Well folks this is going to be my last datasheet on Canadian cities and I saved my hometown for last, Halifax Nova Scotia. Now, like most other Canadian cities (except Montreal and Vancouver), I honestly wouldn't plan a trip to Hali from overseas. However, if you are Canadian or American and you answer yes to the following questions you should consider a trip:
1) Do you enjoy binge drinking and craft micro-brews?
2) Do you enjoy pub culture, especially Celtic themed pubs with live music? Do you like alternative rock?
3) Do you enjoy young, vibrant cities with a large student population
4) Do you like walkable, compact cities where you don't need a car?
5) Do you enjoy quaint historical cities with nice British colonial (Victorian) architecture?
If you answered yes, then you will definitely LOVE Halifax! This city of about 350,000 is on the East coast of Canada and is one of the three Maritime provinces (more on the other ones later). One of the best parts of this city are the people, the Haligonians, they are very outgoing, laid back people who, if you introduce yourself as being a visitor from out of town, they will invite you to sit at their table in a bar, or show you around town, no problem. I can't remember how many times I just went out alone because my friends didn't want to come out and went to a pub and within 5 minutes made friends with a crowd of people.
Halifax is all about the PUBS and there are several good ones to choose from. This is where you will find authentic Nova Scotian culture, we have our own songs here and its normal to walk into one of these pubs on a weekend night to find 200 people of all ages hammered drunk singing a NS drinking song such as "Farewell to Nova Scotia" or "barretts Privateer". You would score major points if you know the words to the chorus of each song while at the pub. Nova Scotia means "New Scotland" in latin, so most of these NS style pubs are Celtic themed, here's a list of the best ones:
-The Split crow: go here for "power hour" on Saturday afternoon to see tonnes of piss drunk college kids taking advantage of the $1 pints of draught. This place has been in operation since the late 1700's!
-The Pogue fado: Great place to hit up for both food and live entertainment, 2 levels, it gets packed on the weekends.
-The Lower Deck: An absolute must while in Halifax, any sailor who has passed through this port city (theres been many over the years!) will know this place, lots of cougars here on the weekend.
-The Halifax Alehouse: This place gets bumping! Mostly a younger college crowd and if I can remember correctly it stays open late, 3:30! I've pulled out of here several times, like I say, learn the words to the above songs and once they come on just grab whatever girl you want and take her to the dance floor!
-The Fife and Drum: Attached to the Casino and hotel, live music and a mostly mature crowd, easy to pull a lounge lizard out of here.
There are of course MANY other pubs and watering holes to choose from (Halifax has one of the highest ratios of drinking establishments per capita, in all of North America!), the above are the ones where you'll have a really good time, Nova Scotia style. I usually hit these up around 10-11pm before I move onto a club at around 1 or 2am.
Nightclubs: Nothing too special but a few of them get going pretty good, Haligonians love to party and these places do get packed, every weekend, even in the dead of winter! Oh ya, unlike most other Canadian cities, the nightclubs in Halifax stay open a bit later, most until 3:30 but theres a couple who do last call at 3:30 and keep the tunes playing until 4-4:30. Heres a few of the clubs that I used to frequent in my younger days:
The Palace: Typical meat market, bouncers are dicks (I was banned for two years for making fun of one of them), its attached to the Ale House. Its gets packed, probably around 500 people, some decent drink specials on Sundays and Thursdays. They used to have a wet t-shirt contest on Thursdays and on Sundays a sexy legs (girls) and hard bodies (guys) contest, $500 prizes.
The Dome: This is a big complex of 4 or 5 bars, all under one roof. They used to have $1 shots on Wednesdays, I think they may have ended that after all the bouncers got the living shit beat out of them in a 50 person brawl a couple years back.
Reflections: This is a gay bar, but on Fridays its definitely a mixed crowd, which is cool because you won't see any of the meat head jibronies you'll see at the palace or Dome. This is where the best electronic music (house, trance, jungle, etc) is played, you can easily score disco biscuits here if thats your thing.
