Although most tourist activities and facilities cluster along the coastline, New Brunswick relies heavily on timber and related industries for its income, followed by agriculture and mining. More than four-fifths of the province is covered by forest. Venturers and centrics have discovered New Brunswick’s lovely natural beauty, but authentics hesitate to visit in large numbers. The advantage for those who do visit is fewer crowds to enjoy casual strolls along the waterfronts, the hospitality of small hotels and inns, the isolation of the forests and the recreational facilities. Visitors also like the friendly locals and the fact the place is essentially undiscovered.

Not surprisingly, in an area surrounded by water, fishing opportunities abound. Hunters can track deer and black bear in the deep forests, camping is popular, and experienced sailors welcome the challenge of the active tides and currents in the bays. The Bay of Fundy boasts the highest tides in the world, draining to mud at low tide and rising up to 50 feet at high tide.

With its mixture of French and British cultures, the gorgeous blues and greens of its forest-to-ocean scenery and the laid-back attitude of residents, New Brunswick is an ideal place to forget your daily troubles and be content.

Take a canoe and camping trip on the Kedgwick, Restigouche or Upsalquitch rivers.

Drive an all-terrain vehicle through New Brunswick’s outback, involving water hazards, mud bogs, rough terrain plus groomed trails.

At St. John, take a jetboat ride in and around the so-called Reversing Falls, a phenomenon produced in the Bay of Fundy when the high incoming tide collides with the outbound low tide. You will climb and cross the rising “falls.”

If you feel especially venturesome, ride these falls, spin in whirlpools and roll through the white cap of the Reversing Falls while harnessed inside your own 10-foot floating bubble (see www.jetboatrides.com).

At Cape Enrage on the Bay of Fundy, you have a choice of adventures: Among them are rappelling down 140-foot cliffs overlooking the Bay of Fundy’s giant tides; climbing on 60-foot cliffs adjacent to the rappel face, and kayaking for half-day or full-day runs. Don’t even consider the full-day option if you are not experienced at kayaking in tough conditions. (There are two-day kayaking options, too.)

• There is a large selection of fishing lodges and campsites for those who want to try their luck or skills in a place where there is a wide variety of fish available. Choose the Miramichi River, and you’ll be targeting salmon.

Nature and art lovers shouldn’t miss the Tantramar Marshes, whose golden grasses and extraordinary light have attracted artists who are happy to entertain visitors (and buyers) in their workshops. Bird-watchers can spot rare waterfowl in marshes that are partly created by an ingenious system of dams and dikes.

Visit the Village Historique Acadien which uses costumed interpreters to help portray for visitors the lives of Acadians between 1770 and 1939. Located near Caraquet, it also offers adults full-day workshops where visitors — donning period costumes — learn traditional crafts such as the blacksmith’s skills or how to process flax to make linen.

Spend time at the Broadleaf Guest Ranch 45 minutes south of Moncton. Activity choices, depending on season, include cross-country skiing, horseback riding, mountain biking, skating, sleigh rides, tobogganing — plus penning cattle and fortune telling.

Operators on the Miramichi River offer women-only fly-fishing programs. No previous experience is required.

The largest annual celebration of Acadian culture is the August Festival Acadien de Caraquet. On the closing day, you can join more than 20,000 participants in making the event’s traditional deafening noise during the Tintamarre (noisy parade). Seafood (including lobster, mollusks, oysters, salmon, scallops and trout) is celebrated enthusiastically in a large number of annual festivals. Important examples are the Shediac Lobster Festival in July and Moncton’s August Atlantic Seafood Festival. There are lots of good eats.

St. Andrews by-the-Sea near the Maine border will return you to the mellow days of yesteryear with its 18th and 19th century buildings on Passamaquoddy Bay. Stay at a Victorian-era hotel and play the games the Victorians enjoyed — golf and tennis.

Visit Campobello Island. The movie “Sunrise at Campobello” was filmed here where the Roosevelt home remains just as it was when FDR last visited.

St. John is old by American standards, founded about 1635, and it offers much in the way of North American historic sites. Explore the waterfront area on a historical walk led by a costumed guide.

Spend time in St. John’s New Brunswick Museum, one of Canada’s first museums and one of the best. A specialty is putting on visiting art exhibits from various nations.

See, and drive across, one of the world’s longest covered bridges in Hartland. It carries Highway103 across the St. John River.

Magnetic Hill in Moncton creates an optical illusion that will make the whole family chuckle. At a certain point, with gears in neutral, your car will appear to move backward up the hill.

Sign on for a lobster-fishing experience. You will help lobstermen haul in lobster traps, learn about the proper way to cook and crack lobster — then feast on a lobster dinner.

Go whale-watching in the Bay of Fundy, of course.

For more information, consult the New Brunswick Department of Tourism and Parks at www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca

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