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Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sailing on the Bras d’Or Lake
Shore Excursion Review: Sailing on the Bras d’Or Lake
Sydney, Nova Scotia
August 19, 2014
By Lisa Plotnick
“Why should we stop in Sydney?” is a question we’ve heard many times. It also has
many answers. Sydney, located on Cape Breton Island in eastern Nova Scotia is the
nearest major port to the renowned Cabot Trail, a nearly 200-
On this trip, our third to the region, our focus was on the Cabot Trail. A bit of
a backstory: When we booked our cruise, the schedule called for a long stay in Sydney,
enough for us to take an eight-
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, an enjoyable tour to a place we’d never been – and we would return.
After leaving Sydney, we traveled westbound along the Trans-
Our bus crossed the Seal Island Bridge, which connects the two main islands of Cape Breton. We passed Kelly’s Mountain – where buried treasure is, supposedly, made a sharp turn at Devil’s Elbow, and stopped at St. Ann’s Lookout for a beautiful view of the bridge and surrounding verdant landscape. At this point, we were near, but not on, the Cabot Trail.
The visit to Baddeck had two portions. The first was to enjoy a portion of the Bras
d’Or Lake for a 90-
We watched the captain’s two-
The boat ride was nice, small scratch notwithstanding. We traveled under sail on the way out and under diesel power on the return trip. It was not in the central part of the lake as I had expected, but that was okay. There were no bald eagles in sight as there usually are, and it was explained to us that this was a tough winter and no eagle babies were born. We did see a few nests, thought.
We had about 45 minutes to walk around Baddeck. It’s a cute town – I equated it to Cape Cod. (Baddeck is to Nova Scotia as the Cape is to Massachusetts). We could have gone to the nearby Alexander Graham Bell Museum, yet figured it would deserve more time. We strolled through the neighborhood near the pier, did some shopping – I bought a couple of books, of course – and enjoyed some ice cream shakes. We then went to St. Mark’s Masonic Lodge (corner of Queen and Grant Streets) for Neil’s obligatory photo. The lodge was built in 1898 to resemble a church.
Closing Thoughts
This was a great tour, even though pricey ($150 per person), yet I’d do it again. Just note that this is not a quiet, peaceful, tranquil, glide through the lake. It is sailing, with all the pitches, rolls, and sea spray. Someday, we hope to get to the Cabot Trail, but we may save that for a land vacation. In any case, Sydney is well worth the visit and I recommend that future cruise passengers book a tour to get the most of the visit.