Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Drive 88
Cabot Trail
A spin around Nova Scotia's Cape Breton, playground for whales and shorebirds,
showcases the craggy highland landscape—from charming villages to national
parkland and wave-battered coasts.
Length:
185 miles, plus side trips
When to go:
Best in early summer and fall (for foliage). Many accommodations closed
mid-October through May
Words to the wise:
The Cabot Trail is the only road at this end of the cape; there is no
road that cuts through the national park.
Further information:
Destination Cape Breton
Cape Breton Highlands National Park
1.
Baddeck
This charming town, located about an hour's drive north of the Canso Causeway, marks the
southern tip of Cabot Trail and makes an excellent starting point for the loop. An area visit-
or center, located on Chebucto Street, offers information on lodging, dining, shopping, and
attractions all along Cabot Trail.
Built on the rugged hillsides of the Cape Breton Highlands, the town's cottages and
shops spill down to the shores of salty Bras D'Or Lake, which spreads from the harbor
across some 425 square miles. Since its founding in the late 1800s, immigrants from the
Scottish highlands have settled here, an island so similar in topography to their native land,
that in the late nineteenth century the Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell set up shop in Bad-
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