recommendations for a fun vacation with kids, north of the border

We would love an all-inclusive that isn't insanely expensive or just a fun town with lots to do with kids that is north of here.  A place we can drive to is preferred. 

We did a driving vacation to Nova Scotia when our kids were about 10 and 7 - they loved it. We drove up to Bar Harbor, visited Acadia and then took the ferry to Yarmouth, NS.  We drove around the island, visited lighthouses, Peggy's Cove, a neat zoo, Halifax and the fort that overlooks it (the Citadel) which had a wonderful bagpipe ceremony at sundown. We drove the Cabot Trail, saw bald eagles, lots of fantastic scenery - there's a recreation/restoration of 1700s French fortress at Louisberg. We then swung around to the Northumberland Strait area which has beautiful red sand beaches and very warm water. We could see whales off in the distance from the headlands and the kids loved the sheltered cove with the little crabs. We went fossiling by Arisaig and Joggins and then went to the shores of the Bay of Fundy to get a feel for the extreme tides.

The kids still talk about how much they enjoyed it, and it was 20 years ago! There were plenty of places to hike (we thought we saw lynx prints, or some other very large cat once). My son wanted to see a moose, but the only one we did see was in the zoo at Shubenacadie. 

If you decide to do a traveling vacation instead of an all-inclusive, I'd really recommend Nova Scotia!

Cody, I'm from Nova Scotia (so I do recommend it as a wonderful place to visit) and you sound like you did it all! Amazing! You should go back!

Thanks cody!

@annesimms, I would LOVE to go back to Nova Scotia! It was one of the best vacations we ever took - if I ever do get back, I'd like to spend time around the Bras d'Or - that was the one thing we skimmed by. I've read the birding is magnificent and I would have loved to have had time for a boat trip on it. We aren't Scottish, but I know there's a huge gathering there each summer with dancing, Gaelic culture and games - I'm sure that is a fun thing to visit, too!