Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island at a slower pace

1. Day 1: Arrive in Halifax

   Halifax Stanfield airport to the downtown waterfront

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Halifax
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), where our driver meets you and takes you about half an hour into downtown Halifax. You stay two nights in a central hotel close to the harbour, chosen for a lift or a ground-floor room. There is time to rest after the flight. At about 5:30 your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the lobby for a short briefing, then we walk a level stretch of the harbour boardwalk together, about 1 km with benches along the way, past tugboats, fishing boats and the historic ships moored by the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Halifax was founded as a British base in 1749 on one of the world's great natural harbours, and the little ferry to Dartmouth has crossed it since 1752. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner close to the water: a first taste of Nova Scotia seafood and a chance to meet the people you will travel with, with an early night if you want one.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
   • Briefing with your guide
   • A short walk on the Halifax harbour boardwalk
   • Welcome dinner

   Easier option: Skip the boardwalk and meet the group at the restaurant, a short ride from the hotel.

   Free time: Afternoon free before the 5:30 briefing

   Activity: About 1 km on foot, level. We confirm your pick-up time with your flight details.

   

2. Day 2: Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenburg

   A loop from Halifax along the South Shore

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Halifax
   Day 2 details

   This is the trip's one early start: we leave at about 8:15 to reach Peggy's Cove around 9, before the tour coaches fill the village's small car parks from late morning. The lighthouse, built in 1915, stands on bare granite smoothed by glaciers, and a viewing deck gives a clear, level view of it without climbing on the dark, wet rock, where waves can surge without warning. We stop next at Mahone Bay for coffee by the three churches on its waterfront, then drive on to Lunenburg, laid out in 1753 and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995 for its grid of painted wooden houses. Lunch is together on the waterfront. 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; the vehicle takes us up the steep streets for the view back over the harbour. Driving totals about 3 hours, our touring-day limit, in four short legs. We are back in Halifax by about 5, with the evening free.

   Included

   • Peggy's Cove lighthouse and fishing village, from the viewing deck
   • Coffee stop in Mahone Bay
   • Lunenburg Old Town, along the waterfront and by vehicle through the upper streets
   • Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

   Easier option: Stay in the vehicle or a cafe in Mahone Bay, and see the museum's ground floor only.

   More active option: Walk up through Lunenburg's grid of painted houses with your guide, about 1.5 km with steep sections, and meet the vehicle at the top.

   Free time: Evening free in Halifax

   Activity: About 2.5 km on foot in short stretches. About 3 hours on the road in four legs, none over 1 hour 15.

   

3. Day 3: Halifax to Baddeck on Cape Breton Island

   Halifax to Truro and Antigonish, then the Canso Causeway to Baddeck

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Baddeck
   Day 3 details

   After a relaxed breakfast our driver loads the cases and we leave at about 9:30. This is one of the two longest days on the road, about three and a half hours in all, because Cape Breton Island is some 350 km from Halifax. We break it into three legs of under two hours: a coffee stop near Truro after about an hour, then on through the farmland toward Antigonish, where we stop for a seated lunch together. After lunch we cross the Canso Causeway, opened in 1955, onto Cape Breton Island, and follow the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake, a great inland sea of salt water where bald eagles are a common sight. We reach Baddeck at about 3:30. This is your home for three nights, so you unpack once. The rest of the afternoon is free to rest or stroll the short, level main street to the wharf, and we meet for dinner together in the village.

   Included

   • Coffee stop near Truro
   • Seated lunch in Antigonish
   • The Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island
   • The Bras d'Or Lake shore road

   Easier option: Rest at the hotel until dinner.

   More active option: Walk the Baddeck waterfront to the wharf and back with your guide, about 1.5 km.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Baddeck

   Activity: About 3 h 35 on the road in three legs of 1 hour, 1 hour 10 and 1 hour 30. Under 1 km on foot.

   

4. Day 4: Alexander Graham Bell and the Bras d'Or Lake

   Baddeck

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Baddeck
   Day 4 details

   No packing today and no early start. At about 10 we drive a few minutes to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, on a hill above the village where Bell spent his summers for more than thirty years. Your guide takes the group through it at an easy pace, with stops to sit; we confirm step-free access and seating with the site before each season. It shows how far his work went beyond the telephone: giant tetrahedral 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. From the windows you look out over the lake that Bell's family still summers beside. We finish by lunchtime, back in the village, and the afternoon is yours: a nap, a book on a terrace by the water, or a sailing cruise on the Bras d'Or Lake from the Baddeck wharf, which your guide can book.

   Included

   • Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • A sailing cruise on the Bras d'Or Lake from the Baddeck wharf, where offered

   Easier option: See the hydrofoil hall only, and rest with the vehicle while the group finishes.

   More active option: Walk back from the museum to the village with your guide, about 1.5 km downhill.

   Free time: Lunch, afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 1.5 km on foot, mostly inside the museum.

5. Day 5: The Cabot Trail's west coast and whales off Cheticamp

   Baddeck to the Margaree valley, Cheticamp and the park lookouts, and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Baddeck
   Day 5 details

   We leave at about 9:30 and join the Cabot Trail where it follows the Margaree River, a salmon river in a wide green valley, to the sea at Margaree Harbour and up the coast to Cheticamp, an Acadian fishing village. At Les Trois Pignons you see the hooked rugs the village is known for, a craft Acadian families turned into an art, with farms, boats and village life worked in wool. Then we drive into Cape Breton Highlands National Park, set aside in 1936, as far as the first lookouts, where the road climbs between the mountains and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; you see them from beside the vehicle. Lunch is together in Cheticamp. In the afternoon we board a whale-watching boat from the Cheticamp wharf; we confirm its seating and shelter with the operator when we book. Pilot whales are likely in summer, and minke and humpback whales are possible. We drive back the way we came, about 3 hours on the road in all, and are in Baddeck by about 6, for dinner together.

