Planning a trip to Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore

Getting There -- Routes 107 and 7 run along or near the coast from Dartmouth to Stillwater (near Sherbrooke). Other local routes -- including numbers 211, 316, 16, and 344 -- continue onward along the coast to the causeway to Cape Breton. An excursion along the entire coastal route -- from Dartmouth to Cape Breton Island with a detour to Canso -- is about 400km (250 miles) in length. Driving time would vary wildly, depending on your capacity for making detours.

Visitor Information -- Several tourist information centers are staffed along the route. You’ll find the best-stocked and most helpful centers in Musquodoboit Harbour where the Visitor Information Centre occupies the waiting room of the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway Museum at 7895 Hwy. 7 (tel. 902/889-2689); Sheet Harbour inside the MacPhee House Museum (next to the waterfall; tel. 902/885-2092); and in Canso at 1297 Union St. in the Canso Museum (tel. 902/366-2170). All are open daily in summer.