You can only get a taste of Nova Scotia in a single summer visit. To get there you can fly into Halifax, drive, or take a ferry from Maine... Eleven hours from Portland or three hours from Bar Harbor. A compact university town teeming with young people, Halifax is worth a one or two day visit before heading out into the countryside for the balance of your Honeymoon.

Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, and Lunenberg are highlights among the numerous picture-postcard fishing villages within a short drive of Halifax. But we suggest heading toward Cape Breton at the northeastern end of Nova Scotia, which contains some of the province's most picturesque scenery. This area was settled by Highland Scots, and their heritage has survived, almost untouched, in the accents of the locals and the Celtic music that you are likely to hear everywhere.

The town of Baddeck, the summer home of inventor Alexander Graham Bell, is ideally located on the shores of Bras d'Or Lake near major sights of the island, such as the Fortress at Louisbourg and Cabot Trail, the most scenic drive in Cape Breton.

Although the water throughout most of maritime Canada is too cold for swimming, a geographical quirk draws the warm water of the Gulf Stream into the straits between northern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. So bring a bathing suit.

In the warm summer waters, you can enjoy frequent sightings of Pilot Whales, Humpbacks, White-sided Dolphins and Bald Eagles and some occasional sightings of Blue Whales.