   Included

   • The Cabot Trail through the Margaree valley
   • Les Trois Pignons hooked rug museum, Cheticamp
   • Cape Breton Highlands National Park entry and the lookouts above Cheticamp
   • Whale-watching boat from Cheticamp
   • Lunch in Cheticamp and dinner in Baddeck

   Easier option: Stay seated aboard for the whole sailing, and see the lookouts from the vehicle.

   More active option: Walk a short park trail near the lookouts with your guide while the group waits at the visitor centre, about 2 km.

   Activity: About 1.5 km on foot. About 3 hours on the road in four legs, none over 1 hour 15. Whales are wild animals: likely sightings, never guaranteed.

6. Day 6: A ceilidh lunch and the ferry to Prince Edward Island

   Baddeck to Judique, then Caribou and the ferry to Wood Islands and Charlottetown

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Charlottetown
   Day 6 details

   The cases go in the vehicle and we leave Baddeck at about 9:30. This is the second of the two longer road days, about three and a half hours of driving in all, because Prince Edward Island is reached by sea; it is broken by a long lunch and a ferry. First we drive about an hour and a quarter to Judique on the Ceilidh Trail, where the music Scottish settlers brought is still part of everyday life. At the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre you have lunch while local musicians play a ceilidh of fiddle and piano, the sound Cape Breton is known for. We cross back to the mainland and drive about an hour and three quarters to Caribou, near Pictou, for the Northumberland Ferries crossing, about 75 minutes with seats inside and on deck. From Wood Islands it is about 46 minutes to Charlottetown, where we arrive at about 5:30. You stay two nights in a central hotel, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Lunch ceilidh at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre, Judique
   • The Canso Causeway back to the mainland
   • Northumberland Ferries crossing from Caribou to Wood Islands

   Easier option: Stay seated inside the ferry's lounge for the crossing.

   Free time: Evening free in Charlottetown

   Activity: About 3 h 45 on the road in three legs of 1 hour 15, 1 hour 45 and 46 minutes, split by lunch and the 75-minute ferry. Under 1 km on foot.

   

7. Day 7: Green Gables and a farewell lobster supper

   Charlottetown to Cavendish and North Rustico, then New Glasgow

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Charlottetown
   Day 7 details

   We leave at about 9:30 and drive about 40 minutes across the farmland 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. The visitor centre and the ground floor of the house are level; Anne's bedroom is up a flight of stairs, for those who want it. 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. A boardwalk leads toward the sand, with the dune lookout for those who would rather stay above it. Lunch is together in North Rustico, a fishing harbour a few minutes along the coast, and we are back in Charlottetown by about 2:30. The afternoon is free. At about 5 we drive to a traditional lobster supper, an island custom in community halls since the late 1950s, for our farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Green Gables Heritage Place
   • Prince Edward Island National Park: red cliffs and the Cavendish beach
   • Lunch in North Rustico
   • Farewell lobster supper

   Easier option: See the Green Gables ground floor and garden, and the beach from the dune lookout.

   More active option: Walk Lovers' Lane and the Haunted Wood behind Green Gables with your guide, about 1.5 km on woodland paths.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Charlottetown, from about 2:30

   Activity: About 2 km on foot, mostly level.

   

8. Day 8: Charlottetown to your flight home

   Charlottetown to Charlottetown Airport (YYG), or to Halifax Stanfield (YHZ) by the Confederation Bridge

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Breakfast is unhurried and there is no luggage call: the driver collects your case from the hotel. If you fly from Charlottetown Airport (YYG), it is about 10 minutes away, and we drop you in good time for your flight, with the morning free in the compact, walkable capital where the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 set Canada on the road to Confederation. If you fly from Halifax, the vehicle leaves at about 9:30 and crosses the Confederation Bridge, 12.9 km long and opened in 1997, which takes about ten minutes over the Northumberland Strait to New Brunswick. From there the road crosses the Tantramar Marshes and the narrow isthmus at Amherst back into Nova Scotia, and on to Halifax Stanfield International Airport, about 3 hours 15 of driving, a little over our 3-hour aim because this is the road home. We break it with a coffee stop at Amherst, about halfway, and arrive at about 1:15. Please book Halifax flights home that leave after 3:30 pm. If you would like more time, we can book extra nights in Charlottetown or Halifax.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Charlottetown Airport (YYG), or at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) by the Confederation Bridge
   • Confederation Bridge toll

   Free time: Morning free in Charlottetown if you fly from YYG

   Activity: Halifax: about 3 h 15 on the road in two legs, split by a coffee stop at Amherst. Book flights from Halifax that leave after 3:30 pm. Flights from Charlottetown: any time after about 11 am.

Wildlife and weather: The season runs from mid June to early October. July and August are the warmest months, often around 20 to 25°C by day, with cool evenings and fog on the Atlantic coast. Late September and early October bring fall colour to the Margaree valley and the Cape Breton Highlands and quieter roads, but some seasonal sights close in mid October. Pilot whales are likely off Cheticamp in summer, minke and humpback whales are possible, and seals are often seen. Bald eagles are common around the Bras d'Or Lake. Wildlife is never guaranteed.

• Halifax2 nights
• Baddeck3 nights
• Charlottetown2 nights