Pacifico: A bit more "dressy" than most clubs, I haven't been in years but its where the more ethnic (well as far as Halifax goes anyway) crowd hangs out.
Others: For good food and chill environment, check out the Economy Shoe Shop on Argyll, its a bit upscale, this is where famous people drink while in Town (Pam Anderson, Liam Neeson, harrison Ford have all partied here), theres also a cool, dingy bar down stairs called The Sea Horse, they have good live music, last time I was in Halifax back in October, I saw the death metal band Napalm Death here, full house, packed with metal heads!
The Argyll is great on Thursdays, PACKED with students and it has a huge patio.
Maxwell's Plum: Lots, LOTS of draught on tap here, good place for a cheap bite to eat too, pub style.
Casino Nova Scotia: Its a casino, its on the water, its nice. You can drink here 24/7, but be careful they will cut you off or just not serve you if you appear to drunk, unless you're spending big $, of course!
Strip clubs: theres one, yes only one and its across the water in Dartmouth, Ralph's Place, not worth the trip IMHO.
After the clubs empty (3:30-4am) head over to PIZZA corner, this is where everyone goes for a big jumbo slice of pizza or a greasy donair. Seriously, you have to try a Halifax style donair, its basically a variation of the traditional middle east doner kebab, but back in the 70's a Lebanese guy made up a special spicy one with a unique sweet sauce, its now a staple of the east coast diet! Also, pizza corner is your "last chance for romance" there'll be lots of drunk hotties here, but be careful, there'll also be lots of guys looking to fight if they haven't picked up (another favorite halifax past time).
If clubbing and celtic style bars isn't you thing, try hitting up a live music venue like the Marquee, some of the excellent alt-rock bands to come out of Hali include: Sloan, Matt Mays and El Topedo, the Trews, Wintersleep, Joel Plaskett, etc. Also Buck 65 is from here, he's big, in Europe!
Guys, Halifax is a major STUDENT city, 6 universities, colleges, etc. The student population is around 60-70K, not bad for a city this size and they all live mostly on the peninsula, where all the bars and clubs are and where you should stay if you come here. We all know what students are like, penny pinching pisstanks, so many of the bars cater to this population and you'll often see drunk as fuck girls puking and passing out in the streets, good times!
Ok enough with the night life, what are you going to do during the day? Well you can check out some of Halifax's MANY historical sites, this city was founded in 1749 by the British to defend against the French, who had a fort at Louisbourg, Cape Breton. Take a tour of the Citadel, its smack dab in the middle of town, hard to miss, just look for the clock tower. Or when your drunk ass stumbles out of the Palace at 3:30am, just look across the street! Another fun one would be to get on the "Harbour Hopper" a big green old military vehicule that takes you on an historic tour of Halifax, then you drive to the harbour and go in the water for a water front tour!
Also, one of my favorites in the summer. Before you go to a club, go to the nice boardwalk on the waterfront and hop on the "Tall Ship Silva", for $10 you get on this cool old school schooner, of course theres a live band playing east coast tunes and a full bar! Cruise around the harbour and make some new friends and drinking buddies!
Another good day time activity for an alcoholic, is the Halifax Pub Tour! My buddy used to be a guide, he'd take passengers from the cruise ships (Halifax is a major cruise destination, a good sign guys, tourists come here big time) and bring them into several pubs and give an historical tour of each one and the city itself. Of course, being the pisstank he is, the tourists would get him drunk for free, what a sweet gig eh?
Damn, pretty much everything revolves around drinking here eh? well you could always go deep sea fishing (shark, tuna, halibut, cod, haddock, etc), surfing at Lawrencetown Beach (this isn't Hawaii but they get decent waves, there are sponsored competitions there), whale watching or check out the light house at Peggy's Cove.
I hope you like seafood because we have some of THE BEST, this is indeed Nova Scotia, where most of the worlds lobster comes from
Anyway, I"m gonna add more about my home town later, gotta get some things done. Don't sleep on Halifax guys, if you're a drinker of epic proportions like say me or El Mechanico, you'll love this town!
I'll update this post later with hotels, logistics, more on teh people, culture etc.
