Yarmouth NS Nova Scotia Canada
12
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Crystal Cruises (6 Cruises)
Crystal Grace
5 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
On the waterfront, a few minutes' walk from downtown and its heritage district. The Sweeney Fisheries Museum is right on the waterfront, and the captains' district is ten minutes away.
The heritage district walking route takes about an hour, the county museum another, and the Sweeney Museum three quarters of an hour. Cape Forchu, 11 kilometres out, adds two hours including travel.
Because in the age of sail the town had more registered tonnage per capita than almost any port in the world. Captains who made their fortunes on the West Indies and Europe runs came home to build houses on the scale of their success.
Dozens of Queen Anne, Georgian and Italianate residences, among century-old maples and wrought-iron fences. Guides recount the fortunes built on timber and salt fish, the shipwrecks, and the widows who scanned the horizon from the rooftop widow's walks.
The county museum, in a former granite church, holds one of the most important collections of ship portraits in Canada. On the waterfront, the W. Laurence Sweeney Fisheries Museum recreates a 1900s wharf, tar smell included.
A lighthouse standing on a wind-swept spur of rock at the harbour entrance, about fifteen minutes' drive from downtown. Its slender apple-core silhouette, as locals describe it, dates from 1962. The surrounding park offers trails, lookouts and a tea room in the former keeper's house.
Lobster: the southwest Nova Scotia fleet lands a substantial share of the Canadian catch. Generous lobster rolls, rich chowders and whole lobsters served without fuss facing the harbour.
A traditional Acadian dish of potato and poultry, found almost nowhere else. The neighbouring Baie Sainte-Marie region, French-speaking since 1768, shares it gladly.
English predominates, but you sometimes hear the Acadian French of nearby Baie Sainte-Marie. The currency is the Canadian dollar and cards are accepted everywhere.
Yes, distances are short and downtown is easily walked. Frost Park offers a pause around a three-tier fountain that has stood there for a century and a half, and the Sweeney Museum, with its recreated sheds and workshops, appeals to children.
