East Coast Canada and the Cabot Trail

Arrive in Halifax

Halifax Stanfield airport to the downtown waterfront

• Repas du soir
• Hébergement : The Prince George Hotel ou équivalent
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

In the early evening we walk the harbour boardwalk together, past tugboats, fishing boats and the historic ships moored by the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, with the little ferry to Dartmouth, running since 1752, crossing in front of you. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner as a group: a first taste of Nova Scotia seafood and a chance to meet the people you will travel with.

Compris

• Pick-up at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
• Evening walk on the Halifax harbour boardwalk
• Welcome dinner

Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenburg

A loop from Halifax along the South Shore

• Petit-déjeuner
• Hébergement : The Prince George Hotel ou équivalent
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

We leave after an early breakfast to reach Peggy's Cove before the tour coaches, because the village's small car parks fill from late morning to mid-afternoon. The lighthouse, built in 1915, stands on bare granite smoothed by glaciers, with the Atlantic breaking below; keep well back from the dark, wet rock, where waves can surge without warning. Walk down to the harbour, where lobster boats and weathered sheds line a cove that looks much as it has for generations. We continue along the South Shore to Mahone Bay, known for the three churches side by side on its waterfront, for lunch on your own. Then comes Lunenburg, a British colonial town laid out in 1753 and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995 for its grid of brightly painted wooden houses. Your entry to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, in the red buildings on the wharf, tells the story of the schooners and the cod that built the town.

Soir

We drive back to Halifax for a free evening.

Compris

• Peggy's Cove lighthouse and fishing village
• Mahone Bay
• Lunenburg Old Town
• Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

Halifax to Baddeck on Cape Breton Island

Halifax to Baddeck by the Canso Causeway, about 3 hours 36 minutes

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Hébergement : Inverary Resort ou équivalent
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Today is a travel day, about three and a half hours on the road, broken by lunch together on the way. We head north through the farmland around Truro and east toward Antigonish, then cross the Canso Causeway, opened in 1955, onto Cape Breton Island. The road follows the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake, a great inland sea of salt water where bald eagles are a common sight, to Baddeck, the village where Alexander Graham Bell spent his summers for more than thirty years. At the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site you see how far his work went beyond the telephone: giant kites, the Silver Dart, which made the first powered flight in Canada from the ice of Baddeck Bay in 1909, and a full-size replica of the HD-4 hydrofoil that set a world water speed record in 1919.

Soir

Tonight you stay by the lake at the Inverary Resort, with dinner together.

Compris

• Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island
• Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site

The Cabot Trail

Baddeck to Chéticamp, counter-clockwise around the Cabot Trail

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Chéticamp
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

In the afternoon you board a Zodiac at Pleasant Bay to look for whales and seals: pilot whales are likely in summer, and minke and humpback whales are possible. Then the road climbs French Mountain to the Skyline Trail, about 6.5 km return on a mostly flat path through the forest, ending in a boardwalk that steps down a headland high above the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Soir

We go in the evening light, and moose are often seen along the way. Tonight you sleep at an inn in Chéticamp, an Acadian fishing village, with dinner included.

Compris

• Cabot Trail drive through Cape Breton Highlands National Park
• Ingonish Beach
• Whale and seal Zodiac cruise from Pleasant Bay
• Evening walk on the Skyline Trail

Activités en option

• A guided sunset hike on the Skyline Trail, where offered

The Ceilidh Trail and the ferry to Prince Edward Island

Chéticamp to Charlottetown by the Ceilidh Trail and the Caribou ferry

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Hébergement : The Great George ou équivalent
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

At the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique you have lunch while local musicians play a céilidh of fiddle and piano, the sound Cape Breton is famous for. We cross back to the mainland and drive to Caribou, near Pictou, for the Northumberland Ferries crossing to Prince Edward Island, about 75 minutes on deck with the van parked below. From Wood Islands it is about 46 minutes to Charlottetown, where you stay two nights at The Great George or similar.

Soir

This is the longest day on the road, close to four hours of driving split by the ferry, so the evening is free.

Compris

• Hooked rugs in Chéticamp
• The Ceilidh Trail
• Lunch céilidh at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre, Judique
• Northumberland Ferries crossing from Caribou to Wood Islands

Green Gables and PEI's north shore

A free morning in Charlottetown, then Cavendish and the north shore

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Hébergement : The Great George ou équivalent
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

The morning is yours in Charlottetown, a compact, walkable capital where the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 set Canada on the road to Confederation. Wander the red-brick streets around Victoria Row and Great George Street, browse the shops by the harbour or take a long breakfast.

Après-midi

After lunch on your own we drive about 40 minutes to Cavendish on the north shore. Green Gables Heritage Place is the farm, owned by cousins of her grandfather, that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Walk through the house, furnished as Anne's world, and along Lovers' Lane and the Haunted Wood. Then we go down to Prince Edward Island National Park, where red sandstone cliffs and dunes meet long beaches on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for a walk on the sand.

Soir

In the evening we sit down to a traditional lobster supper, an island custom in church and community halls since the late 1950s, before driving back to Charlottetown.

Compris

• Green Gables Heritage Place
• Prince Edward Island National Park: red cliffs and a north shore beach
• Lobster supper

Confederation Bridge and Hopewell Rocks

Charlottetown to Moncton by the Confederation Bridge and the Bay of Fundy

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Moncton
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Soir

Then it is about half an hour to Moncton for our farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Confederation Bridge crossing and toll
• Hopewell Rocks entry and the ocean floor walk at low tide
• Farewell dinner in Moncton

Moncton to Halifax Airport

Moncton to Halifax Stanfield airport, about 2 hours 10 minutes

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast in Moncton we drive back into Nova Scotia, about two hours and ten minutes to Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The road crosses the Tantramar Marshes near Sackville, wide salt meadows that Acadian farmers once drained with dikes, and the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto at Amherst, the strip of land that joins Nova Scotia to the rest of Canada. We plan to reach the airport around the middle of the day, so please book flights home that leave after 1 pm. If you are flying within Canada, Greater Moncton International Airport (YQM) is about 20 minutes from the hotel and may suit you better; tell us when you book and we drop you there instead. If you would like more time, we can book extra nights in Halifax or Moncton before you fly. This is where the trip ends: eight days, three provinces, two islands and one small group.

Compris

• Drop-off at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), or at Greater Moncton International Airport (YQM) on request