Hello All! I just moved here to Halifax from Western Canada a few days ago. I’ll be starting classes at Dalhousie next week. Right now, I’m trying to get to know the town, and feeling quite overwhelmed. I’d be eternally grateful for some advice.
What are the great places to go? What are the places to avoid? Where can I meet people who are not axe murderers? I know I’ll meet people in class, but I’m much older than your average freshman (26), so I’m worried that I’ll only meet party mad 18 year olds. How can I avoid this?
Any kind of advice would be appreciated. This city is beautiful, and I’m sure I’ll grow to regard it as my home, but right now I don’t know what to do with myself!
I lived on the Dartmouth side until I left for university, and I’ll actually be visiting my folks on Monday.
To go out there are 1 and a half places to go: downtown and Spring Garden Rd. Downtown is really your best bet as there are a LOT of bars/pubs/clubs. Halifax uses a very different terminology with their bars, infact they refere to them all as bars and rarely differentiate between clubs and pubs.
The stereotypical place to go is the Lower Deck down on the waterfront, that place unfortunately makes me sick. To me its like the Disney/Epcot Centre version of the Maritimes. Then there is the upper-Lowerdeck called the Ale House. That’s next the Palace. I call it the upper-Lower deck because the owners litterally sat down and said, “how can we make a bar more like the Lowerdeck than the Lowerdeck?” And poof, they created the Ale House.
There is an interesting collection of bars all joined which includes the Dome, Cheers, and Armadillo (not sure if its still called that or not).
Those are your staples, but a few new ones have opened recently that are trying to attract an older (over 17) crowed. At the moment I’ve blanked and can’t remember any of their names. I’ll look it up when I’m home. As a general rule you’ll have no problem meeting people as long as you’re polite. Its a weird Maritime trait that we will happily talk to anyone in a bar.
Make sure you hit Pizza Corner on your way home from the bars. The Sicilian is my favourite for pizza, but obviously King of Donair is where you get donairs. And get a donair, soooooo good.
Also, keep and eye out for Chris Brothers or just Brothers Pepperoni.
Its sad to admit, but I can’t think of anything to do in Halifax other than drink. I was a big sailor but the season is about over. If you’ve got a car there are some amazing beachs not far away–Rainbow Haven, Lawrence Town, Queen’s Land…
Thanks, emacknight . I’ve actually already heard of some of these places. I’m a little disheartened to hear that drinking is the main form of entertainment out here - while I like a good drink, I don’t really want to go out to a bar by myself!
In any case, the city is clearly swarming with students, so I’ll have to see what happens.
I really enjoy the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Citadel–they give a good feel of the place.
Spring Garden St. is very nice too; also, explore some of the neighborhoods towards Fairview Lawn Cemetery and all. The Tim Horton’s (do you have those in Western Canada?) on Barrington seems pretty popular too.