PS; the sense of humour is a bit different down there, if you haven't ever seen the show "the Trailer Park Boys" check it out on youtube, its stupid trashy Nova Scotia at its best!
1) Do you enjoy binge drinking and craft micro-brews?
2) Do you enjoy pub culture, especially Celtic themed pubs with live music? Do you like alternative rock?
3) Do you enjoy young, vibrant cities with a large student population
4) Do you like walkable, compact cities where you don't need a car?
5) Do you enjoy quaint historical cities with nice British colonial (Victorian) architecture?
If you answered yes, then you will definitely LOVE Halifax! This city of about 350,000 is on the East coast of Canada and is one of the three Maritime provinces (more on the other ones later). One of the best parts of this city are the people, the Haligonians, they are very outgoing, laid back people who, if you introduce yourself as being a visitor from out of town, they will invite you to sit at their table in a bar, or show you around town, no problem. I can't remember how many times I just went out alone because my friends didn't want to come out and went to a pub and within 5 minutes made friends with a crowd of people.
Halifax is all about the PUBS and there are several good ones to choose from. This is where you will find authentic Nova Scotian culture, we have our own songs here and its normal to walk into one of these pubs on a weekend night to find 200 people of all ages hammered drunk singing a NS drinking song such as "Farewell to Nova Scotia" or "barretts Privateer". You would score major points if you know the words to the chorus of each song while at the pub. Nova Scotia means "New Scotland" in latin, so most of these NS style pubs are Celtic themed, here's a list of the best ones:
-The Split crow: go here for "power hour" on Saturday afternoon to see tonnes of piss drunk college kids taking advantage of the $1 pints of draught. This place has been in operation since the late 1700's!
-The Pogue fado: Great place to hit up for both food and live entertainment, 2 levels, it gets packed on the weekends.
-The Lower Deck: An absolute must while in Halifax, any sailor who has passed through this port city (theres been many over the years!) will know this place, lots of cougars here on the weekend.
-The Halifax Alehouse: This place gets bumping! Mostly a younger college crowd and if I can remember correctly it stays open late, 3:30! I've pulled out of here several times, like I say, learn the words to the above songs and once they come on just grab whatever girl you want and take her to the dance floor!
-The Fife and Drum: Attached to the Casino and hotel, live music and a mostly mature crowd, easy to pull a lounge lizard out of here.
There are of course MANY other pubs and watering holes to choose from (Halifax has one of the highest ratios of drinking establishments per capita, in all of North America!), the above are the ones where you'll have a really good time, Nova Scotia style. I usually hit these up around 10-11pm before I move onto a club at around 1 or 2am.
Nightclubs: Nothing too special but a few of them get going pretty good, Haligonians love to party and these places do get packed, every weekend, even in the dead of winter! Oh ya, unlike most other Canadian cities, the nightclubs in Halifax stay open a bit later, most until 3:30 but theres a couple who do last call at 3:30 and keep the tunes playing until 4-4:30. Heres a few of the clubs that I used to frequent in my younger days:
The Palace: Typical meat market, bouncers are dicks (I was banned for two years for making fun of one of them), its attached to the Ale House. Its gets packed, probably around 500 people, some decent drink specials on Sundays and Thursdays. They used to have a wet t-shirt contest on Thursdays and on Sundays a sexy legs (girls) and hard bodies (guys) contest, $500 prizes.
The Dome: This is a big complex of 4 or 5 bars, all under one roof. They used to have $1 shots on Wednesdays, I think they may have ended that after all the bouncers got the living shit beat out of them in a 50 person brawl a couple years back.
Reflections: This is a gay bar, but on Fridays its definitely a mixed crowd, which is cool because you won't see any of the meat head jibronies you'll see at the palace or Dome. This is where the best electronic music (house, trance, jungle, etc) is played, you can easily score disco biscuits here if thats your thing.
Pacifico: A bit more "dressy" than most clubs, I haven't been in years but its where the more ethnic (well as far as Halifax goes anyway) crowd hangs out.
