Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: A relatively unspolied Canadian oasis

The steamy summer months in New York make cooler, more remote parts of the globe attractive, and some of them aren't all that far away. Take Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Through some friends, we stumbled upon a quaint rental cottage there, and spent two weeks exploring the more isolated half of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

After a two-hour flight to Nova Scotia's largest city, Halifax, we rented a car for a 3½-hour drive to Cape Breton, a craggy, weathered, secluded island that might well be called the Hebrides of North America. We kept ourselves amused by stopping halfway at a McDonald's and ordering McLobsters (lobster rolls).

They were the first of many on a trip that left us with fond memories of this otherworldly island, which remained cut off from the North American mainland until 1955, when a causeway opened with a bagpiper parade. Early immigrants to Cape Breton from the Scottish Highlands left their mark on the fishing villages of the island's Atlantic side, where signs are in Gaelic and kilts abound, while settlers from France populated towns on the Gulf of St. Lawrence side, where French is spoken widely and Acadian food is served.

The vestiges of those two old-world cultures, combined with heart-stopping scenery, make for a vacation that feels far from North America -- but isn't.

For dramatic vistas, from sheer granite cliffs tumbling down to boulder piles and a sea of cobalt blue (that can quickly be whipped into a black froth by inclement weather), a drive along the Cabot Trail (cabottrail.com) is the first and foremost reason to visit. The 185-mile twisting highway inscribes a loop around the northern half of Cape Breton. Hugging oceanside crags, the Cabot Trail also provides access to Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, a wilderness plateau etched with deep river valleys that is home to moose, black bears and other wild animals.

Our cottage in Goose Cove, near the tourist town of Baddeck, was well located on the Cabot Trail.

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You may be lucky enough to hear some Gaelic spoken on Cape Breton, but it's more likely you'll hear the strains of Cape Breton's distinctive fiddle music. Kitchen parties or dances, called ceilidhs (pronounced KAY-lees) in Gaelic, are gatherings where local musicians play the traditional tunes to singing and dancing. Music is the lifeblood of Cape Breton Island, keeping its Scottish culture alive with lively jigs, vigorous reels and melodic waltzes. A native Cape Bretoner suggested checking local papers to find listings for ceilidhs. Today, they are more formalized and held in halls, such as the annual summer Broad Cove Scottish Concert (broadcoveconcert.ca), but traditionally they were more impromptu.

We enjoyed a ceilidh at the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts (gaeliccollege.edu), the only college of its kind in North America. The college educates to preserve Gaelic culture and has a small group of exhibits on Cape Breton's Scottish immigrants. We also observed the 10-minute process of a man being bound up in a true kilt and participated in a "milling frolic," a tradition that involves singing in Gaelic as people sit around a long table and rhythmically pound newly woven wool cloth.

While much of Cape Breton is Scottish-influenced, the island also has a distinctive Acadian culture. Along with shopping for hooked rugs, whale-watching tours are the most prominent tourist activity in the Francophone region, which spans from the Margaree River north to the village of Chéticamp. On our tour with Seaside Whale & Nature Cruises (loveboatwhalecruises.com), we not only saw fin, pilot, humpback and minke whales very close up, but also harbor porpoises and seals.

Afterward, we visited the Restaurant Acadian (cheticamphookedrugs.com), where servers wear traditional Acadian dress, and the fare includes such Acadian favorites as chicken fricot (a soup of diced chicken and potatoes). The restaurant is part of a Coopérative Artisanale, which includes a small Acadian museum and gift shop.

Although it's over an hour to the southern portion of Cape Breton, a visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site, formerly France's largest military outpost in the New World, is well worth it for another taste of the island's French heritage.

Staff in Colonial garb will greet you as you wander through this restored 18th century fortified town. Dine on beef stewand meat pie in the rustic style of off-duty Colonial soldiers in a period restaurant. This year, the Fortress has many special events planned for the 300th anniversary of the founding of Louisbourg on the Île-Royale, the French name for Cape Breton.