Reviews

Review: Inn On Prince Truro NS

I recently visited The Inn on Prince Hotel in Truro NS for work and wanted to share a few things about my experience that may help others in the future.

I’ll start off by saying the stay was fine, overall no complaints- it was basically what I expected from a Hotel in a small town in NS.

The good:

Every staff member I encountered was very nice and pleasant to interact with but the front desk clerks weren’t overly chatty (more on that later).

As soon as I walked into my hotel room it smelled of fresh linens. You got the feeling that you were in a very clean space and I loved that.

The weather that weekend was less then ideal for walking around so I was very happy to have the in-hotel restaurant to go to (Bistro On Prince) for dinner and although the menu was small my meal was absolutely delicious.

I ordered the macaroni and cheese with a Greek salad paired with a local white wine.

They have multiple banquet halls and can accommodate large events.

Free breakfast was included, it was good- nothing spectacular but that was fine I was working after all I just needed fuel not to be wowed.

Coffee was not garbage- Yay!

I left the critters at home but they were a pet friendly place (for a fee).

The not so good:

Because the front desk staff weren’t overly chatty I found myself wandering a lot.. Looking for the ice machine, restaurant, stairs and trying to guess when they start serving breakfast and where was the worst. Figured it all out in the end but information or a map available in my room would have been nice or the staff giving a quick rundown at check-in- the place is very maze like and I have a poor sense of direction to begin with (LOL).

For those wondering, breakfast goes from 6AM to 10:30AM (As of April 2023) beside the restaurant.

Breakfast was busy, no place to put your dirty dishes and no one was consistently bussing the tables so I hung out and are my breakfast with a table full of other peoples dirty dishes. Not the end of the world.. Just weird hanging out with a stranger’s half eaten hash brown.

Coffee maker in my room only worked with the disposable cups due to it’s size, too short for my travel mug, that was a bummer.

Walls are paper thin (common) so sharing the hotel floor with a hockey tournament was very noticeable.

The Ugly:

The heating/ cooling unit was incredibly loud, especially when it starts up. I like a cool room for sleeping so it was set on heat at 19 degrees Celsius so it didn’t come on often but holy when it did you knew it- woke me up 3-4 times through the evening.

Lastly, the toilet flush had no pep. Nothing was going down on the first try.. Nothing..

Overall though like I said the visit was fine, they served their purpose at the end and any complaint I had was more of an inconvenience then an actual complaint.

My recommendations if you are staying there is to ask questions as information is not volunteered to you, turn off the thermostat if you want a good nights sleep and check that toilet before you get too comfortable.

Hope this helps! Happy Travelling.

Review: Grape Escapes Wine Tour

My brother and his fiancé were very generous this year and got me a gift card for a wine tour for my birthday back in April.

The wine tour company was Grape Escapes and they run tours all year round (probably covid dependent but what isn’t these days)

I finally cashed it in in October on my vacation to take in my own back yard of Wolfville. The tour guide was well informed of the area and it’s history- it was sometimes hard to hear her with the mask but again.. Sign of the times.

We hit up 3 vineyards:

  1. Luckette’s Vineyard

  2. Benjamin Bridge; and

  3. L’Acadie

The thing that I enjoyed the most had very little to do with the actual wine tour- there was a sense of normal this day I hadn’t felt in awhile. Full vaccination was required because of course you can’t have a mask on while taste testing wine so you were just simply surrounded by 25 other strangers drinking wine, seldom mask wearing, pretending the world isn’t going bonkers just for a second. That was nice. Especially as I write this 99% of my holiday plans have been kyboshed due to Omicron… But I digress, I have little to complain about living in Nova Scotia through all of this.

First stop: Luckette’s Vineyard for wine and lunch.

We tried 5 types of wine, all whites (yay) and some had a sparkling touch which was very enjoyable. Lunch was very carb centric (no surprise- but also no complaints- I love bread)

Everything was well scheduled, we spend the most time here since we could eat, drink plus they had a shop to enjoy (that I bought a book from). There was also lots of time to get the iconic red phone booth photo.

Second Stop: Benjamin Bridge

I can not even begin to describe the beauty of this location, if I didn’t know better I’d swear we teleported to Italy. The valley plains were just incredible.

This stop we probably spend the least amount of time, it’s not a huge site but the wines were certainly delicious. I believe we tried 3- 2 whites and a rosé. All sparking as Benjamin Bridge is known for.

We got a small tour of their production which was neat but it was a little squish for so many people to be in there. (still need some personal space c’mon guys). Due to the small space this was probably my lesser favorite of the 3 stops but you still can’t beat that view.

Benjamin Bridge Winery

Final Stop: L’Acadie Vineyards

Another breathtaking site but this one more so for it’s architecture as opposed to the nature. These buildings are rich in culture and I look forward to going back and trying the restaurant out.

We had 5 different wines here and this was the first place that served reds (not my favorite) but my partner loved the dessert wine we got to try and we grabbed it from the shop before leaving the site (along with bacon jam)

Overall it was an enjoyable time, I do think however, if I do it again I’d attempt to arrange a private tour. As much as it was nice to feel like I was in a normal group setting it’s still nicer to be a part of your own “bubble” when laughing and sipping wine.

For the public event they used a large Coach bus and from what I was told a smaller more intimate van is used for the private tours which would feel a little less tourist-y.