Tantramar is the new municipal name for the Sackville-Dorchester-Aulac area at the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. It is a small place, but it has a sharper identity than many towns its size: salt marshes, Acadian frontier history, Mount Allison University, and a string of modest but worthwhile museums.
Sackville is the useful base, with the university, cafes, the Owens Art Gallery, and the boardwalks of Sackville Waterfowl Park. Dorchester feels older and quieter, with stone and timber houses from its days as a county town. Aulac, near the border, is where the story turns dramatic: Fort Beausejour was one of the flashpoints before the Acadian deportations of 1755.
This is not a place to cross the continent for, but it makes a good spare day if you are already in Moncton, Amherst, or driving the Trans-Canada. Bring binoculars if you like birds, and leave enough time for the fort; the open marsh views explain the geography better than any plaque.