whale watching/bird tour from Cape Breton

[Pearl64]

We are a group of 8 planning on taking a whale watching tour and a bird island tour (I know these are two different events) while we are on Cape Breton this coming August. Are there any tour companies that folks have dealt with that are reputable? I would also like some additional information about the zodiac boats? How rough do they get? Is there any whale watching excursions that are a little calmer? Just trying to get a feel for these excursions. We will be able to get to most places as we will be driving. I may also look on Trip Advisor. I just need to know where the best whale excursions would be: Lunenburg, Halifax, or off Cape Breton.

 

Thank you so much.

Pearl

[maryann ns]

You definitely should choose Cape Breton for the whale watching. If you just have on one day cruise stop from Sydney however, you may be pressed for time. Google Cheticamp whale watching. That is the area that has the best. I don't know if they do zodiak boats, but that area generally has calm water.

 

Now if you are on a land tour and want another great place for whale watching go to the Digby/ Brier Island area. Here in the summer you can see the very large whales.

[Pearl64]

We are doing a land tour on our own. Our group is from our cruise from last year and thought we would like to get together again. Two couples are driving up from the East Coast and two couples are flying into Halifax. We are tentatively going to spend about 10 days in Nova Scotia. I had read about the Digby whale excursions. So what you are saying is both Cheticamp and Digby areas are good for whale watching? Where would you recommend for bird watching==Bird Islands off Cape Breton? Also, do you know if there is a ferry from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor or Portland? I know there used to be one but saw that it was cancelled. That would certainly cut off some time for us if there were one.

 

Thank you for your suggestions so far.

Pearl

[maryann ns]

Yes you have understood me correctly. There is lots of info on whale watching on TripAdvisor. I know there are bird tours from Cape Breton, but do not know anything about them.

 

There is still no ferry to Maine from Nova Scotia. If you end up near Digby you can take a ferry from there to Saint John New Brunswick. Other than that you drive. The roads in New Brunswick are great and you will get to Nova Scotia quickly. If you are heading to Cape Breton there would have been no advantage to taking the ferry to Yarmouth.

[christinak0]

We went whale watching with Captain Mark's in Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton when we there a couple of summers ago.

 

Captain Mark was great! We went on the Zodiac on a friend's recommendation and I'm so glad we did! We were able to get so close to the whales - we had one that dove under our Zodiac about 20 feet away from us - it was so amazing! The Zodiac wasn't really rough, we weren't bothered by sea sickness, but we did get a little bit wet because of the spray from the water. We were the last booking of the day so Captain Mark even offered to take us out a little longer than usual.

 

Here are a few of our pictures...