East Coast Canada and the Cabot Trail

1. Day 1: Arrive in Halifax

   Halifax Stanfield airport to the downtown waterfront

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay: The Prince George Hotel or similar
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), with non-stop flights from many cities in Canada and the US Northeast. Your trip leader, who also drives the group's van for the whole week, meets you and takes you about half an hour into downtown Halifax, where you stay two nights at the Prince George Hotel or similar. Halifax grew up around one of the world's great natural harbours, founded as a British base in 1749 below the star-shaped Citadel that still looks over the city. 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.

   Included

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

   Activity: 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 3.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay: The Prince George Hotel or similar
   Day 2 details

   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. We drive back to Halifax for a free evening.

   Included

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

   Free time: Evening free in Halifax

   

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

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay: Inverary Resort or similar
   Day 3 details

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

   Included

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

   

4. Day 4: The Cabot Trail

   Baddeck to Chéticamp, counter-clockwise around the Cabot Trail

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Chéticamp
   Day 4 details

   The Cabot Trail is a loop of about 300 km around the northern tip of Cape Breton Island. We drive it counter-clockwise, with the sea on the right-hand side, and finish in Chéticamp. The road climbs into Cape Breton Highlands National Park, set aside in 1936, past Ingonish Beach, where a bar of sand and stones separates a freshwater lake from the ocean, and on along the coast toward Cape North. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Walk the first part of the Skyline Trail and turn back before the boardwalk steps.

   Activity: Whales and moose are wild animals: likely sightings, never guaranteed.

   

5. Day 5: The Ceilidh Trail and the ferry to Prince Edward Island

   Chéticamp to Charlottetown by the Ceilidh Trail and the Caribou ferry

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay: The Great George or similar
   Day 5 details

   Before we leave Chéticamp, 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 south on the Ceilidh Trail, the coast road through Margaree, Inverness and Mabou, where the music the Scottish settlers brought is still part of everyday life. 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. This is the longest day on the road, close to four hours of driving split by the ferry, so the evening is free.

   Included

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

   Free time: Evening free in Charlottetown

   Activity: The longest day: about 4 hours of driving, split by the 75-minute ferry.

   

6. Day 6: Green Gables and PEI's north shore

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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay: The Great George or similar
   Day 6 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Morning free in Charlottetown

   Activity: If the tide at Hopewell Rocks needs it, we swap this free morning with the timing of day 7.

   

7. Day 7: Confederation Bridge and Hopewell Rocks

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

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Moncton
   Day 7 details

   We leave the island by the Confederation Bridge, 12.9 km long and opened in 1997, the longest bridge in the world over water that freezes in winter. It takes about ten minutes to cross the Northumberland Strait to New Brunswick, and the toll is collected as you leave the island. The rest of the day follows the tide. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, and at Hopewell Rocks the water rises and falls more than 10 metres twice a day. Around low tide you walk down a staircase onto the ocean floor and wander among the flowerpot rocks, sea stacks of red sandstone and conglomerate topped with trees, carved by the same water that will cover their bases a few hours later. Wear shoes that can get muddy. We check the park's tide tables for every departure and plan the visit for the right hours. Then it is about half an hour to Moncton for our farewell dinner together.

   Included

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

   Easier option: See the flowerpot rocks from the lookouts at the top of the stairs.

   Activity: The ocean floor is open only around low tide; the stairs down to the beach are steep.

   

8. Day 8: Moncton to Halifax Airport

   Moncton to Halifax Stanfield airport, about 2 hours 10 minutes

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Activity: Book flights home that leave after 1 pm.

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 Cape Breton Highlands. Pilot whales are likely off Pleasant Bay in summer, minke and humpback whales are possible, and seals are likely. Moose are often seen along the Cabot Trail but never guaranteed, and bald eagles are common around the Bras d'Or Lake.

• 2 nights · Days 1 and 2

  The Prince George Hotelor similar

  Halifax · Hotel

  Downtown Halifax, or similar

• 1 night · Day 3

  Inverary Resortor similar

  Baddeck · Hotel

  On the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake

• 1 night · Day 4

  Chéticamp

  Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.

• 2 nights · Days 5 and 6

  The Great Georgeor similar

  Charlottetown · Hotel

  Historic hotel in downtown Charlottetown, or similar

• 1 night · Day 7

  Moncton

  Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.