Three Best Places to Retire in Nova Scotia

July 5, 2025|Rick Juliusson

I’ve written before about the challenge of choosing where in the world to travel when the whole world is on the menu. Imagine the higher stakes of picking a place to Settle Down when the options feel almost as vast.

No, we’re not settling down yet. But sometime probably in this decade we’ll plant some roots, probably but not for sure in Canada. Set up a Home from which we can travel long and often but come back to and nourish those roots again and again. So as we wander, we wonder which place(s) might offer fertile soil, and we refine our understanding of what qualities do or don’t turn our retirement crank.

Cowichan Valley, Monteverde, Alderney, Schull, Albania - we’ve already experienced and learned magic in many retirement-worthy places. This summer we’re intentionally back in the Canadian maritimes to further explore and engage with this Atlantic culture and geography that so captured our imagination back in 2024. Below are three different slices of Nova Scotia with a lot to teach us.

1. Peggy's Cove

We’re pretty sure a big city isn’t our future, but do like the opportunities for culture, cuisine, events, and airports. So perhaps a smaller town within striking range? We line up a Trusted Housesitters gig an hour outside of Halifax in Peggy’s Cove - near the famous lighthouse that we Canadians grew up seeing every year on our calendars - to check it out.

The housesitting itself is a hoot. The pony and donkey need food and lovin’ 5 times a day, half-a-wheelbarrow of poop-scooping morning and night, and playing ball before bed. The two chihuahuas eat less but sit on laps more, and like to have their tie-dyed shirts changed. Then there’s daily topping up the three squirrel feeders and two bird feeders. And mama Raven sure expresses her displeasure if I’m late putting out a hard-boiled egg to take to her babies.

In between farm duties we take full advantage of the rugged coastline. Daily bike rides to a local gym, longer bike rides to the lighthouse and seaside lobster joint, relaxing in the back patio hot tub while being serenaded by an affectionate donkey. This place certainly makes the grade for beauty, nature, fresh air, quiet.

What we don’t find, even with persistent looking and asking locals, is community. Our hosts unwittingly assure us that the neighbors are, like them, respectful of privacy and keep to themselves. Outside of live music on Friday’s at the tourist café there’s no local events. This truly is a bedroom community where people drive an hour into the big city for their entertainment, special dinners, pickleball, etc.

And as beautiful as the coast is, there’s just single road running along it for bike rides, and single dead-end road for walking (albeit a beautiful road across the little bridge to the chunk of land once owned by Anne Murray - once the site of regular teenage parties, now the site of Uber-large private houses). Doesn’t leave much to explore.

So we learn that rural beauty with city access is not enough. We need active community right where we are, and variety in outdoor activities. Cue the next stop - Annapolis Royal.

There's the ball for bedtime equine games

Our little Trusted Housesitter farmhouse

That's a large-sized egg, so you can understand the size of a raven

Perks of housesitting: This fancy toilet/bidet not only has hot/cold nozzles for front and back spray-clean, but also a blowdryer. And automatically opens, closes, and flushes.

2. Annapolis Royal

We were so enamored with Annapolis Royal last visit (even in the cold dark month of November!) that we actually put an offer on a condo (then backed out when we realized that would be just one more energetic weight to travel with.) Would it look as appealing 18 months and 18 countries later?

Short answer - YES! Local activities and clubs galore - art co-op, theatre club, tennis, gardening, drop-in sports at the rec centre, themed restaurant dinners…. Cycling and hiking in all 4 directions on converted railroads or rural roads… The coastline is even more beautiful on sunny (still windy) spring days. I sit in on a Wednesday writers’ group while Sarah tours the volunteer-run historic gardens. This place oozes community and active connection with generational locals and well-travelled Come-From-Away-ers like us.

Housing is another plus. Unlike Peggy’s Cove where even small houses start at $600,000, we found numerous quaint old houses for under $300,000 (or a massive 9-bedroom, 9-bathroom inn that we could convert to a 3-family cohousing nirvana for just $250k each - click here to see the dream that Sarah would deny…) Or for simplicity, this condo with floor-to-ceiling 2-story windows (the old gym windows) in the former highschool, which also houses the rec centre, library and food bank - so easy to enjoy half the year and then lock up and walk away the other half.

