"Where Tvor Lives" a Halifax Travel Page by tvor

I live in Halifax, ok, technically Dartmouth but it's all part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax was founded in 1749 by the British as a military outpost and the military features strongly even today. Halifax is the base for the East Coast Navy for Canada. It's also the provincial capital for Nova Scotia so government is a major employer. We also have 5 or 6 universities and colleges so there are lots of students around as well.

Halifax is situated on one of the largest ice free harbours in the world, Dartmouth on the other shore and Bedford on the basin at the back of the harbour which is spanned by two bridges and a people ferry, (seen in the above photo) one of the oldest ferries in North Americal. It's total population is about 350,000 for the whole municipality though about half that is urban. Just large enough to have lots to do and small enough to be comfortable.

I love it here by the sea. The city is friendly and quite pretty. I hope i can offer some tips and tricks for the area for anyone wanting to travel here.

Halifax is a harbour city so it's very soul centers on the water and the sea. Fishing, the Navy, commerce, the harbour hosts a lot of traffic. The waterfront is a busy spot and a lot of it is very attractively done up. Shops, restaurants, museums, farmers market, upscale living, even an outdoor movie theatre on the grounds of an old power station on selected Fridays in the summer!

Halifax has festivals all summer long, starting with the Greek festival in early June and ending with the Atlantic film festival in September. In between are celebrations of Jazz, Comedy, Buskers, Blues, Multiculturalism, the Nova Scotia International Air Show, the Lebanese festival, Polish festival, Dragon Boat festival, Italian Festival (some of these are just one day events) and the Atlantic Film Festival in September. I've probably missed a few and there are new ones every year. There's even Pride Week now with events and a parade. Every few years, the Tall Ships come to the city and there is a long weekend festival for that. Every year Halifax celebrates it's birthday over the first weekend in August with four days of activities and celebrations, as well.

Halifax has a Junior A hockey team, the Mooseheads, which draw large crowds in winter. Dartmouth is the birthplace of NHL (ice hockey) superstar Sidney Crosby who plays (currently) for the Stanley Cup winning team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. We also host or have hosted in the past some major sporting events such as the world Junior A hockey championshiops, the World Figure Skating medals, World Canoe championships,The Canadian university basketball champs. Halifax is going to host the Canada Games in 2011. There's good golfing in the area and because there's lots of water, it's a great place for sailing, canoeing and other water sports.

We have top class university sports as well as several excellent theatre companies, the largest of which is Neptune Theatre. There are quite a growing number of local community theatre groups and a fabulously rambunctious troupe, Shakespeare by the Sea that performs out of doors every summer.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has been hosting some great exhibits over the last few years from Impressionists to Rodin sculpture in addition to featuring East Coast artists. There are lots of little galleries to visit as well. Lots of interesting and diverse dining experiences, lots of parks, lakes and beaches within the city boundaries and others not all that far by vehicle. There's lots of history and historical old buildings. The local crafts and artisans are top class.

Our weather is a bit more temperate than some other parts of Canada. We do have snow in the winter but not usually heaps. Some winters, however, do dump a lot on us. It's unpredictable. The usual routine is to get snow and then rain. We have some very cold days in winter but it doesn't prolong and we get some quite hot and humid days in summer, but again, not for long. The ocean currents and breezes tend to keep the temperature reasonable. On the down side, we have cold and wet spring weather until almost June though some years we're surprised by nice weather in May. September is usually really nice as is October with the added bonus of spectacular fall colour. We sometimes get the ends of tropical storms that work their way up the east coast in the late summer and fall and on one or two occasions in history we've been hit with a hurricane but the worst of them tend to blow out to sea. Our weather is very changeable and unpredictable so i guess we just take it as we see it. Like most of Canada, the weather is a favourite topic of conversation!

In addition to the tips i am gathering here,
I've uploaded photos taken around the area, and events in the area i've attended and stored them in an off-site gallery at
This Fotopic site Which will give you a good feel for what the Halifax area has to offer. There are also some more recent photos at my Flikr site