Others: For good food and chill environment, check out the Economy Shoe Shop on Argyll, its a bit upscale, this is where famous people drink while in Town (Pam Anderson, Liam Neeson, harrison Ford have all partied here), theres also a cool, dingy bar down stairs called The Sea Horse, they have good live music, last time I was in Halifax back in October, I saw the death metal band Napalm Death here, full house, packed with metal heads!
The Argyll is great on Thursdays, PACKED with students and it has a huge patio.
Maxwell's Plum: Lots, LOTS of draught on tap here, good place for a cheap bite to eat too, pub style.
Casino Nova Scotia: Its a casino, its on the water, its nice. You can drink here 24/7, but be careful they will cut you off or just not serve you if you appear to drunk, unless you're spending big $, of course!
Strip clubs: theres one, yes only one and its across the water in Dartmouth, Ralph's Place, not worth the trip IMHO.
After the clubs empty (3:30-4am) head over to PIZZA corner, this is where everyone goes for a big jumbo slice of pizza or a greasy donair. Seriously, you have to try a Halifax style donair, its basically a variation of the traditional middle east doner kebab, but back in the 70's a Lebanese guy made up a special spicy one with a unique sweet sauce, its now a staple of the east coast diet! Also, pizza corner is your "last chance for romance" there'll be lots of drunk hotties here, but be careful, there'll also be lots of guys looking to fight if they haven't picked up (another favorite halifax past time).
If clubbing and celtic style bars isn't you thing, try hitting up a live music venue like the Marquee, some of the excellent alt-rock bands to come out of Hali include: Sloan, Matt Mays and El Topedo, the Trews, Wintersleep, Joel Plaskett, etc. Also Buck 65 is from here, he's big, in Europe!
Guys, Halifax is a major STUDENT city, 6 universities, colleges, etc. The student population is around 60-70K, not bad for a city this size and they all live mostly on the peninsula, where all the bars and clubs are and where you should stay if you come here. We all know what students are like, penny pinching pisstanks, so many of the bars cater to this population and you'll often see drunk as fuck girls puking and passing out in the streets, good times!
Ok enough with the night life, what are you going to do during the day? Well you can check out some of Halifax's MANY historical sites, this city was founded in 1749 by the British to defend against the French, who had a fort at Louisbourg, Cape Breton. Take a tour of the Citadel, its smack dab in the middle of town, hard to miss, just look for the clock tower. Or when your drunk ass stumbles out of the Palace at 3:30am, just look across the street! Another fun one would be to get on the "Harbour Hopper" a big green old military vehicule that takes you on an historic tour of Halifax, then you drive to the harbour and go in the water for a water front tour!
Also, one of my favorites in the summer. Before you go to a club, go to the nice boardwalk on the waterfront and hop on the "Tall Ship Silva", for $10 you get on this cool old school schooner, of course theres a live band playing east coast tunes and a full bar! Cruise around the harbour and make some new friends and drinking buddies!
Another good day time activity for an alcoholic, is the Halifax Pub Tour! My buddy used to be a guide, he'd take passengers from the cruise ships (Halifax is a major cruise destination, a good sign guys, tourists come here big time) and bring them into several pubs and give an historical tour of each one and the city itself. Of course, being the pisstank he is, the tourists would get him drunk for free, what a sweet gig eh?
Damn, pretty much everything revolves around drinking here eh? well you could always go deep sea fishing (shark, tuna, halibut, cod, haddock, etc), surfing at Lawrencetown Beach (this isn't Hawaii but they get decent waves, there are sponsored competitions there), whale watching or check out the light house at Peggy's Cove.
I hope you like seafood because we have some of THE BEST, this is indeed Nova Scotia, where most of the worlds lobster comes from
Anyway, I"m gonna add more about my home town later, gotta get some things done. Don't sleep on Halifax guys, if you're a drinker of epic proportions like say me or El Mechanico, you'll love this town!
I'll update this post later with hotels, logistics, more on teh people, culture etc.
PS; the sense of humour is a bit different down there, if you haven't ever seen the show "the Trailer Park Boys" check it out on youtube, its stupid trashy Nova Scotia at its best!