Canada · New Brunswick/Nouveau-Brunswick
Where to Stay in Saint John, New Brunswick/Nouveau-Brunswick
Saint John is a city of New Brunswick in eastern Canada, an old Loyalist port on the Bay of Fundy, where the world's highest tides force a river to run backwards through the town.
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Where to stay in Saint John
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Saint John turns on the uptown or the coast. The brick streets of uptown keep the market, the theatre, and the old churches within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the heritage. The harbour lies below the hill.
Fog drifts up the streets. Out toward the river and the bay, the town gives way to the reversing falls, the port, and the rocky coast of Fundy. A room by the water trades the streets for the tidal river, the working docks, and the fog on the great bay.
The tide turns twice a day. Stay uptown for the heritage, or out for the falls and coast. Uptown stands a short way up from the harbour.
About Saint John
Saint John is the Loyalist port of the Bay of Fundy.
What is Saint John known for?
On the great tides of the bay where the Saint John River reaches the sea, it grew as the oldest incorporated city of Canada, and it keeps the reversing falls where the tide turns the river back, the old brick uptown rebuilt after a great fire, the covered City Market of the pioneers, and the fog and shipping of the busy harbour. The great tide rises and falls. Fog rolls in from the bay.
What are the main landmarks in Saint John?
The reversing falls are the wonder of Saint John. The narrow river gorge where the great Fundy tide forces the water to run backwards twice a day, churning white through the rock, is the marvel of the town, out of downtown. A covered market fills uptown.
The old City Market, its roof built like a ship's hull, crowds the brick streets, while the Martello tower, the Loyalist house, and the foggy harbour mark the country around Saint John.
What is the history of Saint John?
Saint John was born of the Loyalists. After the American Revolution, thousands who kept their oath to the crown fled north and landed on this rocky harbour in seventeen eighty-three, and they built a town that became the first incorporated city in Canada. The city grew by the sea.
On the great tides of Fundy the port shipped timber and built wooden ships, and Saint John rose as a busy harbour town of merchants and shipyards. A great fire swept the town. In eighteen seventy-seven a fire burned much of Saint John to the ground, and the people rebuilt their uptown in solid brick and stone, grander than before.
The tides ruled the river still. At the harbour mouth the huge Fundy tides turned the river back on itself twice a day, a wonder the town has always shown its visitors, and Saint John grew into a great port and refinery city, keeping its market, its brick streets, and its reversing falls. The fog still rolls up the bay.
Saint John keeps its old port on the tides of Fundy.
Where is Saint John?
Saint John lies in the south of New Brunswick, on the Bay of Fundy where the Saint John River reaches the sea. The city sits on rocky hills around a deep harbour, wrapped in fog and washed by the greatest tides on earth, with the river gorge on one side and the cold Atlantic bay on the other. The tide runs high and fast.
Fog hangs over the water.
What is the climate of Saint John?
Saint John has a cool, foggy maritime climate. Mild damp summers and cold snowy winters cross the coast, with thick sea fog in the warm months and hard cold off the bay in winter. The fog rolls thick in summer.
Winter blows cold and grey.
How do you get to Saint John?
Saint John lies on the south coast of New Brunswick, on the highway between Fredericton and the Nova Scotia line. The main road runs to it down to the bay from the north, and a ferry crosses the Fundy to Nova Scotia. Ships work the harbour.
Fredericton lies north up the river.
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Updated August 2026