Highest Tides in the World – Bay of Fundy

Where on earth is this place? For Maine residents, they know New Brunswick is attached at the hip, and residents from either country go back and forth for business and pleasure. You may even have branches of an Acadian ancestral family tree in this area. The Bay of Fundy National Park is an incredible way to spend a family beach vacation. You can start in Hopewell Cape New Brunswick, take a ferry to Nova Scotia, and find areas in both Canadian provinces to view and experience the tides. The Bay of Fundy is 170 miles long, or approximately 270 kilometres.

The tides rise from low to high approximately every 6 hours and 13 minutes. However, if you want to view a dramatic change, the highest and lowest occur twice every 24 hours. In the areas with the great change, you can expect up to 50 feet difference, meaning a boat can be beached, and then floating very high six hours later. You can be on the sandy beach exploring all kinds of areas, such as in Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, and find out six hours later it is completely covered in deep water, with the rock formations you were climbing on, almost completely submerged. Each day the time the tide goes in and out moves one hour ahead. As you are dealing with a stretch of 170 miles, decide which community you will be around, and then find out the tide times based on their area.

Best places to see the greatest vertical change in tide – well you’re looking at two different provinces, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Believe me, you are not wasting your time in either because the coastal communities are just incredible. Hopewell Cape, Alma and St. Martins in New Brunswick have wharves for viewing the change well. You will also do well in Petticodiac River in Moncton.

Nova Scotia has Parrsboro, Advocate and Hall’s Harbour (yes they spell harbour different in Canada) You can also see it vertically at Hantsport, Margaretsville, and Digby.

To watch the greatest horizontal change in tide, where the tide moves back at least three miles – yes really, which is about five kilometers, be at Chinecto Bay or Minas Basin. Take care however that you keep an eye on the tidal times, because the tide starts coming in rapidly. Other coastal areas to view horizontal in New Brunswick, would be St. Andrews, New River Beach, and Dorchester Cape, St Martins, Alma and Hopewell Rock.

If anybody recalls their summers in New Brunswick like I do, the hours spent as a child exploring the beaches were never forgotten. Having the chance to be in shallow waters way out from shore was fascinating, digging for clams at Shediac beach is still there, and I’ll always have New Brunswick on my mind.

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will have some of the best seafood, whale watching, sailing, and affordable accommodations. These places will be easy on the American dollar, as well as every other currency. These places will not be easy on the heart however, because they will pull at your heart strings and make you want to return time and again, perhaps buy cottage property and explore your Acadian roots you left behind.