While Cape Breton Island is technically part of Nova Scotia, it felt like its own little world with its unique landscape and culture. The island looks relatively small on a map, but it’s actually quite big. We covered quite a bit of the northern section, but would like to return to visit some areas in the south-east. While there, it was so tempting to hop on the ferry and continue on to Newfoundland. That is now on the wish-list for a future trip!
Below you’ll find plenty of ideas for your own trip, including:
Things To Do
With so much to see, you’ll want to take your time on Cape Breton Island – especially if you love the outdoors. Here are some of the highlights:
Cabot Trail
People flock to Cape Breton Island to drive the scenic Cabot Trail. You can take your time and spend multiple days touring the Trail as in this post from Bucketlist Bri. We did it in one, long day and it didn’t feel rushed. On either end of the National Park, there is a visitors centre where you can pick up a map similar to the one on this page. We used it and the information related to each marker to guide our day as we travelled counter-clockwise. Either direction is fine for spectacular views!
Hiking
The best hiking we did on our 8-week trip through Atlantic Canada was on Cape Breton Island. We did the Middle Head, Bog, and Skyline trails – all of which were fine for the kids (although the Skyline trail was about 6.5 km round trip, so the 7-year old was tiring by the end). The scenery was beautiful and there are many, many more trails for all levels of experience/difficulty.
Whale Watching / Lobster Fishing
We did our whale watching experience in the Bay of Fundy, but there are many options for these excursions from Cape Breton Island, including Ingonish on the east side of the National Park and Captain Mark’s on the west. Captain Chester from Ingonish Whale Watching was kind enough to teach us all about lobster fishing since we were visiting too early in the season for whale watching.
Experience Live Music
Music is a big part of Cape Breton culture, so there is nothing better than tapping your toes to some live performances. Most experiences are seasonal, so your best bet is a visit during the summer/early fall. Check out the listing of live music, or immerse yourself in the culture by attending a Celtic Ceilidh. For live music with dinner, locals recommended we try the Red Shoe Pub or Keltic Lodge. You can also look for small-town experiences such as community ceilidhs, lobster suppers and local craft ale.
More Cape Breton Fun
We didn’t make it to the south-east portion of the Island, but there are a few things that came highly recommended to us there. The Fortress of Louisbourg would have been a nice complement to our visit to the (British) Citadel in Halifax as the Fortress showcases the French heritage from the same time. Arrange in advance for the cannoneer in training program for kids. The Miner’s Museum also looked great! If you’re close to Chéticamp, you can also check out the Mi-Carême Centre for fun workshops and to learn more about Acadian culture.
Places To Eat
Le Gabriel (Chéticamp)
At the end of our Cabot Trail day, we arrived in Chéticamp and went to Le Gabriel for dinner. It was a good place to go with kids and they had live music playing, which made for a fun time! If you’re really into food, you can check out this Cape Breton Culinary Guide. Other places that came recommended to us in addition to the Red Shoe Pub and Keltic Lodge mentioned above, included the Doryman Pub & Grill and the Coastal Restaurant.
Where We Stayed
Cape Breton Highlands National Park
There are many campgrounds within the large area of this National Park, but only two will accommodate an RV of our size: Broad Cove and Chéticamp. We stayed in the Broad Cove campground. It was a little isolated and not as nice as Kouchibouguac, but it was still good. I’d be interested to try the Chéticamp one next time. Either way, we were inside the National Park, which made it easy to get to all of the great hiking!
I was curious before going about what the roads in Cape Breton would be like for our RV. After driving the Cabot Trail in our truck, I would say that it technically would have been possible to do the loop in our RV (especially true for those that have something smaller like a van), but we were very glad to not have our fifth wheel attached for the Trail drive. There are some very long, steep grades that would have been stressful. We actually had to tackle one of them to get to the Broad Cove campground and that was plenty for me! I would definitely recommend unhooking at Broad Cove, Chéticamp or some other campground outside the Trail and enjoying the hilly loop stress-free in your vehicle.
