Why You Should Visit Cape Breton Island For Your Vacation

Cape Breton, the lively and heavenly island of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, has created a gobsmacking and enchanting impression all over the world. It won’t surprise me if you plan to visit Cape Breton for your next vacation. But if you are not, you are missing a fantastic adventure through the beautiful island of Canada.

Photo by Mr. Nixter/Flickr

This article will make you fall in love with the stunning and irresistible site of Cape Breton Island, the invigorating hike through Cabot-trail, the ever-lasting elegance of its museums, its enchanting fiddle music, and the fantastic outdoor adventure through the national park.

Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton is an island on the northern Atlantic Ocean coast of North America and falls under the Nova-Scotia province of Canada. This island has a total area of 10,311 square kilometers ( 3,981 square miles). With over 132,010 population, the island lands are an essential part of Nova-Scotia. Although the entire island is separated from the Nova-Scotia Peninsula, it connects to the mainland through the long Canso Causeway. The island’s north and west coast look over the Gulf of St Lawrence, and the west coast also forms the east of Northumberland Strait.

Image by TLMDesign from Pixabay

The largest settlement of Cape-Breton-Island is the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which has a population of about 97,398. The Cape-Breton-Highlands dominates the northern portion of the Island. The “Highlands,” the extension of the Appalachian mountains chain, constitute Victoria countries and Inverness. The Cabot- Trail is a highly popular and scenic highway of Cape Breton that no one wants to miss.

The mild and moderate climate of the island is because of the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream. The island’s warm summers and cold winter form the perfect environment (well..almost perfect) for travelers and hikers. But why is there such a craze among these travellers about Cape-Breton?

Why Cape Breton Is The Best Place To Visit?

You came to know all the essential details about Cape-Breton-Island, but you might think, what is the buzz all about? Well, some pretty compelling reasons can prove why Cape Breton is the best place to spend your next vacation.

The Lingering Ethos Of Its Culture & Tradition

The Gaelic culture and tradition still prevail within the residential areas. The native community of the island has made many efforts to stop the gradual diminishing of the Gaelic language. Their traditional fiddle music has been popular in the music industry for ages. The island’s rich culture can convey the stories of its influential history.

Oh! The Precious Seafoods!

It is said that in Cape Breton, Nova-Scotia, seafood is the king. The delicious and soul-soothing bites of the seafood served at the restaurants will leave you with awe. Tourists worldwide, especially Canadian tourists, can corroborate that the lobsters served are astonishingly epicurean. So, the sea-foodies got a reason to visit the Island.

Hiking Through The Trails

Cape-Breton-island’s trails throughout the area give travellers and hikers an artsy and creative vibe. They come to explore the scenic views throughout the courses. The most famous is the ‘Cabot-Trail.’ The trail running through the island falls under Canada’s most attractive places.

The Amazing Beaches And Sites

The island is full of beautiful sites and beaches. Many gorgeous sceneries can awaken your sense of adventure. If you are a nature-lover, a beach-goer, or a vigorous explorer, then the beaches and the scenic beauty of the island will touch you to the soul.

Cape Breton seems to offer a lot to travellers and tourists. But what is the best time to visit such a beautiful island to enjoy the most of it?

When To Visit Cape-Breton-Island?

Image by adam morgan from Pixabay

If you plan to visit Cape Breton for your vacation, then the summers days are the best time for you to enjoy the most. During July and August, the island is dry and warm for travellers. However, you should be prepared for untimely rain showers as well. Since the island experiences frequent rain showers throughout the year, it might be difficult for you to avoid rains. Tourists can also enjoy the autumn colours of the island in September and October. But the winter days are pretty hard to adjust with. Therefore, many tourists locations are closed during the off-season.

You are probably convinced that Cape-Breton-Island is a never-to-miss place for you and your family. Let us check some of the most popular sites on the island.

Cape Breton Island’s Most Visited Locations

The stories about the beauty of Cape-Breton-island of Canada have permeated throughout the world. Travellers are packing their bags to visit the island to enjoy some exciting adventures and the endless wildlife of Cape Breton. The following are the island’s best locations in every adventurer’s list.

