Moving to Yarmouth NS

[drjohnnyfever]

Currently living in southwestern Ontario, and my wife is pushing to move to Nova Scotia. She seems to have pinpointed Yarmouth as the place to be (for us), and since I work from home, why not I say?

We're going to visit Yarmouth next month, but I want to know what it's like to LIVE there. I'm hoping some kind people here can tell me about living in Yarmouth by describing 1 thing they like, and 1 thing they dislike.

For example, in my current town of 15,000...

LIKE: Just enough major chains (eg. WM, CT) that I don't feel that I can't get the things I need without having to drive out of town.
DISLIKE: The independent retailers act like it's 1989 (eg. no electronic payment, don't use email), and make shopping with them more inconvenient than it needs to be.

LIKE: Temperatures may be -25C in the winter, but the sun shines and doesn't snow for weeks at a time.
DISLIKE: Being nestled in the Great Lakes, when it snows it snows hard, and I can be blowing snow higher than my knees 3x a day.

Thanks in advance!

[Bishop2047]

Originally Posted by drjohnnyfever

Currently living in southwestern Ontario, and my wife is pushing to move to Nova Scotia. She seems to have pinpointed Yarmouth as the place to be (for us), and since I work from home, why not I say?

We're going to visit Yarmouth next month, but I want to know what it's like to LIVE there. I'm hoping some kind people here can tell me about living in Yarmouth by describing 1 thing they like, and 1 thing they dislike.

For example, in my current town of 15,000...

LIKE: Just enough major chains (eg. WM, CT) that I don't feel that I can't get the things I need without having to drive out of town.
DISLIKE: The independent retailers act like it's 1989 (eg. no electronic payment, don't use email), and make shopping with them more inconvenient than it needs to be.

LIKE: Temperatures may be -25C in the winter, but the sun shines and doesn't snow for weeks at a time.
DISLIKE: Being nestled in the Great Lakes, when it snows it snows hard, and I can be blowing snow higher than my knees 3x a day.

Thanks in advance!

I'll take a crack though I was not there for more than a year (temp work location).

Likes: Mild winters. Even in the dead of winter, you are likely to have daily high temps on the plus side of things. I rarely had to snowblow/shovel.

Dislikes: The feeling of remoteness. It is a long drive to the nearest airport, trauma center, or some of niche stores some people care to visit. Much like the town you are coming from it has most of what you need, but lacks specialty stores and warehouse style businesses.

I was only there for a year but the overall weather trends agree with my "Like".

[drjohnnyfever]

Originally Posted by Bishop2047

I'll take a crack though I was not there for more than a year (temp work location).

Thank you for commenting

[MonctonRad]

I've only been to Yarmouth once. It's a pleasant town with more amenities and services than you might expect for a town of 7,000 people or so. This is because it is the regional service centre for southwestern NS.

Two things to consider:

1) - Geographic remoteness. The nearest city (Halifax) is 300 km away. It is a reaaallly long day trip to get there, and if you have any evening plans in Halifax, it is an overnight stay. The Halifax airport is more like 350 km away, and it is 550 km to get out of Nova Scotia, and over 1000 km to even reach the Quebec border.

2) - On the other hand, southwestern NS has the most temperate winters in Atlantic Canada. Snow may fall, but it rarely stays more than a few days, and daytime highs are usually above zero. Cold snaps are almost unheard of.

A bonus of living in Yarmouth is the high speed CAT ferry to Bar Harbor ME. It is only a 3.5 hour ferry ride, and you can board as a pedestrian, or take a bicycle with you. Bar Harbor (and Acadia National Park) are top tourist draws in New England. Lots of shops, pubs, fine restaurants and places to stay in Bar Harbor.

[Smevo]

I've never been to Yarmouth, at least not in my memory forming years (my family insists I have been there when I was very young), but my brother in law grew up there and I don't think I've ever heard him say something bad about it. That said, I would definitely echo the remoteness that was previously mentioned, as it's only ~7500 people and is the largest population centre for at least 2 hours (Bridgewater on the 103 and Kentville on the 101 would be the closest larger centres at ~9,000 and ~15,000 respectively, off the top of my head).

For your visit next month, if you're looking for ideas, I highly recommend checking out the daveyandsky YouTube channel as they've done a few tours of the town and surrounding area, and are the best ambassadors I've seen on YouTube so far for the Maritimes.

[someone123]

I've been to Yarmouth. Never lived there but I did live along the near South Shore.