Drawbacks? A long way from BC family (though who knows where our boys will finally do their duty and give us grandchildren, more likely in the East?) Two hours and no public transportation to the airport. Powerful Nova Scotia winds we would have to learn to embrace, not brace against. Summer tourist infestation, though we learned to cling to our Monteverde community like a steady rock in the waterfall of blue-butterfly-seeking foreigners in Costa Rica.

Just below the highschol condo is this walk around French Pond that we could happily do every morning of retirement

Amazing housing stock (though we'd go for smaller!)

Just another community week in Annapolis Royal

Springtime on our morning pond walk

3. Treehouse Cohousing

What if the dynamic, intergenerational, tight-knit community we crave already exists, by design? In that same week that we were bidding on the condo in Annapolis Royal in November of 2024, we were also taking the first steps towards membership in the brand new Treehouse Village Ecohousing community across the island in Bridgewater, thinking seriously about buying their last available unit then renting it out while traveling.

We’ve long been attracted to Cohousing - a model of intentional community in which each family owns their own condo unit or cottage, but also co-owns a large communal space and land, typically including workout and woodworking facilities, EV and E-bike chargers, rocking chairs and kids’ forts in the woods. Families join with the intention (but not obligation) of participating in potlucks, gardening, movie nights, shared childcare, etc.

When folx need privacy they simply close their door or go to the quiet study/work-from-home library. When they seek human connection they simply walk out that door to casually mingle, or join into or create an activity (anyone wanna can strawberry jam on Saturday?)

Now that all families have moved in and construction is done (minus the endless finishing tasks), we are happy to see that the vision of weaving lives together is now reality. This would be the community that would eagerly await our slide show after each trip; the children who would race to morning storytime and sing-along with Ricky.

Sadly, our first unimpressed impression of Bridgewater was also reinforced. An industrial town with none of the community magic of Annapolis Royal, and none of the natural beauty of Peggy’s Cove. Not a single restaurant or coffee shop we would want to frequent. Not a single smile or wave as we walk down the busy street. Cultural and community involvement would have to happen an hour away in Lunenburg and Liverpool. As wonderful as the people and design of Treehouse is, the dream cul-de-sac needs to be in an equally appealing village.

Ancient Beech Grove at Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, one of Canada's 13 "Dark-Sky Preserves"

One hour from both Annapolis Royal and Treehouse Cohousing, we could spend up to a week backcountry canoeing or hiking

What We're Looking For

I hesitate to boil all this down to a list, when in the end it will mostly be Sarah having “that feeling.” But here are some of the elements our dream future half-time home might have:

Community - people know and care about each other, and create opportunities to be active together.
Involvement - Some versions of my old men’s Friday pizza group, soccer team, writers’ group, fabric-arts circle, storytelling nights, Christmas festival, street-youth volunteering
Nature - access to diverse options for cycling, hiking, swimming, camping, beauty, fresh air
Housing - affordable, not-too-big, not-too-new, has character, can be funkified into Home
Come From Away - a blend of long-time locals and more recent implants who are readily welcomed in. And intergenerational, not just us crotchety old folx arguing over Wham vs. Bryan Adams.
Culture - local theatre/music/art that we can participate in and heckle our friends in
Friends - through all of the above, a circle of friends who Know us, embrace us when we’re in town and keep in touch when we’re gone, and who share their own adventures and passions. We do feel and treasure this right connection right now online (including through this blog), but some regular in-person lovin’ would be nice long-term

Wherever we land, we'll be seeking beauty in nature...

...and in each other.

Subscribe now to get an email notification when a new post is published.

(Be sure to check your inbox to confirm your subscription.)

1 Comment

Kay Chornook on July 5, 2025 at 6:09 pm

Disappointed to not see the chihuahuas in tropical shirts! Excuse me? Dropping such a tease and just leaving us? Truro area, where i know many, and toward Antigonish, worth a look, just saying. Perhaps Chester or Mahone Bay, instead of Peggy’s Cove. Waiting on next report

Reply