Step-on Guide Services (Click for details) We'll make a Ceilidh on your bus with informed commentary, songs, and stories of the island. We can join buses in Baddeck, Margaree, and Cheticamp, or Port Hastings for Cabot Trail via Ceilidh Trail tours. Phone for rates. Custom Tours (Click for details) Full (8 hours) and half days (5 hours). Cruise Cape Breton Island in a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Parties of 1-4 persons for the Cabot Trail, or customized Tours of Gaelic Cape Breton. Stop when, where and for as long as you want. Museums, beaches, or waterfalls, your choice. Full day: $255.00 Half day: $160.00 Story Sessions All ages and groups of any size. tales of warriors, fairies, shape shifters from ancient texts, medieval wonder tales, and Cape Breton's oral traditions. Informative and entertaining. Ideal for evenings or rainy afternoons. $50.00 an hour, plus travel. Song Sessions Gaelic songs from the early 1600s to present day. Scottish and Cape Breton compositions have it all: stories, history, and music. Gaelic songs tell us more about the daily lives of the Highlanders than any other source. $50.00 an hour, plus travel. Step-on Guide Services If you have seen our brochure, or visited our web site before you may conclude that we place all our emphasis on Gaelic Cape Breton, which is our special interest, however we won't overlook the Mi'kmaq and Acadian experiences. The Cabot Trail, starting at Nyanza (south of Baddeck on the Trans-Canada Highway) lends itself to a tour beginning at the beginning, with the Mi'kmaq, who lived here for many thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. When the French first arrived to trade the Mi'kmaq were happy to oblige, converting to Christianity, and embracing the new European technologies. Later, during the age of British colonization, they found themselves pressed by both foreign powers to take sides. It was then that treaties were signed between the British Crown and the Mi'kmaq. The Mi'kmaq are still fighting in the Canadian courts to have these treaty rights honored. Amazingly, despite hundreds of years oppression, the Mi'kmaq continue to speak their language. The Acadian experience is not dissimilar, surviving against the odds. Your group will have already visited the Annapolis Valley and heard of the terrible expulsion of 1755. Many Acadians left Nova Scotia for French St.Pierre, where they fished for a Jersey merchant, who established fishing operations on Cape Breton Island at Cheticamp. The Robins Company held the Acadians in virtual indebted servant status, by extending credit against fish catches. All fish was to be sold to Robins. When catches were poor people had trouble paying off their debts, and when catches were good, Robins dropped the price. It was the early co-operative movement that allowed the Acadians to free themselves of economic tyranny. Today, Cheticamp is a vibrant community and the French language is still the language of the community. In addition to the major founding cultures, the areas around the Cabot Trail were also settled by Newfoundlanders (Neil's Harbour), Irish (Ingonish and the Margarees) Germans and Dutch (all over). It is hard to think of a single nation not represented in industrial Cape Breton. Cape Breton Island has been home to many famous individuals, whose contributions to society are well known outside of the area. Cape Breton's favorite immigrant Alexander Graham Bell, as well as Guglielmo Marconi, made Cape Breton Island the site of many wonderful experiments and scientific progress. Monsignor Moses Coady and Father Jimmy Tompkins, native sons of the Margarees, pioneered social and economic justice.Their legacy remains in every Co-op and Credit Union. In the 1980s, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche brought Canada its first Tibetan Buddhist abby, in Pleasant Bay, and in 2001, a Stupa of Enlightenment. Beyond the broad brush strokes of communities and celebrities are the stories from the common man, collected by folklorists, or left in journals provide fascinating insights and details of Cape Breton Islands history. Among them, the Maxwell brothers, orphaned Afro-Canadians, whose lives inspired Rudyard Kipling's hero in Captains Courageous, and the man, who while being ticketed by the police for failing to signal his turn down his driveway responded incredulously, "...but everyone knows I live here!" Cape Breton Island also has a fascinating natural history. Early tectonic movements and glaciers defined the land. When Europeans arrived, they found a green land covered in lush forests, streams and rivers full of salmon and trout, the forests home to caribou, cougars, moose and other wildlife. The harvesting of the Earth's bounty is still responsible for most of the jobs on the Island. The Southern Gulf of St Lawrence is 1% of Canada's managed ocean, yet it yields 15% of Canada's landed catch. Indeed it is so rich that whale cruise operators guarantee sightings. More species of whale are being seen in the gulf than have been seen for a long time. Sea turtles are also present. Natural and human history abound around the Cabot Trail, and we think that knowing about the Island increases the enjoyment of seeing it. Custom Tours In addition to Cape Breton Island's distinctive cultures, it is also an incredibly beautiful place. The Cabot Trail richly deserves to be called North America's most beautiful scenic drive. As we go around the Trail there are numerous side and dirt roads that take you to additional gorgeous vistas. Not everyone likes to take their car on dirt roads. We love to drive on dirt, and the Chrysler PT Cruiser takes a lot of bumps out of the roads, both dirt and paved. The Ceilidh Trail runs up the west coast of Cape Breton Island and there are many side roads that feature views every bit as breathtaking as the Cabot Trail. The images of blue ocean and green mountains and jutting capes define Cape Breton Island, but inland there are serene river valleys, placid lakes and waterfalls. Our custom tours offer a chance to enjoy the scenery without your needing to watch the road. The PT Cruiser is a comfortable ride. This vehicle carries three passengers very comfortably, and is equipped for four. We don't take any fares other than your party. We offer full day(8 hours) tours of the Cabot Trail, and we would like to recommend some`"off trail" jaunts. For example, at Pleasant Bay, the Cape North area, and the Alternative Scenic Drive around Dingwall to Neil's Harbour. It is entirely up to you how often we stop, whether at gift shops, scenic look-offs, beaches, museums, or restaurants. We also offer half day tours(5 hours), for part of the Cabot Trail, or the Ceilidh Trail, again taking to the dirt roads for the best views. Spend the afternoon beach-hopping or hiking to waterfalls, you choose! In addition to Parks Canada's museums, there are some wonderful community museums. The Highland Village at Iona traces the history, through historical buildings, of pioneer settlers to "modern" times. Other community museums take a close look at Whales and Atlantic Salmon. All tours feature informed commentary about the area, and about its settlers, especially the Highland Gael.