Southeastern New Brunswick

Southeastern New Brunswick is in a region of the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

Cities

• Moncton — the largest city in New Brunswick and home of the Magnetic Hill Optical Illusion
  • Dieppe — the largest predominantly francophone city in Canada outside Québec
  • Riverview — a small town across the river from Moncton
• Bouctouche — home of La Dune de Bouctouche, with hiking and cycling trails and 12 km of whispering sand dunes
• Strait Shores — rural area located along Northumberland Strait near the Confederation Bridge
• Shediac — the self-proclaimed "lobster capital of the world"
• Tantramar — new town formed from the amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester, and Aulac; home to Mount Allison University

Other destinations

• Kouchibouguac National Park — a very long sand dune, bogs, a boardwalk trail, eight hiking trails, a network of bicycle trails, two campgrounds, canoe and boat launch and the Cap-St-Louis fishing port
• Hopewell Rocks — The tide swings 14 m (47 ft) here, twice every 25 hours. For three hours before and after low tide, you can walk on the bay floor and look up at a half-dozen 30-m-tall "flower pot" sandstone towers topped by trees. Be sure to check the low tide times (dead link: January 2023) and aim to arrive one to three hours before the lowest tide. See Moncton. Take Route 114 to Hopewell Cape, 47 km southeast of Moncton, look for park signs.

Understand

Get in

By car

From the US:

• I-95 through Maine to the Trans-Canada Route 2, through Fredericton
• Route 9 (through Maine) to Route 1 (Canada) through St. Stephen, Saint John From Quebec:
• Route 185 to Edmundston, and then down the Trans-Canada Route 2

By plane

The airport in Moncton (IATA: YQM) has flights from Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary, Ottawa and Newark (New Jersey)

Halifax Airport (IATA: YHZ) is 2 hours away in Nova Scotia with many more direct and non-stop flights from other cities in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

By train

Rail service to Moncton is provided by VIA Rail and its Ocean train, operating between Montréal and Halifax via Quebec City.

By bus

Maritimebus provides service from Rivière-du-Loup (Quebec), from Halifax (NS) to Sackville and Moncton, and from Charlottetown (PEI) to Shediac and Moncton.

Get around

Codiac Transit provides service between Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.

Maritimebus provides service between Sackville, Moncton, and Shediac.

See

The Magnetic Hill Optical Illusion in Moncton is a gravity hill, a type of optical illusion created by rising and descending terrain, in which it appears that cars roll uphill when in neutral gear.

The Tidal Bore Park in downtown Moncton has amphitheatre-style seating for bore viewing. The tidal bore happens when the Bay of Fundy rising tide brings water counter to the normal flow of Petitcodiac river. The once-famous thundering flow has been reduced to a 6-inch ripple by nearby causeway, but still an unusual sight when it is visible.

Fort Beauséjour—Fort Cumberland National Historic Site in Aulac, near Sackville is a French fortress built in 1751. The ruins have been partially reconstructed, with a museum on-site.

Le Pays de la Saguine is a reproduction of an Acadian village, near Bouctouche, with history presented through theatre, comedy, music and Acadian food (July and August only).

A total solar eclipse on Monday 8 April 2024 crosses this area around 4:34PM local time, but you need to be north of Shediac to see it. The track of totality is northeast from Mexico and Texas to Ohio, straddling the Canada–New England border, then across Maine, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

Do

Swimming, cycling and hiking in Kouchibouguac Park, or go on a river adventure in a voyageur-style canoe to going seal watching.

The region has some great beaches: Kelly Beach in Kouchibouguac Park, or Parlee Beach Provincial Park and Plage L'Aboiteau near Shediac.

The Lobster Festival is a fun-filled week in mid-July of just about everything in Shediac. Fun for the family, parties for the adults, rides and live entertainment, lobster for everyone!

Stay safe

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