• 4 Dinner (D)
• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Baddeck: Cape Breton Island’s music and traditions of its Gaelic settlers has been preserved and shared since the early 1800’s. Become part of the story as you explore the Celtic Heart of North America with an authentic Ceilidh night of Acadian hospitality and entertainment. You’ll be tapping your toes to the fiddle and bagpipe’s Celtic music.

Insight Vacations

• Deluxe coach travel
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner in Halifax. It is an opportunity to settle into the group and share first impressions of Nova Scotia’s waterfront capital.

Halifax’s dining culture is shaped by its working harbour and access to Atlantic seafood. Conversation over dinner offers an introduction to the maritime communities, coastal landscapes and local traditions at the heart of this journey.

Explore Halifax with a Local Expert, visiting the Victorian-inspired Public Gardens, the harbourfront and a cemetery where victims of the Titanic are buried. At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, join a guided visit through the city’s seafaring history.

Exhibits trace the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the Titanic disaster, shipbuilding and wartime convoys. Together, the city’s streets and museum reveal how its natural harbour shaped trade, naval life and Nova Scotia’s enduring relationship with the sea.

Explore Halifax Citadel as one of three included Insight Choice activities. Walk through the restored hilltop fortress and learn about the soldiers who guarded this strategic Atlantic port.

The site recreates aspects of its Victorian-era military past, while its position provides sweeping views over downtown Halifax and the harbour. The hill was first selected for fortification in 1749, when control of the harbour was central to the growing settlement.

Discover the work of Maud Lewis as one of three included Insight Choice activities in Halifax. At the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, see her carefully restored, brightly painted house alongside works that reflect her distinctive folk-art vision.

Lewis transformed scenes of flowers, animals and rural life into vivid images while living in a small home near Digby. Seeing the house itself brings the artist’s resourcefulness and her connection to Nova Scotia’s everyday landscapes into focus.

Tour the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 as one of three included Insight Choice activities. Explore the Pier 21 Story, receive an introduction to the Canadian Immigration Story exhibition and view the film In Canada.

From 1928 to 1971, nearly one million immigrants entered Canada through Pier 21. The surviving seaport immigration facility gives a human perspective on arrivals, departures and the changing meaning of belonging in Canada.

Walk Lunenburg’s brightly painted streets with a Local Expert, exploring its waterfront and distinctive grid of historic buildings. Hear local stories, folklore and superstitions that bring this Nova Scotian community into sharper focus.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lunenburg is an exceptionally well-preserved example of an eighteenth-century planned British colonial settlement in North America. Its architecture and harbour reflect generations of fishing, seafaring and shipbuilding.

Visit Lunenburg’s Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic to explore the fishing traditions that sustained communities along Nova Scotia’s coast. Discover how working vessels, equipment and the people who used them shaped daily life around the harbour.

Set beside Lunenburg’s historic waterfront, the museum adds a working-maritime perspective to the town’s colourful streets. Its stories connect local livelihoods with the demanding conditions and shared skills of the North Atlantic fishery.

Visit Peggy’s Cove to see its famous lighthouse above the granite shoreline of St. Margarets Bay. Take in the fishing-village setting and the contrast of white lighthouse, weathered rock and Atlantic water.

The small coastal community is one of Nova Scotia’s most recognisable places, but its appeal extends beyond the photograph. Fishing heritage and a longstanding artistic community give context to a landscape shaped by exposure to the sea.

Meet Mi’kmaw interpreters at the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre in Nova Scotia. Watch a multimedia presentation and take a guided tour exploring stories, art and artefacts, with opportunities to encounter materials such as sweetgrass, birch bark and traditional instruments.

The centre presents thousands of years of Mi’kmaw history through perspectives shared by the community. Its exhibits illuminate relationships with the land, cultural continuity and the changes brought by European settlement.

Cruise the Bras d’Or Lakes aboard a catamaran from Baddeck, taking in shoreline views, lighthouses and the historic Beinn Bhreagh estate associated with Alexander Graham Bell. A guide provides context for this distinctive Cape Breton waterway.

Watch the shores and bird habitat for local wildlife, including the possibility of bald eagles. The broad inland waters and wooded headlands offer a perspective on Baddeck that can only be gained from the lake.

Experience a Cape Breton céilidh, an evening gathering centred on traditional music and song. Listen for the rhythmic lift of fiddle tunes and the sound of pipes in a setting that celebrates the island’s living Celtic traditions.

Gaelic settlers helped shape Cape Breton’s musical culture, and community gatherings remain an important way to share it. This hosted evening makes that heritage tangible through live performance rather than a museum display.

Visit the Gaelic College at St. Ann’s, Cape Breton, to learn about the preservation of Gaelic language, music, dance and crafts. See a kilt-making demonstration and discover the traditions of fabric milling.