One "like" for remote areas like that is you can have real privacy in beautiful locations (e.g. your own de facto private beach you drive to in 10 mins) and it may ruin how you think about most normal places.

One "dislike" that might not be obvious is your power may go out a lot and for a long time, particularly if you live in a rural house with long power lines running through the woods.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I've only been to Yarmouth once. It's a pleasant town with more amenities and services than you might expect for a town of 7,000 people or so. This is because it is the regional service centre for southwestern NS.

Two things to consider:

1) - Geographic remoteness. The nearest city (Halifax) is 300 km away. It is a reaaallly long day trip to get there, and if you have any evening plans in Halifax, it is an overnight stay. The Halifax airport is more like 350 km away, and it is 550 km to get out of Nova Scotia, and over 1000 km to even reach the Quebec border.

2) - On the other hand, southwestern NS has the most temperate winters in Atlantic Canada. Snow may fall, but it rarely stays more than a few days, and daytime highs are usually above zero. Cold snaps are almost unheard of.

A bonus of living in Yarmouth is the high speed CAT ferry to Bar Harbor ME. It is only a 3.5 hour ferry ride, and you can board as a pedestrian, or take a bicycle with you. Bar Harbor (and Acadia National Park) are top tourist draws in New England. Lots of shops, pubs, fine restaurants and places to stay in Bar Harbor.

Hasn't the CAT been somewhere undependable in recent years, though? Due to technical issues?

[Acajack]

Summers are also quite cool in SW Nova Scotia, with average highs in the low 20s.

For example we are in mid-June and not a single day in the next week is forecast to go above 20C.

You'll get days in the upper teens and even sometimes in the mid teens Celsius even in mid-summer.

In order to get Ontario-style summers you need to go to the Annapolis Valley which is 150-200 km away from Yarmouth. But that's a pretty different area in a number of ways.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Hasn't the CAT been somewhere undependable in recent years, though? Due to technical issues?

The service was suspended for two years because of the pandemic, and, last year, the ferry didn't run because of docking upgrades in Bar Harbor. There have been no problems with the ferry itself.

Barring another pandemic, things should be good moving forward.

[Acajack]

I am quite familiar with the area, as I have family not too far away.

It's a pretty nice area, though a bit remote, but no so much as say a small town in Northern Ontario would feel remote.

If you take the south shore route to Halifax (the 103) there are some stretches that are unpopulated but the northern route (the 101) through Baie-Ste-Marie and the Annapolis Valley basically has small towns all the way from Yarmouth to Halifax so in that sense it doesn't feel like you're living in an isolated place.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

If you take the south shore route to Halifax (the 103) there are some stretches that are unpopulated but the northern route (the 101) through Baie-Ste-Marie and the Annapolis Valley basically has small towns all the way from Yarmouth to Halifax so in that sense it doesn't feel like you're living in an isolated place.

I've driven both the 1 and the 101. The 1 is a very interesting drive along the populated coast of the Acadian Shore. The 101 however, although only a few km inland, feels like an interminable drive through nowhere.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Summers are also quite cool in SW Nova Scotia, with average highs in the low 20s.

For example we are in mid-June and not a single day in the next week is forecast to go above 20C.

Some people like the heat but in my experience if you live somewhere you get used to it more, to the point where 20 can feel perfectly comfortable (obviously there is a limit to this, but it's way below that). If you are coming from Ontario in the summer it will feel cold. If you go from Yarmouth to Ontario in the summer you will feel like you are dying from the heat. And you do not need AC in Yarmouth. You can get lots of fresh air year round.

The coastal climate has a lot less variation and IMO is easier to get used to.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Summers are also quite cool in SW Nova Scotia, with average highs in the low 20s.

For example we are in mid-June and not a single day in the next week is forecast to go above 20C.

You'll get days in the upper teens and even sometimes in the mid teens Celsius even in mid-summer.

In order to get Ontario-style summers you need to go to the Annapolis Valley which is 150-200 km away from Yarmouth. But that's a pretty different area in a number of ways.

This spring has been unseasonably late and cold though so not at all representative. But it's definitely true that we get less stiffing heat compared to more continental climates, particularly for places near the ocean (within say 5-10km). In fact, when working remotely my co-workers and I always find it amusing how different the weather can be for the people working out in Sackville or Beaverbank compared to people in Hfx and Dartmouth.

