St. John/Bay of Fundy

[cruisingbarb]

Does anyone know how easy it is to get a cab to do a tour to St. Martins, the sea caves, etc? Are they readily available when you get off the ship or is it best to reserve something in advance. I tried Roy's Tours but he is booked for that day (10/9).

[trophy_23]

I would rent a car. It would be cheaper than a taxi and more flexible. Also you can have lunch etc. It is an easy drive!

[Tatka]

We are renting a car. Is it easy to get to the caves?

 

We are planning to drive to Hopewell rocks after.

 

Will we have enough time from 9 am till 4 pm to see both? What else is interesting there?

 

Thank you.

[Sydney24]

St John was possibly my favourite port on our trip last October. We hired a car and drove to St Martins first to see the covered bridges. We then drove back through St John and then to St Andrews for lunch. It was beautiful. Anne

[marys350]

We are renting a car. Is it easy to get to the caves?

 

We are planning to drive to Hopewell rocks after.

 

Will we have enough time from 9 am till 4 pm to see both? What else is interesting there?

 

Thank you.

 

We just returned from a New England/Canada cruise today and rented a car in Saint John New Brunswick. We were in port from 7:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m. It is an easy drive to St. Martins to visit the caves, but I don't think that you will have enough time to visit both St. Martins and Hopewell rocks if you are in port from 9:00 to 4:00.

 

We saw the caves and also drove along the Fundy Trail Parkway and saw spectacular scenery. For further information check out their website:

 

http://www.fundytrailparkway.com or do a search for Fundy Trail Parkway. The Fundy Trail Parkway closes for the season sometime in October, so make sure you find out when if you are interested in going there.

 

We also stopped for lunch at the restaurant beside the caves.

 

Our total cost for gas was $26.00. We picked up the rental car at 8:30 and were back to the cruiseship around 3:00 p.m.

 

I'd be happy to answer any further questions that you may have.

 

Mary

[trophy_23]

We just returned from a New England/Canada cruise today and rented a car in Saint John New Brunswick. We were in port from 7:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m. It is an easy drive to St. Martins to visit the caves, but I don't think that you will have enough time to visit both St. Martins and Hopewell rocks if you are in port from 9:00 to 4:00.

 

We saw the caves and also drove along the Fundy Trail Parkway and saw spectacular scenery. For further information check out their website:

 

http://www.fundytrailparkway.com or do a search for Fundy Trail Parkway. The Fundy Trail Parkway closes for the season sometime in October, so make sure you find out when if you are interested in going there.

 

We also stopped for lunch at the restaurant beside the caves.

 

Our total cost for gas was $26.00. We picked up the rental car at 8:30 and were back to the cruiseship around 3:00 p.m.

 

I'd be happy to answer any further questions that you may have.

 

Mary

 

This is exactly the same stuff we did, including lunch at that restaurant. We even had time to stop at the reversing falls before returning the car. It was a great way to spend the day!

[Tatka]

We just returned from a cruise to Canada and NB yesterday.

 

Thank you for suggestions!

I believe we were in port from 7:30 till 5 or 6 pm.

 

Got off the ship at 8:30 am.

 

Rented a car at Avis and drove to both Hopewell Rocks park http://www.thehopewellrocks.ca/ thru Fundy National park (routes 1 and 114) and on the way back to St Martins caves via rt 111. Long but beautiful drive and is absolutely worth it. Guy at AVIS was sceptical about a time, but we did spend about an hour at HW rocks and 40 minutes in St Martins with some stops in between. Left at 9 am and returned around 4. We also made a stop at Ft Howe in Saint John to see city from above.

 

With cost if rent, park fee and gas it was about $145-150.

 

We did use our own Tom Tom, which helped a lot, espetially getting out and into the city.

[ikirumata]

Has anyone been to the Fundy Trail after the season closes? We are going to be in St John on Oct 16th (2 days after official close). I heard that you can still access the footpath from the main gate, but how much can you see without spending several hours/days walking around?

 

Im trying to figure out what to do after we hit the sea caves in St Martins. We are going to be in port from 7-6.

[mizLORInj]

Ditto on renting a car from Avis on Water Street. Great way to get around and see Saint John and its surrounding area.

We have hiked the Fundy Trail, seen the caves at St. Martin (even christened new sneakers because I wasn't quick enough as the tide came in) on one trip. Another trip we drove to see Reversing Falls on the way to St. Andrews.

Downtown Saint John there is a new gourmet olive oil place we found on the street parallel to Water Street called Liquid Gold. Taste them and the balsamic vinegars. Delicious and we bought a whole bunch of smaller sizes to take home and use. Loved this shop and can't wait to go back!

[CRUISEWITHH]

I just came back from a New England cruise on NCL GEM. One of our stops was at St. Johns where I booked a "private tour" for 26 people with FUNDY TOUR

 

Worst tour ever!! Can you imagine they gave us a guide that had just had surgery 2 weeks before and he couldn't talk!

 

At first, when some of the guests started to ask questions about what we were passing as we drove thru town, he said (very quietly) that he would talk about it when we returned, but....

 

As time went on, no one could hear him (he wasn't using the mike even thou we asked him to )and he wasn't doing much talking. Finally, one of the guests (who had a tour book with him) took over the mike and started describing things as he saw them.

 

The guide never did take back the mike or try to "GUIDE" us. It was a total waste of money. BE WARNED...

 

This tour also stopped at a small restaurant for lunch, which was described in the tour itinerary, but didn't have any reservations made for a group. As we stood in line, the larger tour buses keep bringing in large groups who were all taken ahead of us since they had reservations.

 

I wasn't sure we would be able to get everyone seated, let alone served within the 1 hour stop.

 

This is advertised as "The Most Comprehensive Bay of Fundy Tour". Well it was anything but.....

 

I've given the owner a chance to make good, but he refuses. He also faults me (called me unprofessional) for paying in USD at the fair exchange rate for that day.. CAD to USD (the exchange was $.97 USD to $1.00 CAD) When your talking about $1530.00 CAD to USD that's a lot of money.

 

The deposit was made back in June by credit card thru Paypal (over the 45 day limit for refund), but he insisted on Cash for the balance so no chance of getting anything back. What a ripoff!!

[Hobbes67]

What was the name of the company that you used that was so horrible?

[Tatka]

From the post - FUNDY TOUR.

[travellovers2]

We always take ship tours, they are more expensive, but it's worth the peace of mind. We've seen many people left behind in places we wouldn't care to stay.

 

Has anyone taken a ship tour in this area that they would recommend. We're considering the Ruby Princess for October 2014. Thank you.

[Urban trekker]

No merchant, tour guide etc is required to accept US $$$ for payments in Canada - it is not legal currency - most will accept it but will be charged by their bank over and above the exchange rate.

 

Will the tour operators in your home town accept Canadian $$$ at a fair exchange rate?

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[5326jan]

Fundy Trail closes after Canadian Thanksgiving. We went on a tour with Roy Flowers last week and he was able to get the key to open the road gate. The only others that came in were on foot.

 

I recommend Roy, but only for 3-4 people because his mini van is very mini. :)