Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Prince Edward Island is Canada’s mini-province. At just over 2,000 square miles, it’s about the size of Delaware and has a population of only about 145,000. How did a place so small become a province of its own when other Canadian provinces like Quebec and Ontario cover such enormous territories? From what I understand, PEI didn’t agree to the terms of Confederation which created Canada with four provinces in 1867. But it joined Canada six years later, unlike Newfoundland which remained a British colony until after WWII.
We went to Price Edward Island on my family’s 1984 road trip to eastern Canada, and as best I can recall we spent less than 24 hours on the island. Back then you still had to take a ferry. I recall driving through the fields, staying at a motel, and having lobster for the first time in my life. I recall that after the boring woods of New Brunswick, the open terrain and seaside views were very appealing. My brother tells me we watched some of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in our motel room on PEI, but I don’t remember that.
I do recall chatting on the return ferry with a Canadian man who was also very conservative and liked Reagan and was excited Pierre Trudeau had just been replaced as prime minister by a conservative.
Nowadays you don’t have to take a ferry anymore. The Confederation Bridge liking PEI to New Brunswick across the Northumberland Strait was completed in 1997. The bridge is eight miles long and doesn’t include any long suspensions because the sea between the two landmasses is fairly shallow, a feature which causes the strait to freeze over in winter but on the other hand have the warmest water north of the Carolinas in summer. That’s a big contract to the By of Fundy a short distance south which stays quite cold through the summer because of the influence of the Labrador Current.
Prince Edward Island is still as beautiful as I remembered. It’s not the kind of beauty of stunning mountains or unique features but rather rolling farmland, bays and inlets, quaint towns, and more colorful lupines than I’ve see just about anywhere. There’s also very little modern cookie-cutter commercial development the way there is in so many rural and small town areas in the U.
S. With lots of dairy cows and farms producing hay, potatoes, and produce, PEI is almost like a Lancaster County by the sea, a far more domesticated landscape than in the other maritime provinces.
On my first night I headed directly for Malpeque, a small fishing village with an impossibly quaint harbor to try the famous oysters which take their name from the village and bay at the Oyster Barn restaurant. I can’t say I’m a connoisseur of raw oysters so can’t distinguish between those from different locations, but I’ve gradually come to appreciate what seemed really disgusting to me the first time I tried them in my early 20s. I followed those with a main course of pan-fried oysters which I have to admit I enjoyed even more.
I was due for a cleanup so decided to head to the campground at Cabot Beach Provincial Park for the night so I’d be able to have a shower in the morning. When the attendant suggested I go pick a spot and return to let her know which one I chose and pay for it, I responded “Just assign me one. It really doesn’t matter.
” She immediately asked if I was planning to sleep in my car, to which I answered in the affirmative. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on me. It’ll be our little secret.” Canadians are so nice! The sunset view from the top of the red cliffs was spectacular.
Prince Edward Island is a bit short on real sights. Probably the most famous one is the Green Gables House at Cavendish, a national historic site. The house was owned by a relative of author Lucy Maud Montgomery and frequented by her as a child. It served as inspiration for her most famous tale “Anne of Green Gables”. I have never read it, but apparently lots of people did when they were growing up because it’s quite the tourist draw. Where did all these people on tour buses come from? This must be their only stop on the island because I haven’t seen them anywhere else.
The north central shoreline of PEI is designated as Prince Edward Island National Park and consists of some stretches of low red sandstone cliffs and some beautiful sandy beaches. My last week in Canada was essentially a major heat wave in the region, which would be about regular summer temperatures in most of the eastern U.
S. That made for good beach weather, though, and spent two afternoons on the beach. The national park is on the wrong side of the island, though, for warm water since it’s on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence rather than the Northumberland Strait. But I did go in for a while! The water was so calm it was almost like a bathtub, a very cold bathtub.
I did have a lobster supper in Nova Scotia, but it’s a must to go for one in Prince Edward Island too. I like the way they do things in some of the bigger places; you order your main course (lobster is not mandatory) and then have your run of an AYCE salad and dessert bar with unlimited mussels and seafood chowder.
Charlottetown is the provincial capital with about a quarter of the province’s population. That means the big city is still a pretty small town. It’s a pleasant place to walk around for a few hours with some stately buildings and a pleasant center. The town is where the initial meetings that led to Canadian confederation took place in the years before independence. Province House, the provincial capitol building, was closed and completely surrounded by scaffolding at the time of my visit.
Overall my three days on the island were pretty good and low key. I think it was good to have it near the end of my trip when my enthusiasm for sightseeing had waned somewhat and I was eager to relax at the beach. PEI is really a low-key vacation and recreation destination rather than a place with major sights.
2025-05-23