Pleasant Bay
Pleasant Bay perches on a small headland between the steep climbs of French Mountain and MacKenzie Mountain, halfway round the Cabot Trail. Pilot whales are reliable summer visitors offshore, and several local outfitters run zodiac and whale-watch tours from the harbour.
It's also the home of the Whale Interpretive Centre and the eastern terminus of the gravel road into the Polletts Cove wilderness — one of the island's great backcountry hikes. The first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in North America (Gampo Abbey) sits on a clifftop just outside the village.
A natural lunch or overnight stop on a Cabot Trail circumnavigation.