7 Best Things to do in Bay of Fundy For Your First Visit
While there’s a lot of things to do in Bay of Fundy, the truth is that it’s tough to find decent information on this area because of how large it is. That’s what happened to me when I visited this place and I have to say, the resources I found on what to see here were confusing at best.
As a result, I went in blind to explore Bay of Fundy and wasted a lot of time figuring out where to go, what to see and in the end missed out on a lot! Fortunately I did a lot of post research after my visit and learned how to properly explore this area, and that’s why I wrote this article. So if you’re visiting Bay of Fundy for the first time, or missed out on it’s many beautiful spots like I did, this article will help you get the most out of your first (or next) visit there!
7 things to do in Bay of Fundy:
- Hopewell Rocks
- Whale watching
- See the Bay of Fundy high/low tides
- Waterfalls in Bay of Fundy National Park
- Sea caves at Bay of Fundy
- Bay of Fundy scenic drive
- Exploring Bay of Fundy National Park
- Bonus: More things to do in Bay of Fundy (visitor recommendations)
Bay of Fundy has a lot more things you can do there, but these 7 really encapsulate the most popular things people do when they go here. And I’ll be showing you the locations of these places so you can get to them right away (without having to look for them like I did when I went there).
Hotel/Lodging info:
Hopewell Rocks:
This is the most iconic spot in all of Bay of Fundy. It’s basically a beach that you can walk on during low tide to see amazing rock formations, and during high tide, kayak through the same area and even see some sea caves. Hopewell Rocks is the location that most people will see if they Google “Bay of Fundy” but when I came to this area, I had no clue where to find it and lost a few hours in the process. I had to ask locals and they showed me how to get there, so to help you avoid that same problem here’s what you need to know:
- Hopewell Rocks is located in the north eastern part of Bay of Fundy.
- You do have to pay a fee to get into the park (click here to get tickets)
- You then have a choice to see the Hopewell Rocks from above (if it’s high tide) or go down to the beach (if it’s low tide). I recommend you try to see them from below (on the beach). If you want to kayak through Hopewell Rocks, there are at least 2 kayak rental areas north and south of the area.
- Click here to see more things to do in the area (kayaking, tours, etc…)
How to get there:
I included a link to it and it’s called Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. I have also created a guide to visiting Hopewell Rocks to help you when you go here.
Whale watching tours:
Bay of Fundy is well known for having a lot of whales swim through it. There’s multiple boat tours you can take since this region is so large.
Recommendations:
Here’s a Viator page with the best boat tours across Bay of Fundy which include whale tours, sea cave tours and much more.
Witness the famous high and low tides:
This is what Bay of Fundy is most known for! The entire area is very well known for having the biggest high and low tides you’ll ever see and I can confirm this since when we landed on the coast, it was during the low tide period and you could see that the water fills in at least a kilometer inland.
The above image of Hopewell Rocks is also famous for this as when the low tides kick in fully, you explore the beach and rocks fully, but when it’s high tide, you can’t, but can kayak there to get another view of the land. But what you see in the image here (the boat) is very common to witness as when the low tides do happen, they are so extreme that it feels like a massive drought came through, and this happens every single day there.
Best places to see Bay of Fundy tides:
- Hopewell Rocks.
- Any coastal area in south New Brunswick (where Bay of Fundy is located), specifically any marina, towns on the coast, etc…
- There are also some sea caves below as one of the other things to see here that’s great for seeing the high and low tides.
See the many waterfalls in Fundy National Park:
While high and low tides are are awesome to see in Bay of Fundy, there’s also a national park that’s connected to the coast, but also goes very far inland that I recommend seeing and for this specific activity, the waterfalls there. I mainly recommend Dickson Falls which is on the southern most end of the park, where you can also see great views of the coast (and possibly another great angle of the high and low tides).
Sea caves (St. Martins Sea Caves):
There is an iconic sea cave west of Fundy National Park park known as St. Martins Sea Caves and it’s right on the coast, but on the western end of Bay of Fundy. Because it’s directly opposite of Hopewell Rocks, when I visited this area, my friends and I had to decide on only seeing one location (we had to make the Ferry to go see Gros Morne National Park). And so, because we had to go further north east, Hopewell Rocks was the deciding location for us to visit, while the sea caves would have to be put on hold.
Where to find this sea cave:
- Here’s a location for this sea cave. The ideal time to visit this cave is during peak low tide. When high tide happens here, you won’t be able to go inside the cave!
- You can also do private tours of the St. Martins sea cave (check prices).
Driving through Fundy Trail Parkway:
This is a scenic drive that begins in western Bay of Fundy (south New Brunswick) and goes all the way in and through Bay of Fundy National Park. After Fundy Trail Parkway ends (when the national park ends), you will be on different road that continues along Bay of Fundy and to places like Hopewell Rocks, so I recommend doing that drive too, not just for seeing all the best places in Bay of Fundy, but also getting the full experience of this scenic drive!
Recommendations:
I recommend starting the drive on the western end, which begins near the town of St. John. Here’s details on the Fundy scenic drive. While on this drive, I also recommend checking out the best things to do in Bay of Fundy here, so you can make these additional stops along the way.
Fundy National park:
If you love nature but aren’t really active in it like we were, you have the option to camp out and picnic in the park (in addition to doing the waterfall hikes mentioned earlier), which itself is huge. There’s a few ways to enter Fundy National Park. I would just enter it into your GPS, but here’s a few options:
- You can do it from the scenic drive I mentioned earlier.
- You can also access it from the main road (2) that’s in New Brunswick.
- You can also access it from the west road that goes through Bay of Fundy.
- You can also see the best things to do in Fundy National Park here based on visitor reviews.
Tips:
- Understand where the Bay of Fundy location is (I’ll include a bigger map shortly).
- To also understand just how bad the directions are to this place (because they literally clump all the locations I listed into one name which is Bay of Fundy, and it confuses people!) and to make sure you use this article to identify where in this large area you wish to go.
Bay of Fundy map:
