Forum Discussion

Janss's avatar
Janss
Explorer II
Feb 24, 2019

Cape Breton Island

Planning our first trip to Nova Scotia and PEI this summer for about 6 weeks.

What is a good plan for Cape Breton? Looks like staying at a campground in Baddeck is a central location. One day car trip around the northern loop (Cabot Trail), one day the southern loop (Inverness, Judique, etc.), one day to Louisbourg through Sydney.

But the first two loops are 150-200 miles. With stops for walking, sightseeing, eating...seems not doable in a day. So should I move to other campgrounds in different towns? If so, please suggest a plan where I don't have to drive the motorhome on scary roads.
  • Thanks to all for sharing you experiences, suggestions and information.
  • We did the North loop in one day and cut across from Margaree Harbour back to our campground in Baddeck. The second day we took the southern route and once again cut across at Margaree Harbour back to Baddeck. Wasn't really paying attention to the miles, but we saw what we wanted to see without rushing and got back to camp at dusk. Beautiful drive!
  • 2 areas I really liked are the very northern part of Cape Breton - at least 2 days of walking.

    & the Fortress at Louisbourg, at least one day of visiting many parts of that community and finding out what made it so special in the colonial era.

    Cabot Trail - well I used to live within 1.5 hours of Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland. & that has at least 100 x as many places special to Planet Earth over the NS park. You see in the Gros Morne Days the locals insisted on being a part of the park and still are. The Feds insisted on taking local settlements away when they set up the Cape Breton Park.

    Though, yes, Cape Breton has scenery and music.

    :C
  • Set up camp, then using your toad, stay about midway across cape at a B&B, continue tour the next day. We did this and got plenty of information at the B&B.