EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Beyond Cape North village, the main road skirts the national park, cutting east across the interior before veering south along the coast to reach the series of roadside resorts that make up INGONISH . Amongst several places to stay here, the Glenghorm Beach Resort (tel 285-2049; June-Oct) is as good as any - and better than most - its neat and trim motel rooms ($80-100) and cabins ($100-125) spreading out along a pleasant slice of seashore. The attractions of Ingonish do, however, pale in comparison with Keltic Lodge (tel 285-2880 or 1-800/565-0444, www.signatureresorts.com ), one of the province's finest hotel complexes, perched high above the cliffs amidst immaculate gardens on a rocky promontory some 40km from Cape North village - and close to the national park's east entrance. The lodge has a comprehensive range of facilities, from beaches, restaurants and tennis courts through to hiking trails that explore the locale's scenic nooks and crannies. You can stay in the main lodge ($240 and up), a handsome Edwardian mansion with high gables and dinky brick chimneys, or the modern Keltic Inn ($240 and up), but the cottages ($240 and up) are perhaps more enjoyable, the best of them prettily located amongst the woods that cover much of the promontory.

Leaving the national park, the Cabot Trail threads down the eighty-kilometre Gaelic Coast - named after the Scottish Highlanders who first settled here - passing through SOUTH GUT ST ANN'S , the location of the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts . Standing on its own campus in the hills, the college offers courses in the Gaelic language and all manner of Highland activities - bagpiping, tartan-weaving, dancing and Scots folklore. The main focus of a visit here is the Great Hall of the Clans (July to early Oct daily 9am-5pm; $2.50), which provides potted clan descriptions alongside wax models dressed in the appropriate tartan.

From the college, it is a few hundred metres to the Trans-Canada for either Baddeck to the southwest or Sydney to the east.