I have stayed at 2 different ones, one as a family of four, one as a girls trip of 5) to have space for everyone, 2nd bathroom, kitchen and laundry. |