I've personally never been to Yarmouth itself but I've lived in rural and small town NS before. But never anywhere as far from a city as that. In fact I've never lived further than an hour or two from either Hfx or Moncton. Being isolated does mean it will acts as a service centre for a larger area giving it greater direct access to retail and amenities than it would have otherwise. So it really depends on one's personal standards for such things.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

This spring has been unseasonably late and cold though so not at all representative. But it's definitely true that we get less stiffing heat compared to more continental climates, particularly for places close to the shore. In fact, when working remotely my co-workers and I always find it amusing how different the weather can be for the people working out in Sackville or Beaverbank compared to people in Hfx and Dartmouth.

This is true around western NS too. Kejiimkujik is one of the hottest places in NS in the summer, around 25 during the typical day when the coast will be closer to 20 (that's just average; on a warm sunny day the difference is larger). And this is over a pretty small area so you can drive 30-40 mins on a nice spring or summer day to go visit somewhere warmer, while a cold night in the winter is flipped and the temperature will drop far more in those inland areas.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by someone123

Some people like the heat but in my experience if you live somewhere you get used to it more, to the point where 20 can feel perfectly comfortable (obviously there is a limit to this, but it's way below that). If you are coming from Ontario in the summer it will feel cold. If you go from Yarmouth to Ontario in the summer you will feel like you are dying from the heat. And you do not need AC in Yarmouth. You can get lots of fresh air year round.

The coastal climate has a lot less variation and IMO is easier to get used to.

I understand what you're saying. I talk about the need for summer heat a lot but even I don't like it too hot personally. (I went out for a quick bike ride at lunch time, and it was 30C with a 40 humidex. Not quite like a sauna but still very heavy feeling. And now we are under a tornado watch.)

25C is pretty optimal in terms of summertime comfort, with maybe a couple degrees more if you're doing something on or in the water.

I mean 17-18C is pretty comfortable for being out and about during your day though that's not swimming or sea-doo weather for most of us.

[drjohnnyfever]

Thank you everyone for the great comments. This is exactly what I was wanting

Let me add another like/dislike about our current town, and let's see if sparks more feedback...

LIKE: Toronto is 2.5 hours away, giving decent access to "Broadway" shows, professional sports, and other unique experiences.

DISLIKE: The traffic jams to Toronto make the drive more like 3.5 hours, and snarled traffic everywhere sucks the enjoyment out of whatever thing you were going there to enjoy.

And based on the small tourist town my wife grew-up in...

LIKE: Tourists mean a more vibrant summer, and tourist attractions are fun for locals too.

DISLIKE: Prices are jacked-up to capture the tourist dollars, and higher prices are no fun for locals.

[bidshader]

One thing to note is the extreme variation in weather from the actual coast to just a few kilometers inland (other posters highlighted this as well but it is really quite something). In the summer you can quite frequently have fog/mist and cool temps on the ocean and then moving 5km inland will have bright sun and 25 degrees.

Anyway, I lived there for several years, but not in the past decade, so this should all be taken with a grain of salt, but the people are nice, it's an easy style of life, and although prices of waterfront and desirable property has gone up, it's still going to be much cheaper than any real city.

Having said that, the town itself is small and is not growing. There's no air service or non-car based transit to get out, and you are isolated in that way. While winters are mild, they are not "nice" mild - it's still fairly cold and unpleasant, you just don't have a lot of snow.

[Gnarly]

Just a comment regarding the nearest city to Yarmouth. It's only about 100 miles to Saint John NB, if you drive to Digby and take the ferry across to Saint John. It has all the big box stores, lots of restaurants, pubs and just about anything else you may want.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Gnarly

Just a comment regarding the nearest city to Yarmouth. It's only about 100 miles to Saint John NB, if you drive to Digby and take the ferry across to Saint John. It has all the big box stores, lots of restaurants, pubs and just about anything else you may want.

Point taken, but, although SJ may be closer, it is not quicker to get to if you factor in arriving early for the ferry, and the time it takes for the ferry crossing. Also, the ferry ticket (including for your car) would be a significant financial penalty.

There may be a lot to do in SJ, but there is far more to do in Halifax.

[homebody]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Point taken, but, although SJ may be closer, it is not quicker to get to if you factor in arriving early for the ferry, and time it takes for the ferry crossing. Also, the ferry ticket (including for your car) would be a significant financial penalty.

There may be a lot to do in SJ, but there is far more to do in Halifax.

I completely agree with what MonctonRad is saying! (Don’t happen often Ha ha). Halifax is by far the better choice in this situation.