We're just starting to plan a trip to NS for late August through early September. We're a couple of active 50 somethings with interest in nature/biking/hiking/scenic drives. I'm thinking we'll fly into Halifax and rent a car. Assuming we're just interested in PEI and Cabot this trip (and would go directly there), what might be a good itinerary for about 7 or 8 days, returning to Halifax.

We would try to ride much of the bike trail in PEI and hike/drive around Cabot. Thanks for tips!

We were there last summer and, upon arrival in Halifax, drove straight to Prince Edward Island via the Confederation Bridge. After spending a few days on Prince Edward Island, we returned to Nova Scotia via the ferry, because the debarkation point is much closer to the Cabot Trail than the bridge. You might want to spend 3 days on Prince Edward Island, 3 days on Cape Breton Island, and 1-2 days in Halifax. On Cape Breton Island, besides the Cabot Trail, you can also see the Fortress at Louisbourg, the Miner Museum, and Highland Village, a living history Scottish village. If you want to see any of these other attractions, you'd probably want to use the town of Baddeck as your home base. Otherwise, you could stay right on the Cabot Trail. Many people highly recommend the Keltic Lodge, and it's in close proximity to many excellent hiking trails.

Dear Glover, I would suggest if you coming to Cape breton Island in late august to spend at leaset 4 days on the island for the cabot trail, louisbourg, Baddeck These are the most scenic places anywhere on the island as well as histoiric. The Cbaot trail has a number of scenic trails the shyline trail would offer a fantasic view of the altantic ocean as well as looking back towards cheticamp. the walking trail next to the keltic lodge would also be a good choice. Just out side of baddeck the small trail that leads to the falls would be nice also. I hope this helps.

Thanks, you two! How much time are we looking at in terms of the drive from PEI to CBT? The drive from CBT then back to Halifax?

Have already read that Halifax to PEI is 3 or 4 hrs.

I'm confused about how laurafromtexas drove directly from halifax to PEI via the bridge, which spans PEI and New Brunswick. Anyway, 3 days for the Cabot Trail is minimally sufficient for driving and hiking. Baddeck is a very pretty little town and is a good access point to the Trail.
If you fly into Halifax, it takes approximately 3 hours (perhaps a bit longer) to get to the ferry to PEI. I think the ferry trip is only about 45 minutes if I recall correctly. PEI is much smaller in geographic size than NS. We spent 3 days there last summer and got to see the highlights. We did some biking on the Confederacion Trail system, which is great - lots of bike shops to rent bikes. We used Frommers guidebook to the Maritimes and found it most useful in finding bike shops and lots of other useful info for maximizing our stay on NS, PEI, and NB.
Driving times: From PEI to southern access to CBT, after disembarking from the ferry after arrival on NS is about 2 hours; CBT to Halifax: About 4 hours from Baddeck area (with no stops). Have fun!

To get to the Confederation Bridge, we did indeed drive into New Brunswick. It's not that far into New Brunswick before you come upon the bridge. We did it this way for 2 reasons: (1) we got to see another part of the countryside and (2) we knew we wouldn't have to wait for the ferry and deal with a possible backlog of cars.

We're planning to bike on PEI this August with our 11 year old. Even though she's an experienced bicyclist we are going to stick to the trail. Any thoughts on particular parts to do, places to camp, things to see?