Cabot Trail

The 300-kilometer scenic drive of Cabot-Trail is the talk of the town. The trail is named after an Italian seafarer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot). Canada’s most beautiful stretch of the road will take you on a ride through the highland moors, gigantic cliffs over the Atlantic Ocean, elegant mountains, and verdant wildlife. The trail encircles the entire Cape Breton Highlands National-Park. Apart from scenic views, hiking, and beautiful small towns, the trail also offers sports like horseback riding, ice fishing, skiing, and kayaking, all year long.

Photo by Peter Miller/Flickr

Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Hiking through the Cape Breton Highlands-National Park is one of the most popular things on the island. The Cape Breton Highland national-park extends for more than 950 square kilometers over the map of the island. The park is full of beautiful flora and fauna. It serves as a home to many animals like deer, wild cats, moose, duck, beaver, bald eagles, and boreal birds. You can also enjoy several waterfalls within the national-park, such as Mary Ann Falls and Beulach Ban Falls. One of the park’s easiest and most spectacular hiking trails is the Skyline-Trail.

Doug Kerr/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Alexander Graham Bell National-Historic Site

The summer home of the great Alexander Graham Bell, situated on Cape-Breton-Island, got converted into a historic-site. You can feel the heat of history running through your veins when you take a glimpse of his genius works. You can learn about the life and work of the man who invented the telephone and gave incredible ideas on flight and artificial respiration. The museum or the historic-site holds records and documents about hydroplanes and aircraft engines that once belonged to the great inventor. There are special programs held where visitors can create and test some of his designs.

Dennis Jarvis/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Fortress Of Louisbourg National Historic Site

The French Fortress of Louisbourg is one of Canada’s most elegant historical museums. The walls and towers of the fortress are beautifully maintained. Life at Canada’s east coast during the mid 18th century can be known from the ruins and contemporary records present at the historic-site. You will get introduced to the hospitality and kindness of the people from the history of the place. There is a tourist season where people get dressed up as the typical ‘townspeople’ and re-enact the daily routine of the earlier times. You can even enjoy camping all night in a period-style house or firing a musket.

The first village was established in 1713 and was initially known as Havre à l’Anglois. As a result, the fishing port grew to become an important commercial port and a well-defended fortress. Fortifications finally encompassed the village. The walls were mostly built between 1720 and 1740. By the mid-1740s, Louisbourg, named for King Louis XIV of France, had become one of the most substantial (and costly) European fortifications built in North America. Two smaller garrisons backed it up on Île Royale, located in St. Peter’s and Englishtown. The Fortress of Louisbourg had significant flaws because it was built on low-lying ground controlled by adjacent hills. Its design was primarily geared against sea-based assaults, leaving relatively weak land-facing defences.

Another disadvantage was long-distance from France or Quebec, where reinforcements could be supplied. It was conquered by British colonists in 1745 and served as a crucial bargaining chip in the discussions that led to the Treaty of Vienna in 1748, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession. It was given back to France in exchange for border villages in Belgium. British soldiers retook it during the Seven Years’ War in 1758, and British engineers progressively dismantled its defences. Until 1768, the British maintained a garrison at Louisbourg.

Dennis Jarvis/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Cape Breton Island’s Miner’s Museum

Cape Breton’s Miner’s museum is a place where you can learn about the miner’s traditional and latest mining techniques. Since the Glace Bay town was built on a hill rich with coal deposits, miners from France came to dig up the coal. Now, retired miners show around the museum, speak about their experiences, and tell real-life stories about the lives of miners working on the coal seams. They even put on some charming and amusing evening concerts in the summer. You can also visit the nearby Marconi National Historic-Site to learn about the history of Guglielmo Marconi, who proved electromagnetic waves as a medium to send signals across the Atlantic.

