Why Halifax is Canada’s friendliest city

21.07.2023 - 08:39 / roughguides.com / Nova Scotia

Canadians are a friendly bunch; in fact according to Twitter analysis (so it must be true) Canucks are the nicest people in the world. And Canada’s friendliest city? Halifax, says a recent poll, which placed the Nova Scotian capital among the fifteen friendliest on the planet. Another confirms it’s one of the world’s least snobby.

It’s certainly true that in Halifax, whoever you are, it won’t take long for a stranger to strike up a conversation. So what makes Haligonians feel so good about their hometown, and why is it such a welcoming place to visit? Clue: it’s not the weather – although sultry days can linger right up to October and by and large the Maritimes escape the harshness of the Canadian winter.

Here are five reasons why a trip to Halifax will put a smile on your face.

Green, walkable and easy to cycle around, with a low-rise, small-town feel, Halifax is beginning to lure big-city deserters in their droves, drawn by cheap rents and a growing reputation for its tech start-up scene. Combined with a burgeoning student population – the city has no fewer than six universities (the most prestigious, Dalhousie, is celebrating its two-hundredth anniversary this year) – Nova Scotia’s Celtic roots and the best music scene in the east, and you have a recipe for a lively night out.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the city’s drinking culture, as a night in the buzzing pubs of the newly polished-up Argyle and Grafton district will prove: if you haven’t ended up with a 3am donair on Pizza Corner then you haven’t been to Halifax. And while the city narrowly loses out to St John’s, Newfoundland, for the boozy title of most pubs per capita, it’s the only one in Canada where even the lampposts are drunk: down on the waterfront, a pair of apparently sozzled sculptures, entitled Fountain and Get Drunk, Fall Down, nod to one of the city’s favourite pastimes.

View of Halifax © Maurizio De Mattei/Shutterstock

With the deep blue of the Atlantic visible from almost every vantage point, Halifax is not a city for aquaphobics. Two days closer to Europe by ship than any other North American port, the city came to prominence by virtue of having the second deepest natural harbour in the world. And like all the friendliest metropolises, from Sydney to Liverpool, its deep-rooted seafaring history defines its identity.

Waste no time in filling your lungs with the fresh, salty air of the breezy waterfront Boardwalk, a pretty 3km stroll peppered with attractions like the Maritime Museum, where the Titanic exhibition is invariably swollen – apparently without irony – with cruise ship passengers wandering in from the nearby terminal.

Midway along the Boardwalk is the ferry port for leafy Dartmouth, Halifax’s blue-collar sister