The Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park near Pleasant Harbour, N.S. is renowned as one of the world's best drives. However, the condition of the road does not befit its international status.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
Conventional wisdom says the Cabot Trail is probably best driven in a counterclockwise direction, so your lane is closest to the water and oncoming traffic doesn’t obscure your views of the sea. Start in Baddeck in the middle of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, then head north and leave the Trans-Canada Highway to find the coastline. It’s a 300-kilometre loop with an international reputation as a fine road trip.
The Cabot Trail is popular with bikers, hikers, foodies and those cruising in recreational vehicles. It provides a lovely vacation for a few days, encompassing a cultural cross-section of English, Acadian and Gaelic influences. At the top of the trail, the road winds through Cape Breton Highlands National Park, 950 square kilometres of forest wilderness that stretches across the entire peninsula.
I’ve driven and ridden the Cabot Trail probably a dozen times as a day-long road trip. I’m not in a hurry to do it again.
Parts of the trail are gorgeous: The climb up Smokey Mountain and into Cape Smokey Provincial Park on the east shore, and the climb out of Pleasant Bay on the west shore – they’re the famous vistas in all the tourist brochures. The rest of it? It’s a lot of trees, and tree-filled valleys, with bumpy pavement to link it all.
Don’t get me wrong. Come for the lobster, mussels and beaches. Kick up your heels to some Celtic music at a local ceilidh. Come for the nature walks and whale-watching. Just don’t come for the drive.
“What’s unique about the Cabot Trail, when I talk to visitors about what their highlights are, is that they really enjoy the people,” says Daniel Ross, who conducts a guided motorcycle tour every June and is known as the Cabot Trail Biker. “They enjoy the roads and the scenery and they just feel better. It’s pretty relaxed and the pace is good.”
On my most recent visit, I drove the Cabot Trail in the clockwise direction, just to mix it up. A few kilometres south of Baddeck, the two-lane road turns west off the Trans-Canada and eventually runs alongside the Northeast Margaree River, which it follows to the coast. This is more of a “getting there” stretch of road, trees on each side for 50 kilometres and no views to speak of.
“Yeah – don’t do that,” says Ross. “I’m the Cabot Trail Biker, and that’s a part of the Cabot Trail I never touch.” He lives in Antigonish, on the mainland, and always approaches the Cabot Trail from the south on Highway 395 from Whycocomagh or Highway 19 from Port Hastings through Mabou.
The trail opens up north of Margaree Harbour, where it follows the western shoreline for 30 kilometres through a handful of small Acadian fishing villages to Chéticamp. It’s set up for tourism, with hotels and restaurants and souvenir stores in the communities, but the road itself is just a comparatively smooth ribbon of asphalt with occasional views of the water across the fields. That’s okay – north of Chéticamp, it enters the national park and meanders for 40 kilometres past trailheads and old-growth trees to Pleasant Bay.
This is my favourite section of the trail. When I’ve visited with a motorcycle, I’d go back and forth between scenic vista pull-offs just to enjoy leaning through the swooping, well-cambered curves. It’s a relatively short stretch, though. In British Columbia or California or Tennessee, the roads continue on, climbing and dipping past constantly changing scenery, but in Cape Breton, the only variation is a few hundred metres of height as you wind through the trees.
The Cabot Trail passes through Margaree Harbour, pictured, where it follows the western shoreline for 30 kilometres through a handful of small Acadian fishing villages to Chéticamp.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
“The Cabot Trail is ranked as one of the most scenic drives in the world and it’s a popular destination for motorcyclists and many other travellers,” Afton Doubleday, director of outreach and engagement for Tourism Nova Scotia, said in an email. “We know that motorcycle clubs and tour groups often organize trips along the Cabot Trail, in addition to individual motorcyclists.
”Prior to the pandemic, there were approximately 300,000 visitors to the Cabot Trail in 2019, not including Nova Scotians travelling within the province. A research study told us that fully two-thirds of visitors to Nova Scotia in the past five years have included the Cabot Trail as part of at least one of their visits. Among all past visitors, 45 per cent indicate the Cabot Trail is a main reason for coming to Nova Scotia.”
The Cabot Trail continues past the small community of Pleasant Bay, back through the national park, and is wide and well-maintained. There are many vista pull-offs to allow drivers to get off the road and look at the trees, but on my two visits this year in four-wheeled vehicles, dawdlers did not pull off to let me and many others pass, though we were driving well below the speed limit. The road at the top of the park winds enough that it is unsafe to pass for almost its entire length. If you’re behind a slower vehicle and you find this frustrating, it’s best to just pull off for a while.
When the Cabot Trail leaves the park, most of the remaining 30-kilometre stretch to Neils Harbour on the east coast is narrow and very bumpy. Ross agrees this is in stark contrast to recent reconstruction of the road along the coast.
“Everything the province touched has been incredibly beautiful,” he says. “They did such a good job, and it’s antagonizing that they are not addressing the stretch at the north part. Just finish that for us, please. That’s all that’s left. Every year, it gets on the list and then it’s bumped.”
The lighthouse at Baddeck, N.S. Parts of the Cabot Trail are gorgeous, particularly the climb up Smokey Mountain and into Cape Smokey Provincial Park on the east shore.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
In Nova Scotia’s 2023 Five-Year Highway Improvement Plan, this section of Cabot Trail is not mentioned. Ross says he always takes a short detour along the coast to White Point and then back to Neils Harbour to avoid the bumpiest stretch.
In the minivan, I stayed on the Cabot Trail and followed a gravel truck south to Ingonish Beach. I passed it labouring up the mountain in Cape Smokey Provincial Park and then, soon after, followed a line of traffic behind a converted Mercedes Sprinter van that descended the mountain at 20 kilometres an hour – less than half the recommended speed. I turned around at the bottom to drive back up the mountain to enjoy the speed limit on the smooth curves, and then, when I turned for the descent, got stuck behind the gravel truck again.
“I move around the Cabot Trail and traffic is never, ever an issue,” says Ross, who can pass quickly and safely on his motorcycle. “If you come in September, you’ll have the trail to yourself after the kids start going to school.”
Maybe that’s the key: Avoid July and August if you want to enjoy the drive as much as the visit. And don’t be a stickler for staying on the trail when there’s an alternative. Finally, harass the provincial government to Finish the Drive by ‘25. Then – and only then – the Cabot Trail might deserve its reputation as a world-class road-trip destination.