Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove is a hamlet and popular tourist spot in Nova Scotia. It is both bleak and picturesque with its historic and still-used lighthouse standing watch over the village and the granite rocks and cliffs.

Understand
Peggy's Cove is a tiny fishing village (population 35) which attracts somewhere between half a million and a million tourists a year, all trying to snap a photo of its famous lighthouse. Some claim that a fisherman named this tiny spot for his wife, who was fond of this location; another possibility is that the village is named for its location on St. Margaret's Bay.

Get in
There is no public transport there: you can rent a car, take a bus tour or hire a taxi. Nonetheless, Peggy's Cove is very much on the beaten path due to its proximity to Halifax (about 45 minutes by road), its famed scenic ocean view and its ready accessibility by bus tours.

Peggy's Cove is 45 km southwest of Halifax. Highway 333 is the only road in and out of town (take exit 5 from Hwy 103). Most bus tours leave Halifax at 9AM, 10AM or 1PM and return in the late afternoon. If travelling independently, arriving at sunrise and leaving by 9AM is one way to avoid the crowds; another is to visit in "shoulder season" (late spring, early fall) when the crowds are smaller.

On foot
The village, while pretty, is tiny. There is a large parking lot near the edge of the village, at the Visitor Information Center; you can walk down to the village from there. The walk from the Visitor Information Center to the lighthouse is only five minutes; however, the road does not have a sidewalk and most drivers in town are also tourists, so mind the traffic.

Most of the town is private property; do not park in someone's driveway.

See

 * Take in the views -- the lighthouse, the ocean, the fishing village. The sunsets are gorgeous and peaceful on clear summer evenings, but the best times to see Peggys Cove are the stormy days, when the waves crash against the cliffs sending salt spray high into the air.
 * There are two memorials to the Swissair Flight 111 crash: the, about 1 km north of the village. The is near Bayswater Beach Provincial Park. These commemorate the victims of the flight which crashed into the ocean just off the coast of Peggy's Cove on Wednesday, 2 September 1998 with all passengers and crew lost.

Buy
Options are limited; there are plenty of souvenirs and works of art for sale to tourists, but relatively little else. There is one convenience store.

Connect
Bring your cellphone. Depending on the number of tourists in town, you may have to wait for a signal.

There used to be a small post office with a special cancellation strike inside the lighthouse, but it was closed in 2009.

Stay safe
Signs are clear to point out "Injury and death have rewarded careless sight-seers here."

The coastline in Peggy's Cove is steep and rocky; the sea can be rough at times. There is a clearly-marked but sometimes deadly risk of falling into the ocean (or being knocked off slippery, wet rock by large waves) and either swept away from shore or slammed into the rocks by rough water.

Keep well back from the rock face as it's a long way down to the water. Stay off the "black rocks", wet with ocean spray. People have been killed here.

Go next
Continue down the South Shore to Chester and historic Lunenburg.