Family Fun

Organized youth activities

An excellent source for youth activities is ValleyConnect.ca, a community recreation guide for communities in West Hants, Kings and Annapolis counties. Visit their page for kids and families.

Each municipality provides activities for local youth. See what's on offer in the Municipality of the County of Annapolis, Municipality of the County of Kings, and West Hants Regional Municipality.

Sports

If you and your family love to play sports, the Annapolis Valley can keep you playing for all four seasons. Here's some of what you'll find.

• Tennis: Many communities have tennis clubs, including Annapolis Royal, Windsor, Wolfville, Berwick, Bridgetown and Kentville. Contact details for those not hyperlinked are on the Tennis Nova Scotia site.
• Hiking, running and biking: Hop over to our Outdoors and Recreation page for info on trails. For the BMX enthusiast, the Cool Moves BMX Group, based in Middleton, offers practices at private ramps and trips to public ride parks arranged among parents during the summer.
• Swimming and water sports: sparkling rivers, pristine lakes, and the sea. Need we say more? If you can, spend a summer afternoon tubing down the Gaspereau River. It's an experience you'll never forget!
• Soccer: Valley District Soccer Association has a youth league as well as men's and women's teams.
• Rugby: Valley Rugby Union has a women's team, a men's team, and rookie and youth rugby. Valley Bulldogs Rugby Football Club is a sports club for men's and women's teams.
• Skating and hockey: Hockey is as much a passion in the Annapolis Valley as anywhere on the planet. In fact, Windsor lays claim to being the birthplace of hockey. At least 10 Valley communities have an arena that offers hockey programs and public skating, so families can spend time together on the ice. There's bound to be one near you! And if you have young hockey players, you can register your child with a local minor hockey association. Most welcome girls as well as boys. Valley Wild is an association especially for female players.
• Skiing: The Annapolis Valley is home to some of the best skiing in Atlantic Canada. Ski Martock, near Windsor, has facilities for downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross country skiing. It's open from early December to late March.

Parks and camping

You'll find plenty of parks for camping and day use. For starters, we're home to three provincial parks that offer overnight campsites:

• Blomidon Provincial Park, near Canning
• Smileys Provincial Park, near Windsor
• Valleyview Provincial Park, near Bridgetown

Other parks are available for day use, such as Mickey Hill, Cottage Cove, Scots Bay and Cape Split. You'll find a map on the Parks Nova Scotia website.

Hiking and nature walks

In the Annapolis Valley, you're never far from beaches and hiking trails. For the young nature enthusiast, the Blomidon Naturalists Society has outings and events for all ages.

The region has outstanding birding for the birdwatchers in the family. The Nova Scotia Bird Society has more than 20,000 followers on the NSBS Facebook page. The Valley is home to a healthy population of bald eagles and other raptors. Enjoy a pancake breakfast at our annual Eagle Watch Festival in January!

While you're out and about, be sure to visit the camera obscura in Cheverie, West Hants. Built by Dalhousie University architectural students in 2012, the brick structure displays a live, real-time projection of the coastline on the concrete floor.

Historic sites

Any history buffs in the family? It's easy to reconnect with the past in the Valley. Explore the Landscape of Grand Pré UNESCO World Heritage Site, which celebrates the history of the Mi'kmaq, Acadians, and New England Planters in a living agricultural landscape.

Be sure to visit the Valley's five National Historic Sites:

• Fort Edward National Historic Site, Windsor: Built in 1750, Fort Edward is North America's oldest military blockhouse. 

• Grand-Pré National Historic Site, Grand Pré: This site was once the centre of Acadian culture worldwide and is the most significant memorial to their tragic deportation in the 1700s.
• Fort Anne National Historic Site, Annapolis Royal: Visitors can walk the earthen walls, explore the 1797 Officers' Quarters Museum and soak up thousands of years of Canadian history.
• Port-Royal National Historic Site, Port Royal: Costumed interpreters guide you through a reconstruction of the Habitation, an enclosed wooden compound built by Samuel de Champlain in 1605.
• Melanson Settlement National Historic Site, Granville Ferry: This quiet farmland on the banks of the Annapolis River reveals a system of Dykeland farming that was unique among the Acadian settlers who lived here in the 1600s and 1700s.

Libraries

Family fun sometimes means a quiet read by the fire or the shore. The Annapolis Valley Regional Library has 11 branches that offer not only books and e-books but computer use, innovation labs with one-on-one tech help, and family programs.