After spending a few days on Prince Edward Island (PEI), our 10-year old exclaimed “it’s like one big small-town!” She had totally nailed it. That was exactly what it felt like, and we were immediately in love. There are three sections to PEI – East, Central & North. We stuck to the Central region, but I’d love to go back and explore the East & North.
Below you’ll find plenty of ideas for your own trip, including:
Things To Do
There is plenty to do when visiting Prince Edward Island. Here are some of the highlights:
Biking, Hiking and Beaches
We enjoyed hanging out on the red-sand beach at the Cavendish campground, but there are also beautiful beaches at Stanhope, Brackley and Greenwich, amongst others. Hiking and bike trails are available in these locations, as well. We particularly enjoyed the trails along the coast at Cavendish and Brackley. PEI is also known for its incredible Confederation Trail – 273km of trail that runs across the island on a decommissioned railway line. If you didn’t bring your own set of wheels, you can rent bikes to ride the Trail.
Green Gables Heritage Place
While somewhat touristy, it’s hard not to visit PEI without doing something related to Anne of Green Gables, the lovable heroine from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s century-old novels. We really enjoyed our visit to the Green Gables Heritage Place. The house is fun to walk through and there are some nice wooded trails on the property. We followed one to the grave of author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Later, I really enjoyed learning more about her creative life through the exhibits in the visitor’s centre.
Explore Charlottetown
As a capital city, I was expecting Charlottetown to have a traditional urban core with soaring towers and busy highways. It was refreshing to find instead a large “small-town” with a low-profile skyline, modest harbourfront and all sorts of interesting things to explore. Rather than a formal tour, we chose to use a self-guided tour so we could discover the city at our own pace.
Anne Musicals
One of my favourite memories of visiting PEI as a child was watching the Anne of Green Gables musical. Afterwards, my parents bought me the cassette tape and my brother was forced to listen to me sing along with it for the 2-day drive back home. This classic musical now only plays every second year (on even numbered years). In lieu of this, we saw the Anne & Gilbert musical which covers the second and third book in the famous series. The kids really enjoyed it and, like 30 years earlier, we sang along to the soundtrack for days to come.
The Dunes Gallery & Gardens
We had the pleasure of eating at the Dunes Cafe for our anniversary dinner and we were so impressed by the gallery and gardens that we brought the kids back the next day so that they could experience it too. The gallery features work from over 50 artisans across a variety of crafts. You can also peek into the pottery studio for daily demonstrations and wander outside to admire the beauty of the gardens.
Scenic Drives
One of our favourite things to do on the Island was simply drive around and admire the scenery. From rolling farms, to majestic cliffs, to red sandy beaches, to charming little towns, there is plenty to see when exploring by car. Tourism PEI has done a nice job of laying out three coastal drives that you can follow to explore the North, Central or East sections of the Island.
Celebrate Canada Day
There is no better place to celebrate Canada Day than in PEI. For starters, this is because Charlottetown is regarded as the birthplace of confederation. It’s also because the Canada Day celebrations in PEI are one of a kind. We were fortunate enough to be visiting around July 1 and joined the festivities in North Rustico. There were tons of activities including live music, a boat parade, food vendors and a spectacular fireworks show.
Haunted Mansion
I have to admit this wouldn’t have been my first choice of activity, but we passed the Haunted Mansion on our drive from Summerside to Cavendish and the kids begged to stop by. Turns out, it was great! We all had a lot of fun weaving through the darkened maze of a mansion, feeling frightened and spooked the whole time. If you ask the kids what their favourite parts of PEI were, this would definitely make their list.
More PEI Fun
As in every place we visit, there are always other things we would have liked to do, but didn’t have time for. You could learn more about First Nation communities on Lennox Island, go fossil hunting, do a lobster tour, dig for clams, hop on a zodiak for seal watching, tour a potato farm, or put your kids to work helping with daily farm chores!
Places To Eat
Dunes Cafe
My favourite way to get recommendations on places to visit or eat at is to talk to people along our way. This recommendation came from a couple I met when running in Moncton. Man, what great intel! Josh and I celebrated our anniversary with a dinner out at the Dunes Cafe and the food was unbelievable. Everything is presented on the world-renowned pottery created at the Dunes Gallery, and the ambiance of the gallery & gardens is unbeatable. All in all, this cafe is arguably the best place to eat on the whole island. The Moncton couple’s other recommendation was Dalvay By The Sea.
The Brickhouse Kitchen & Bar
After wandering around Charlottetown for the afternoon, we were hungry! We found the Brickhouse Kitchen & Bar and it was exactly what we needed. We had a big booth on the second floor and the service was great. For dessert, we walked around the corner and stopped at Anne of Green Gables Chocolates to pick a treat!
Holman’s Ice Cream Parlour
While PEI is most famous for its delicious Cows Ice Cream, we always love a good recommendation and word on the street was that the best ice cream in PEI is at Holman’s Ice Cream Parlour. It was, in fact, quite delicious and gave us a reason to take a small, afternoon road trip to Summerside, PEI.
Where We Stayed
Prince Edward Island National Park
Our love affair with National Parks continued with our experience in PEI. This National Park has two campgrounds to choose from: Stanhope & Cavendish. We stayed in Cavendish. It was beautiful, but also shocking to see the devastation from recent hurricanes (Fiona in 2022 and Dorian in 2019). We loved all the well-kept trails and the red, sandy beaches.