Dennis Jarvis/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Highland Village

The Gaelic culture persists in this living history museum. You can enjoy the rhythms of the Gaelic language and their traditional music. The Bras d’Or Lake is the heart of the Highland Village that spreads across 1000 square kilometers of the south of Cape Breton-Island. The village depicts Scottish families’ lives and tells about their churches, general stores, and schoolhouses.

Dennis Jarvis/Flickr/Copyright 2021

These are some of the most popular destinations within the island that speaks to you about the cultures, histories, and beauty of the Cape-Breton-island of Canada.

Popular Cape Breton Real Estate:

The community is intended for property homeowners searching for real estate that provides a peaceful means of life far from the hustle and bustle of urban centres and is located in the village of Ingonish along the rocky coastlines of the Cabot Trail on the island. Ingonish by the ocean can inspire you with luxurious solid ground condominium living, whether or not you’re seeking for Cape Breton assets to call home or a second home-away-from-home. Here, time is on your side, allowing you to unwind and take in the grandeur of the mountains and the immensity of the glittering sea.

Cape Sable Island

Sable-Island (French: île de Sable, literally “island of sand”) is a small Canadian island located 300 kilometres (190 miles) southeast of Halifax, Nova-Scotia, and roughly 175 kilometres (109 miles) southeast of the nearest mainland Nova Scotia point in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island, notable for its significance in early Canadian history and the Island horse, is protected and administered by Parks Canada, which must provide permission before any visit. The island is staffed year-round by four federal government employees, with the number increasing during the summer months as research programmes and tourists grow. It is located in District 7 of the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia.

Ephraim Atkinson designed the boat in Clark’s Harbour in 1907, and it is now a standard for small boats in the North Atlantic that demand remarkable stability and efficiency. A typical Cape Islander is 11.5 metres (38 feet) long and has a beam of 3.5 metres (12 ft.). It draws very little water, sitting directly on the surface, and is mainly used in lobster. Cape Sable is a small, low-lying sandy island with trees stretching about 3.5 kilometres (2 miles).

Kidston Island Lighthouse

In 1819, twenty-five-year-old James Duffus, a former military service officer, established a home and mercantile business on Mutton Island, simply offshore from Baddeck, to serve the settlers at stream Baddeck and Grand Narrows. James Duffus applied for four hundred acres on the ground close to his island zero in 1820 and received the grant in 1824. Sir prophet Cunard, the founding father of the Cunard Line of steamships, was James’ in-law and had inspired him to travel into the mercantile business together with his brother William.

The Department of Marine stated in 1875 that a lighthouse on the Island would be completed to serve Baddeck Harbour:

A new light tower has been built on the north-east tip of the Island, near the north side of Bras d’Or Lake, the entrance to Baddeck Harbour in Victoria County, and will be operational on November 8th. The light is five and a half feet in diameter, and the structure is a modest square tower painted white, with no living quarters, the keeper living at his own house in Baddeck.

The original Island Lighthouse was dismantled after a replacement tower was erected in 1991, but it was not. It was finally demolished in 1959 after falling into ruin. The Island was purchased by the Village of Baddeck in 1959, and it is leased to the local Lions Club, which conducts a ferry service to the island during the summer.

The village took over the Island Lighthouse in 2005, and it was re-shingled and painted in 2014.

Scatarie Island

It is an island off the coast of Baleine, Cape-Breton-Island, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is off the northeastern edge of the island and runs more than 10 kilometres from Western Point, 2 kilometres off the mainland, to Eastern Head, bathed in the sun, fog, and the Atlantic Ocean swells.

It is one of Nova Scotia’s largest islands, with a rough, uneven shore. A coastal spruce-fir forest covers much of the interior, while the periphery and a tiny island are made up of exposed coastal bog and barren complexes, cliffs, headlands, and beaches. The sea environment influences the climate, moderates temperatures and accounts for windy, often foggy weather. The highest point is roughly 50 metres above mean sea level.

The island is home to a diversified range of natural resources, including rare plants, diverse wildlife, huge wetland complexes, and a diverse range of coastal landforms. It is home to a great diversity of rare or unique flora, most of which are adapted to the island’s mild climate, coastline exposure, and associated site characteristics.