Founded in 1938 as a memorial to Cape Breton’s Gaelic-speaking pioneers, the college continues to teach cultural practices brought by settlers from the Scottish Highlands. The demonstration reveals the skill and care behind a garment closely associated with that heritage.

Explore the Cabot Trail, the celebrated route around Cape Breton’s highlands and coast. Take in views of steep headlands, forested slopes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while keeping watch for wildlife such as moose and bald eagles.

The route skirts Cape Breton Highlands National Park and links communities with distinct cultural traditions. A stop in the Acadian fishing village of Chéticamp offers a closer look at coastal life beyond the panoramic viewpoints.

Visit the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck with a Local Expert. Explore exhibits, photographs and artefacts connected to Bell’s experiments and his life on the shores of the Bras d’Or Lakes.

Although best known for the telephone, Bell also investigated flight, kites, deaf education and medical devices. The museum reveals the breadth of his curiosity and the role Baddeck played as a place for collaborative invention.

Visit Prince Edward Island’s coastal lighthouses, including Point Prim at the edge of the Northumberland Strait and Wood Islands on the island’s southeastern shore. View their contrasting settings and photograph these enduring maritime landmarks.

Point Prim is Prince Edward Island’s first lighthouse, while Wood Islands Lighthouse dates from 1876. Both speak to the importance of coastal navigation in a province whose communities have long depended on fishing and sea travel.

Tour Rossignol Estate Winery on Prince Edward Island and sample a selection of its wines, accompanied by island cheese and crackers. Learn about a producer known for both table wines and fruit wines.

As the island’s first winery, Rossignol offers a different perspective on a destination often associated with seafood and potatoes. The tasting highlights how local produce and small-scale winemaking contribute to Prince Edward Island’s food culture.

Explore Prince Edward Island National Park with a Local Expert, taking in beach-grass dunes, red sandstone cliffs and the island’s distinctive red earth. In Cavendish, visit Green Gables Heritage Place and the farmhouse associated with Anne of Green Gables.

Walk the grounds that helped inspire L. M. Montgomery’s 1908 novel, with trails such as Lover’s Lane and the Haunted Wood. The visit links the island’s physical landscape to one of Canada’s most enduring literary settings.

Meet a local fisherman in Georgetown on Prince Edward Island for stories of life at sea and insight into the island’s lobster and mussel industries. Enjoy a lunch of freshly cooked Island Blue Mussels prepared by your host.

Raised in the cool waters surrounding the island, cultivated mussels are an important part of its seafood economy. Hearing from someone who works in this environment connects the meal to the skills and coastal communities behind it.

Tour the Homarus Centre in Shediac to follow the Atlantic lobster’s life cycle and learn how local fisheries approach conservation. At the touch tank, encounter marine species such as sea stars, mussels and lobsters.

The guided visit places a celebrated Maritime food source within its wider ecosystem. Discover how habitat, harvesting practices and marine biodiversity are connected along New Brunswick’s coast and the nearby Northumberland Strait.

Explore Hopewell Rocks with a local guide at the edge of New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy. See the tall, tree-topped formations often called Flowerpot Rocks and, if tidal conditions permit, walk on the exposed ocean floor.

The Bay of Fundy has some of the world’s highest tides. Water rising and falling around the rocks continually reshapes this coastline, making the contrast between their accessible bases and their appearance at high tide especially striking.

Prepare and enjoy lobster the Acadian way with local hosts in New Brunswick. Learn practical shelling techniques, share a traditional boil and take part in a hands-on mixology class using seasonal herbs and citrus.

The experience turns dinner into an introduction to coastal food customs passed between generations. Hosts explain how lobster is enjoyed from head to tail, bringing local know-how and Acadian hospitality to the table.

Travel the Fundy Trail Parkway along New Brunswick’s forested Bay of Fundy coast. Take in views from scenic lookouts, where wooded slopes meet beaches, coves and the water below.

The parkway opens up a stretch of coastline shaped by Fundy’s powerful tides. Its viewpoints and interpretive features provide opportunities to appreciate the scale of the bay and the natural landscape beyond the region’s towns and working harbours.

Walk Annapolis Royal’s National Historic District with a costumed Local Expert. Pass historic buildings and tree-lined streets while hearing stories of the people and powers that shaped this Nova Scotian town.

Annapolis Royal served as a colonial capital before Halifax was founded and was a focal point in the contest between French and British empires. Its streets offer a close view of layers of settlement and a long, complex regional history.

Meet a former scallop fisherman in Digby for a culinary demonstration before a celebration dinner featuring the town’s prized local catch. Learn how fresh scallops are shucked and prepared.

Digby is closely identified with its inshore scallop fleet, and scallops remain one of Nova Scotia’s most valuable seafood catches. The demonstration connects the finished dish with the fishing knowledge and maritime livelihoods behind it.