For our anniversary trip, we're planning to spend two nights in the South Shore area, three to four nights at Cape Breton Island, and then another couple of nights at the Fundy Shore area.

Our heads are spinning as we're looking into the different types of accommodations available!

What we're really interested in is staying at a nice B&B or small inn, somewhere picturesque, where we can see water from our room, maybe in a town where we can walk to pubs/restaurants...

So far -- for the first couple of nights -- we like the looks of the Rum Hollow B&B in Upper Tantallon, and the Ashlea House Inn in Lunenburg. Our concerns are that, while picturesque, the Rum Hollow may be out in the middle of nowhere; and while reviews for the Ashlea House Inn are great and mention lots of places to walk to, when we looked it up on Google maps, it didn't look like it was in a particularly "pretty" area. (Hopefully we're wrong on that, though.)

Does anyone have any opinions on either, or somewhere completely different to suggest? We look at pictures in the travel brochure, and say "We want to stay THERE!" but don't know how to go about finding where "there" is!

For the next leg of our trip, we're thinking of staying in Baddeck, possibly at the Castle Moffett.
And then, for the last couple of nights, again, we'd like a cute town somewhere with nice scenery and restaurants.

Thanks for any help!

Hi!
One of the best sites for finding info on accomodations and attractions is NS's own website. It lets you search for accomodations by the area or by the "trail" (i.e. Cabot Trail):

www.novascotia.com

For the South Shore, I would suggest heading to Mahone Bay. It's near Lunenburg and very pretty, lots of charm, old houses etc. There are lots of B&Bs, I believe many have a nice view. I only know of one pub in Mahone Bay, the name escapes me but it's on the main street through town, easy to find and both times we've eaten there the food and atmosphere have been excellent. Mahone Bay has it's own site with accomodations list:

http://www.mahonebay.com/visitor_accomodations.html

If you still prefer Lunenburg, their site is here:

http://www.explorelunenburg.ca/view.php?accomlist

Try to find something overlooking the waterfront, probably Montague St?

Baddeck is very nice, I haven't stayed at Castle Moffat but it looks pretty fancy.

Not sure about your last few nights, but you may get some ideas from the NS website. Hope you have a wonderful trip!

We stayed at the Gowrie House in Sydney Mines a few years back. It is considered one of the finest B&Bs in NS and certainly lives up to the reputation. Not only are the accomodations very nice in both the main house and several out buildings, but the gardens were spectacular and the dinner was wonderful. While we were there because we had taken Via Rails late,lamented Bra D'or tourist train, most of the other guests seemed to be just starting or ending a Cape tour. The location is just as you enter the Cape Breton area.

Thank you so much for the replies! I'll be looking into your recommendations.

blm1,

One of the best sites to find good B&Bs in Nova Scotia is the web site for the Nova Scotia B&B Association www.nsbedandbreakfast.com. Members of the B&B Association sign a Code of Ethics and are committed to providing their guests with a high quality stay with exceptional hospitality. Before I picked Castle Moffatt (or any other property for that matter), I would take a look at guests comments on www.tripadvisor.com. Both Mahone Bay and Chester are excellent places to stay. I prefer Lunenburg because there is more choice both for accommodations and restaurants. I love browsing through the shops in Mahone Bay. In Cape Breton, if you want a nice place overlooking the water I would look at Chimney Corner B&B along the Ceilidh Trail on the west coast of Cape Breton. Lantern Hill and Hollow in Ingonish would be another choice. If you want to stay in a small town with shops etc, Baddeck is probably the best choice. I have stayed at several properties in Baddeck and don't have one that I would particularly recommend.