Heading: Get to Know Nova Scotia
by Mary BerginImagine this: After five miles of hiking and six hours of stunning Cape Breton driving your reward is superb butterscotch pie at Restaurant Acadien, then dinner and a room at Glenora Distillery. Nova Scotia's magnificent 185-mile Cabot Trail is a paved loop that sashays through sleepy towns and rugged coastline. The curves and elevation changes, particularly when following the sea, force nature lovers to slow down, so it's a treat for the psyche, as well as the eyes.
During a recent trip, our mistake was allowing just six days to get acquainted with Canada's southeastern Atlantic province, which meant concentrating on only one part of Nova Scotia. But squeezing in the Bay of Fundy (home to the world's highest tides) and the south shore Lighthouse Route (Halifax to Yarmouth) would have spelled vacation overload.
Guidebooks describe our Skyline Trail hike as one of the most dynamic and popular inside of Highland National Park. The two-hour loop begins near the top of MacKenzie Mountain, about 1,500 feet above sea level, with gently sloping terrain through forests and bogs.
Watching a moose calmly munch on foliage, no more than 50 yards off-trail, would have been enough of a highlight. But then the dirt footpath turns into a wooden boardwalk that leads to a breezy cliff and a miles-wide view of coastline, ocean and the steep road which circles nearby French Mountain.
Incredible. Allow time to linger.
Much about Nova Scotia—360 miles long and surrounded by water (but it's not an island thanks to a 17-mile-wide land link to New Brunswick)—is about unpretentious and understated beauty, bounty, bloodlines.
Our butterscotch pie? It was baked in Cheticamp, a village that proudly preserves and shares its Acadian French heritage. Sample chiard (stewed potatoes and beef), fricot (a diced chicken stew) or blood pudding (a sausage), then shop for a colorful hand-hooked rug. www.co-opartisanale.com.
Follow the coast southwest, onto the Ceilidh Trail (Highway 19), to explore North America's only single-malt whisky distillery, hidden in the Mabou Highlands. The Glenora Distillery also offers classy accommodations—single rooms to three-bedroom chalets.
Order lobster linguini or grilled lamb at the Glenora Inn dining room, then retreat to the pub, where local performers supply lively and soulful Celtic music. End the day with the official Glenora Whisky Taste, half-pours of five Glen Breton Rare products. www.glenoradistillery.com.
Internationally known fiddler Natalie MacMaster grew up on this side of Nova Scotia, in a hamlet called Troy. She's far from the only local musician to hit it big. Swing into the Celtic Museum Interpretive Centre, Judique, for introductions to dozens of her colleagues.
Enjoy a free ceilidh (KAY-lay, an informal concert) with lunch at the museum, then learn the basics about playing a fiddle or dancing a jig, through video instruction. www.celticmusicsite.com.
What else? Tour quaint Sherbrooke Village, Nova Scotia's largest museum to better understand the rhythm of provincial life in the late 1800s. Costumed guides explain blacksmithing, cooking, and weaving techniques, inside several of the site's 80 preserved buildings. www.museum.gov.ns.ca/sv.
More history lessons come from Fort Louisbourg, Canada's largest historical reconstruction project. www.louisbourg.ca/fort.
Set aside at least one overnight to explore edgy Halifax, whose Saturday farmers' market began in 1750, making it the continent's oldest. Dozens of vendors fill a charming old brewery building.
And make time for visits to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (for tales about Titanic rescue efforts, and the 1917 harbor explosion that leveled the city), Canada's Immigration Museum (similar to New York's Ellis Island) and the hilltop Halifax Citadel.
Savor the abundance of fresh seafood, wherever you go, and relish the depth of Nova Scotia's alluring maritime mystique.
Know Before You Go
United Airlines flies nonstop from O'Hare to Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Many attractions are only open mid-May to mid-October. For more about tourism in Nova Scotia visit www.novascotia.com.
