Discover Cape Breton
World-class golf, the iconic Cabot Trail, fresh-caught lobster, ceilidh nights, and the friendliest people you'll ever meet — all on one island in Nova Scotia.
What is Cape Breton First?
Cape Breton First is the Cape Breton-focused planning hub for first-time visitors, returning travellers, and locals showing friends around. We track what's open, what's happening, and what's worth your time across the island's eight regions — with curated restaurants and operators, trails and beaches, golf courses, festivals and events, and deeper town guides and multi-day itineraries for every trip length.
Travelling to Cape Breton? Start here.
Four ways into the island — pick the one that sounds most like the trip you want.
Stay & Play
Golf trip packages — hotel & tee times in one booking
Cabot Cliffs, Cabot Links, Highland Links and more — combine world-class rounds with island accommodations, from a one-night quick escape to a full multi-day trip. Curated by golfers who play these courses.
Happening this week
This week on Cape Breton
Featured
Local favourites
Baddeck Lobster Suppers
All-you-can-eat mussels, chowder, and a whole lobster on the lake.
★★★★★ (807)Red Shoe Pub
Live Cape Breton music seven nights a week. Owned by the Rankin Sisters.
★★★★★ (957)
The Rusty Anchor
Lobster rolls, ocean view, and the perfect mid-Cabot-Trail lunch stop.
Tee times
World-class golf, right on the island
Highland Links
Stanley Thompson's seaside masterpiece in Ingonish — top-ranked in Canada for 80+ years.
Cabot Links
Canada's only true links course, on the site of an old coal mine.
Cabot Cliffs
Ranked among the world's top 10 courses — perched on cliffs above the Gulf.
Outdoors
Hike, swim, explore
Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site
Largest historical reconstruction in North America, a partial rebuild of an 18th-century French fortress.
Skyline Trail
Iconic boardwalk-ended headland trail with sweeping Gulf of St. Lawrence views, frequent moose sightings, and the most-photographed sunset in Atlantic Canada — reserve in peak season.
The Cabot Trail (Scenic Drive)
The most famous drive in Canada — a 298-km loop around the northern Highlands.
Cape Breton, ranked
Curated lists by locals
25 Best Places to Visit in Cape Breton (2026)
A locally-curated, ranked guide to the island's essential stops — beaches, lookoffs, fortresses, lighthouses, fishing villages, and the drives that connect them
The 15 best Cabot Trail stops, in driving order
A clockwise loop with the must-stop lookoffs, beaches, hikes, and meals — plus where to skip and where to spend extra time
Cape Breton in fall — the 12 best stops for autumn colour
Where to be in early-to-late October when the Highlands turn red and gold — plus when to go and what else is on
The best beaches on Cape Breton Island
Sandy stretches, warm-water swimming, and the wild Highlands coast
What's on
Upcoming events
Cape Breton Fiddlers Marathon Event
Runners compete on a flat waterfront course in Sydney that qualifies for the Boston Marathon.
Salar: The Story of the Salmon
A 50-minute live performance exploring Atlantic salmon's life cycle through stories, movement, music and puppetry.
Tai Chi at the Baddeck Library
Learn tai chi for health and wellness at the Baddeck Library, open to all ages.
Rituals of Flight
Three artists explore crows and black birds through journals, film, and photography across Nova Scotia and beyond.
From the blog
Stories from the island
Cape Breton in Three Days: The Speed-Run Itinerary
A tight three-day plan for travellers with limited time, hitting the Cabot Trail, Louisbourg, and a real ceilidh without burning out.
Family-Friendly Cape Breton: 5 Days with Kids
A five-day Cape Breton itinerary built around kids, with short hikes, beaches, museums that hold attention, and dinners that work for everyone.
Cape Breton Craft Beer and Distillery Trail
A self-drive route through Cape Breton's breweries, the only single malt distillery in North America, and the cidery worth the detour.
Today's view
Photos from the island
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