Coastal Discovery

Nova Scotia Hot Spots

Overview | Hot Spots | Festivals and Events | Suggested Itineraries | Nova Scotia Advertisers

Cape Breton

Mabou

If it’s active living you want, the tiny village of Mabou has it. By day, hike some of the best trails anywhere, then come night, reel off a set at a Saturday-night West Mabou square dance. Cape Mabou has about 15 hiking trails on more than eight square miles of coastal wilderness. The trails follow old cart tracks of Scottish settlers and ascend mountains, climb cliffs and offer stunning views of the blue water below. In the Mabou area, stop by The Red Shoe Pub. In 2005 several Rankin sisters, including members of the now disbanded popular Rankin Family musical group, took over as proprietors. In Glenville the Glenora Distillery, a single-malt whisky distillery and inn, has a restaurant, pub, gift shop, tours and musical entertainment.

Cheticamp

The Acadian communities on the windswept northwest coast of Cape Breton—Cheticamp, Belle Cote, St-Joseph-du-Moine, Grand Étang and Terre Noire—offer scenic vistas and friendly people. The road curves around the coast on one side while mountains rise on the other. In between sit tidy houses, often proudly displaying the Acadian flag. Learn about the history, local fishing industry and Cheticamp rug-hooking at such places as Les Trois Pignons and La Pirogue Fisheries Museum. Stroll the boardwalk, take a whale-watching cruise, go horseback riding and sample authentic Acadian cuisine.

Cabot Trail

The 185-mile-long Cabot Trail runs through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, which has dozens of hiking trails. Whale watching is popular along the coastline, and there’s a whale interpretive centre in Pleasant Bay to educate visitors about the Cabot Trail.

Ingonish

Ingonish is next door to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Visitors can try their hand at saltwater and freshwater fishing, swim in the freshwater lakes or the ocean, take a cruise or indulge in lobster fresh off the boat. Lobster season runs from mid-May to mid-July. Snow crab season follows and runs through to mid-August.

Baddeck

Baddeck is a tiny tourism mecca that’s no shrinking violet when it comes to accommodations. “We all have something different,” says Judy Langley, whose seaside Duffus House, an eclectic Water Street B&B, houses a Cunard Room sitting area, complete with an amazing array of artifacts commemorating the Cunard Steamship Co. Visit the marina and the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada, which offers such neat programs as kite making. Buy a boxed lunch at the Highwheeler Café on Main Street and enjoy the thick homemade sandwich, fruit and cookies in a picnic park overlooking the rugged shores of the Cabot Trail.

Sydney

Loyalists from New York state settled Sydney in the 1780s; Scottish immigrants arrived 20 years later. The city is now home to 26,000 people, the University College of Cape Breton, a casino, a flourishing high-tech industry and plenty of history. Cossit House Museum on Charlotte Street, built in 1787, is thought to be the oldest home in Sydney; it has been restored, and costumed guides offer tours.

Louisbourg

The Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada is the largest reconstruction in North America; a quarter of the original town has been rebuilt as it was in 1744. Three main feast days are celebrated in grand period fashion: the Feast of Saint Anne in late July, the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August and the Feast of Saint Louis in late August. Visitors will see more people in period costume on any given day from June 1 to Sept. 30, from servants cooking to upper-class dancing to day workers gossiping in the tavern. The season runs May 1 to Oct. 31.