No lines, no crowds, no stress! Beautiful sights/scenery on an amazingly relaxing tour. - This was simply a great day. David, our tour guide had texted me the morning of our tour and was literally steps away from the gate on the pier, took us 1-2 minutes (at most) to find him. There were only 3 of us on this tour and we were in a modern, clean, comfortable mini-van. We drove thru town and then about 45 minutes to the old fort on the north part of the island. Spent about an hour or so there, it has been redone and reconstructed much like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia with re-enactors. Then on to the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Breton (with a stop for lunch at Tim Norton's). The scenery on the drive is spectacular, and we stopped at several scenic overlooks. About an hour at the museum (admission included in tour as was the fort). David was very attentive to our needs, eg restrooms, food, etc, and was very flexible concerning what we were interested in. He knew the history of the area very well, and had great stories to tell. It was a very relaxing day for us, no stress, no crowds, no lines, had the road pretty much to ourselves. Then we drove around Sydney and he pointed out some historical sites of interest, and back to the ship about an hour before departure time, giving us plenty of time to see the Big Fiddle and some of the vendors inside. From start to finish, a little over 6 hours.

Great day between Fort Louisburgh and Bras d'or - Really nice daytrip, together with our Guide David. We were picked up at the Cruise Terminal and then visited Fort Louisburgh and the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck on the way we stoped at some nice viewing points.

Very well commented tour - Visit in groups of 6 with a guide who is also the driver of the mini van and who knows the history of the country very well and is attentive to questions.

Wonderful day trip to Fortress and Bell Museum - Our tour guide, David, was fabulous. Informative but not boring. A wealth of knowledge but also interested in connecting with those on the tour. A French couple told us about the connection that their village in France had with the area which was fascinating. Sometimes, a 5+ hr tour can get long or boring but this felt like a comfortable afternoon with a knowledgeable friend. Logistics: was easy to meet the guide (we were on a cruise ship) It’s about a 30 minute drive to the Fortress. Then from there it is about and hour and half to Bell Museum. (You basically backtrack to Sydney and then go on the other side of the lake.) And then from Bell Museum back was about 50 minutes. Both places it would be easy to spend hours. I didn’t feel rushed particularly but there is a lot of information and no way to take it all in! I didn’t find the drive onerous but rather relaxing. David was chatty about the area and informative so it was just a relaxing interesting afternoon!

A personal tour of Cape Breton - This was a wonderful tour. Rather than coming on a bus with a large group, we arrived at each location in a group of five which included our tour guide David and the four of us on the tour. He told us about the island, answered all our questions, and was pleasant and helpful all day long. This is the tour you want to take!

Very Knowledgeable Tour Guide - We were on a New England cruise and had one day in Sydney. We like to select small-group, independent tours vs the large bus tours that the cruise ships. We chose this company for a tour both in Sydney, NS and Charlottetown, PEI. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide who shared so many facts and data during the day. The highlight of the tour was the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site. We spent about 2 hours there and between our guide and the people who were in period costume and told about life in the fort, we got a very good appreciation of what it was like to live there depending whether you were the commander of one of the workers (big difference in the quality of life for them). We were supposed to head to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck but it was going to be another hour driving both ways and the group was concerned that it would be cutting it close back to the ship so the tour guide instead went along the other coast to give us another view and we stopped two other places for some photo ops. Overall, it was a lot driving but that is not the tour company's fault as things are far apart. The visit to the fort was fun and listening to the tour guide were the highlights. We enjoyed ourselves.

Too much time at the fort... - Too much time at the fort And not enough at Bell museum Overall experience was to much time in car for the amount of t8me at sites

Canceled by Operator - Originally booked a 5hr tour with Fortress and Bell Mueseum and roughly 2 months before trip was notified they were changing tour to 3hrs and only doing the Fortress. Day of tour, received phone call 1 hr before tour was to start that tour operator had to cancel due to a vehicle issue. Basically got a sorry and we will refund 100% of your money. Watching to make sure that happens!

Our driver was a no show... - Our driver was a no show and left us sitting at the meeting spot having to figure out for ourselves that he wasn’t coming and leaving us with no plans for the day in a very small port. Very disappointing after booking months in advance and being flexible to a previous itinerary change.

terrible experience - We booked an excursion with a company called tripshepard. It was supposed to be a 5 1/5 professionally guided tour with 3 major points of interests covered. A few days before our arrival they emailed us to let us know that they cut the tour down to 3 hours and they removed 2 of the 3 points of interests from the tour. They offered a $60 refund from the $481 fee that we paid as a consolation. When we arrived, we were told we had to walk 3 blocks to connect with our tour guide which was very hard to do because one of our party of 4 is disabled. As we walked halfway to the meeting point, we got a call from the guide asking where we were because she was waiting at the ship where we disembarked from so we had to walk back! So we had to turn around and walk back to the port and when we finally meet with the tour person, she said that she will be driving us to a location, dropping us off, and would be picking us up in a couple of hours to return us to the port. We paid for a professionally guided 5 1/2 tour with 3 major points of interest and we received a 3 hour do it yourself taxi ride. Stay away from this company!