How is the Cape Breton weather?

The weather and temperature on Cape Breton Island fluctuate throughout the day, resulting in a temperate coastal climate that rarely gets too cold or too hot. There’s an adage around there that goes, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” You’ll frequently see sun, wind, and clouds all in the same day, so pack wisely and wear in layers.

Accommodations in Cape-Breton

Cape Breton hotels, lodges, guest houses, and Air BnB’s are available for all tourists and travellers.

Cape Breton’s Most Picturesque Locations

Cape Breton Island has some of the most gorgeous and scenic beauties in the world, and no one wants to miss out on it. So, get all your cameras ready to capture some precious clicks of the paradisiacal sceneries of the island.

Isle Madame

Isle Madame is an off-coast island of Cape Breton Island. The breathtaking views from the locations will resist you from putting down your camera. Within the windy beaches and coastlines of the island, the Lighthouse of Isle Madame is one of the most beautiful lighthouses of Canada. A tour through this photo-worthy lighthouse can tell you the stories of shipwrecks, lights, and their keepers that happened on the island’s coast. France first settled the island, and till now, you can notice some attractive villages set up by the French.

Dennis Jarvis/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Egypt Falls

Cape Breton island’s waterfalls are one of the many reasons why explorers get attracted to the island. Most of the beautiful waterfalls of Canada can be found on this island. One among them is the Egypt Falls. This marvellous waterfall stretches over 18 meters wide and 8 meters high. The fall over one steep forms a pool, and the next, steep meets with the brook below. Eyes and cameras are just not enough to capture its beauty.

The hike of the Egypt Falls (formerly Appin Falls) provides a rapid descent to the island’s widest waterfall (60 feet). The road where you park is also the route leading to Pipers Glen. This is an excellent 12 km or more addition to this trek, making the travel out even more worthwhile.

Please remember that the 13.58 km trip includes a warm-up walk into Pipers Glen before heading down to the falls. While we recommend it, it is entirely optional. You can go straight to the falls, a very short and steep hike.

Photo by Elyse Turton on Unsplash

Tenerife Mountain

Tenerife Mountain or Theodore Fricker Mountain is a hidden treasure for travellers to explore. The head of the trail is between the villages of Cape North and Dingwall. The course starts gentle but gets steeper through the beautiful forests. When the trail gets nearer to the summit, you will get an extended beauty of stunning landscape all around you. You can go ahead and hike through the short ridge-line to capture more beautiful sceneries.

Fabio Bai/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Skyline Trail

This trail is considered the most photographed location of Atlantic Canada. It is one of the most popular trails among the numerous footpaths through Cape Breton-Highlands-National-Park. The course starts from the top of the French Mountains and continues with the Cabot-Trail levelling with the cliffs hanging out to the sea. It is an excellent place for whale watching in the Gulf of St Lawrence. You can also spot beautiful bald eagles, bears, and moose.

Andrea Schaffer/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Dingwall Beach

Dingwall Beach is one of the best picturesque beaches in Canada. The beach lovers have had this place for years. The beach is situated just off the Cabot-Trail. The beach stretches over a mile along the Atlantic Ocean, and the pathway along the ocean serves as an excellent trail for a quiet walk. This beach has created a small saltwater bay separated from the sea due to the path. The place is the perfect location for professional photographers to arrange a fantastic photoshoot.

Buddha Dog/Flickr/Copyright 2021

Cape Breton, one of the well-known islands of Canada, serves as a wholesome vacation package for you and your family. You can enjoy hiking through the beautiful trails, exploring the beaches, learning about Canada’s unique history, strolling through the parks, enjoying fishing and the wildlife, and many more. There are even suitable hotels to make your stay more exciting. This small land on the map of Canada can give complete satisfaction to your heart within a few days of your vacation. And that is why you should visit Cape Breton for your next vacation.

Last Updated on October 1, 2023 by alishbarehman