{"id":68450,"date":"2025-12-12T05:05:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/68450\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T05:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:05:16","slug":"where-to-stay-and-play-in-new-brunswick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/68450\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to stay and play in New Brunswick"},"content":{"rendered":"

St\u00e9phane Picard, owner of astrotourism company\u00a0Cliff Valley Astronomy<\/a>, lives in a suburb called Quispamsis, in a place called New Brunswick, which (just in case you didn\u2019t know) is a Canadian province. And he thinks it\u2019s high time the rest of the world take note of his scarcely populated home, directly north of Maine. Horse-pulled sleigh rides, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and excellent resorts like the\u00a0Broadleaf Ranch<\/a>\u00a0make New Brunswick one of Canada\u2019s best and most nostalgic seasonal destinations.<\/p>\n

Perched in a rural village on the Bay of Fundy, Broadleaf Ranch offers a mix of\u00a0glamping units, cabins and even a mountaintop chalet\u00a0(from $143 per night). <\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] a magical setting in the winter,\u201d\u00a0Picard\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Star-gaze upon the protected dark skies blanketing cozy lodges. Tourism New Brunswick<\/p>\n

But no matter where you stay, when winter hits, all of New Brunswick takes on an otherworldly ambience. \u201cWe do winter well,\u201d is the province\u2019s apt tourism motto, and no wonder: Snow is its \u201cwhite gold,\u201d and it gets\u00a0more of it than any other place in the Maritimes, with an annual average snowfall of 6.5 to 10 feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the province, visitors will find everything from ice caves that glow like blue cathedrals to frozen 100-foot waterfalls dripping with chandelier-size icicles. Peak season is from January through mid-March.<\/p>\n

While here, you\u2019ll want to layer up \u2014 winter temperatures average 16 to 26 F for highs and 8 to 18 F for lows, varying by region \u2014 and make the most of the outdoors\u2019 bounty.<\/p>\n

Head for the billion-year-old rocks within\u00a0Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark<\/a>, a North American first. You\u2019ll learn all about the ice age, tidal rapids, geology, wildlife and more in this protected area that spans 965 square miles (it\u2019s also totally free to enter).\u00a0<\/p>\n

More intrepid types might also appreciate savoring the region\u2019s abundant\u00a0winter hiking\u00a0options; you really can\u2019t go wrong with asking a local for their favorite trail, but popular choices include the\u00a0Split Rock Trail\u00a0for epic views of the Bay of Fundy in all its frosty glory and the Midland Ice Caves Trail to get your cave fix via a series of giant, glistening ice caves.<\/p>\n

Hike mountain peaks in New Brunswick\u2019s iconic winter environs. Tourism New Brunswick<\/p>\n

Other must-sees include the Parlee Brook Amphitheatre Trail to scope out a natural ice palace and the Fall Brook Falls Trail for a frozen 100-foot waterfall, likely before a snow-covered forest. Bonus: Park passes aren\u2019t necessary for any of these locations.<\/p>\n

Launching in the new year, New Brunswick will welcome the Bay of Fundy Dark Sky Corridor, a hotly anticipated initiative that will designate the highest concentration of Dark Sky Places in the world. Full completion is expected in 2027 (two-thirds of the six certified destinations in the corridor will be complete in 2026). Gaze on your own or link up with Picard, whose company hosts \u201cstar parties\u201d (from $125), guided experiences that help you interpret the phenomenal night sky unlike anything you\u2019ve ever witnessed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meet the real locals at only-in-Canada events like the World Pond Hockey Championship. Tourism New Brunswick<\/p>\n

Or maybe you prefer to gaze upon the stars of Pond Hockey? The 2026 World Pond Hockey Championship<\/a>\u00a0in Plaster Rock, Feb. 16 to 19, is a free-to-attend event in the boondocks where players from Canada come together with those from the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The fans\u2019 spirit is contagious and the camaraderie in the event tent, with food and music, is a blast.<\/p>\n

For New York City area travelers, New Brunswick may feel like a remote, rugged world away, but it\u2019s fairly accessible. Make a road trip out of driving to the province \u2014 about 11 hours from NYC \u2014 which is connected by 17 US border crossings. Or, fly and connect through Toronto (just shy of two hours from NYC area airports) or Montreal (about an hour and a half) to Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton regional airports.<\/p>\n

All of these connecting flights are about two hours from Toronto or 90 minutes from Montreal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St\u00e9phane Picard, owner of astrotourism company\u00a0Cliff Valley Astronomy, lives in a suburb called Quispamsis, in a place called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10585,232,9,11,10,35522,2319,956,26710],"class_list":["post-68450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-canada","tag-lifestyle","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-outdoor-activity","tag-snowmobiling","tag-travel","tag-unesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}