Hello Halifax and guests! We’re so excited to meet you!
Halifax Harbour Tours is a brand new, lifetime resident-owned, hospitality-focused boat tour company ready to serve Nova Scotia and our visitors.
We offer 60-minute guided tours on and around Halifax Harbour in our replica 1930’s “river boat” style vessels with a modern twist — all-electric, extra quiet, comfortable, and environmentally-friendly, crewed by experienced captains and guides with long local knowledge of our beautiful city and harbour.
We take eight guests per tour on our spacious and comfortable boats, which feature cozy cushioned seating and all-hardwood canopies that can be opened or closed depending on the weather. Areas that may be explored on a tour include Bedford Basin, George’s and McNab’s Islands, and of course, the beautiful views of the Halifax skyline from the water.
We share our harbour with our tour guests with a sense of respect for it as a working port, an ecological habitat, an operating area of the Royal Canadian Navy, and an important part of our shared history. We recognize and are eager to share with our guests the knowledge that Halifax is known to our First Nations people, the Mi’kmaq People, as “K’jipuktuk,” which translates as “Great Harbour”. Halifax is located in the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, and this territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.
Halifax Harbour served as a fortified defense site since the 1700’s and served as “Fortress Halifax” guarding against naval attack during both World Wars. Today our ports are among the deepest, and are the first inbound and last outbound ports of call in eastern North America with transcontinental rail connections. Our ports service the largest container ships in the world and are an important part of our regional economy, and our harbour is home to wildlife such as seals, porpoises, dolphins, rightwhales, a large variety of aquatic birds, and of course many species of fish and shellfish.
Halifax Harbour Tours will be offering our first public tours beginning on Wednesday, September 25th, 2019. We will offer regular tours seasonally from early spring through at least the end of November, and we are also always happy to accommodate private or group bookings. Tours depart from the dock between the two Purdy’s Wharf towers.
Seats are available for booking online now at halifaxharbourtours.ca for $37.50+hst per person, for tours beginning September 25th through the end of November, 2019.
Halifax Harbour Tours Limited is owned by Dartmouth resident Colin Smith. Colin and his wife Glenna would like to thank the following local companies and organizations that have been so great to work with as we have gotten our company off the ground: Atlantic Fabrics, Boom 12 Communications, Covey Island Marine, Creative Textile Solutions, Develop NS, E.Y.E. Marine Consultants, Jeramy’s Small Boats Repair & Fishing Limited, and Onyx Property Management. And of course, our wonderful friends and family!
