Andrew Hempstead has spent many years exploring, photographing, and writing about Nova Scotia. For the first edition of this book, he made the cross-country trek three times, exploring the farthest reaches of the provinces—poking into the back alleys of Halifax, canoeing in Kejimkujik National Park, searching out fossils at Joggins, sampling Solomon Gundy (pickled herring), and surfing the waves of Lawrencetown Beach (okay, that was for his own enjoyment). These diverse experiences, along with input from untold numbers of locals and a love of the outdoors, created the guidebook you hold now.

Andrew spends as much time as possible out on the road, and rather than having an itinerary laid out for him by local tourism offices, he travels incognito so he can experience the many and varied delights of Vancouver and Victoria the same way his readers do.

Since the early 1990s, Andrew has authored and updated more than 60 guidebooks, contributed to dozens of major magazines, supplied content for online clients, such as Expedia and KLM, and been employed as a corporate writer for Parks Canada. His photography has appeared in a wide variety of media ranging from international golf magazines to a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum. Andrew is an academy member of S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants; he has spoken on guidebook writing to a national audience; and he has contributed to a university-level travel writing textbook.

Andrew and his wife Dianne own Summerthought Publishing, a regional publisher of nonfiction books. He and his family live in Banff, Alberta.