5 Best Sights in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

This very engaging site pays homage to the many inventions and humanitarian work of Alexander Graham Bell. Inside the main building, films, photos, artifacts, and models provide a window into his ideas for creating telephones, man-carrying kites, airplanes, and a record-setting hydrofoil boat (a full-scale replica of which dominates one exhibit hall). A kid's corner hosts demos and hands-on activities for aspiring young inventors. Bell spent large blocks of time, from 1886 until his death in 1922, at his Baddeck estate—Beinn Bhreagh, Gaelic for "beautiful mountain." His home (which is still owned by the family), and some spectacular scenery, can be seen from the roof of the National Historic Site that bears his name.

Housed in a former railway station, this small museum has a range of artifacts relating to the community's coal mining past and the everyday life of the miners and their families, along with an antique-filled study room and film screenings. Volunteers offer personalized guided tours. 

This restored 18th-century French blacksmith shop occupies a handsome stone structure on the waterfront. In its 19th-century heyday, it supplied parts to local shipbuilders, and a barn on-site today has seafaring memorabilia. There's also a genealogy center and gift shop.

The center, which contains the Elizabeth LeFort Gallery, displays samples of the rugs, tapestries, and related artifacts that helped make Chéticamp the World Rug Hooking Capital. Born in 1914, Elizabeth LeFort created more than 300 tapestries, some of which have hung in the Vatican, the White House, and Buckingham Palace. (One standout depicting U.S. presidents is made from 11 km [7 miles] of yarn!) Les Trois Pignons is also an Acadian cultural and genealogical information center.

Exhibits at this unassuming and yet widely renowned museum are proudly old-school, which seems fitting because they're housed in a former one-room schoolhouse. On display are all manner of fishing tackle, photographs, hand-tied flies, and other memorabilia related to salmon angling on the Margaree—check out the rod that once belonged to a wartime British spy who shared fly-fishing tips with Hermann Goering. Visitors can watch videos, study models of the river, and peek into the fish tank.