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Prince Edward Island Hot Spots

Overview | Hot Spots | Suggested Itineraries | Prince Edward Island Advertisers

Orwell Corner

Orwell Corner invites you to see life on the Island as it was more than a century ago. It starts in the P.E.I. Agricultural Museum, which acts as an entrance to this historically recreated village. A short film-narrated by the voices of older Islanders who remember the ways of small family farms and harvesting by hand-shows how many of the artifacts in the museum were actually used.

Coming out of the museum you'll find yourself on the old road, paved only with grass over hard clay, to Orwell Corner. At the old general store you can still buy the candies of the day, as well as seeds for your garden. On the way you might want to stop at the blacksmith shop and turn the crank on the bellows for the demonstrations of making nails and other hardware. The old home off the general store is open for your investigation. There are the barns and the school and church, where the cemetery testifies that this is the real thing. Come at closing time and you may be lucky enough to help put the animals into the barns for the night. Stick around because there is often evening entertainment, including ceilidhs, in the old community hall.

Province House

Province House stands like an anchor at the corner of Richmond and Great George at 2 Palmer's Lane in Charlottetown; symbolically, it stands as an anchor for the entire nation of Canada. It was here in 1864 that the first meeting was held leading to Confederation, the coming together of four British colonies that would become Canada's beginnings.

In memory of that historic meeting, much of the interior of this classically styled building has been restored, including the reception hall at the west end of the building that saw many grand parties and balls as Prince Edward Islanders laid on the hospitality for the delegates from the other colonies of British North America. Visiting delegates landed at the foot of Great George Street, which runs from the harbour up to Province House. This historic walk is patrolled every summer by actors in period dress who stop to debate the merits of Confederation or take visitors on tours of the area.

Province House has more than historic significance. It is still the seat of the province's legislature, which meets in a hall in the east end just as it has since 1847, making it the second-oldest active legislature building in Canada. When the legislature is in session, visitors can climb the grand central staircase to the visitors' gallery to watch the debates.

Beaconsfield Historic House

Beaconsfield sits in a cove with a commanding view of Charlottetown harbour and was built with all the conveniences of the day. The mansard roof, viewing tower, 25 rooms and eight fireplaces were meant to establish its owner as being at the top of Charlottetown society. The house, which served for a time as a nurses' residence, has been restored to its 19th-century character, and visitors are invited to tour the fine furnishings, as well as view the elaborate plaster mouldings and stained glass. Outside, the setting is no less elegant, with its waterfront flower garden. The old carriage house is also open to the public, in particular for the presentation of musical events.

Victoria

A short drive off the Trans-Canada Highway brings you to the village of Victoria by the Sea. The best part of this artists' enclave is that the cultural community has not completely overwhelmed the fishing traditions that led to its founding. The village itself is tiny-four blocks in a square-but it's brimming with things to do and see. The historic community hall in the centre of the village is home to a busy summer-theatre company. In the summer of 2005, it featured the premiere of Anne and Gilbert: The Island Love Story, a musical that tells the romantic story of the two books that followed Anne of Green Gables. The theatre is also well known for staging farces.

Summerside Waterfront

It starts with a beach on the lake-warm salt water of Summerside harbour and ends with the Harbourfront Jubilee Theatre. Like many waterfronts, Summerside's lay undeveloped for years but has recently come together as a major attraction, and development is continuing. Major restoration is underway along Water Street.

The beach is in the west end of the city, a stretch of pale red sand flanked by a boardwalk for walkers looking for a firmer footing. The beach is the result of a major cleanup of years of accumulated seaweed. A pavilion at one end houses a canteen with local baked goods, crafts and displays on local history. Walking along the shore takes you past some of the old industrial buildings. Summerside harbour is a natural beauty, almost fully surrounded by wooded shores. In a few minutes you're at Spinnaker's Landing, a cosy nook with restaurants, craft shops and a general store.

The outdoor entertainment venue is busy noon and night, and there's a play area for children. The boardwalk continues to Eptek Art and Culture Centre, part of the P.E.I. provincial museum system. It hosts temporary exhibits both from the P.E.I. Museum and national organizations. End your day at one of P.E.I.'s major theatre venues. The Jubilee hosts both musical and dramatic presentations.

Wyatt House

Wanda Lefurgey Wyatt lived in this home on Spring Street in Summerside from 1895 to 1998. Having no heirs, she left the house to the city. It stands as a record of her life and a record of the better part of the 20th century. Wyatt was the first Island woman to earn a law degree but she never entered the bar. Instead she took a small inheritance left by her father in the 1930s and built a substantial fortune. In her later years, she became a great patron of the arts. Her name can be found on plaques in many places around the city, including the waterfront arts centre and the College of Piping.

The house remains much as Wyatt left it when she died. Different rooms in the house reflect different eras. The dining room retains an Edwardian formality. The parlour is more mid-century-it was here that she entertained troops stationed in Summerside during the Second World War-but there are also end-of-century touches in the decorations. The upstairs bathroom shows evidence of its 1950s makeover. The study is the most modern-looking room; it is where she conducted her business. Staff at the house are still sorting through Wyatt's records and belongings and stage regular exhibits of their findings.

North Cape

North Cape is one of the most diverse sites on the Island, offering both natural and scientific wonders. The Island stops here, becoming more and more narrow until it finally ends at the point that is the cape itself. Extending out from the cape, however, is the longest natural rock reef in North America. At low tide it is open for hiking and exploring. The marshlands that form the cape also make for good hiking. At the rock reef, stand back and watch the tides of the Northumberland Strait and Gulf of St. Lawrence rush together.

It is the scientific wonders that first strike visitors. Approaching the Island's end, a 295-foot windmill looms into view. This is an experimental model and one of the world's largest. Beyond that is a wind farm that supplies five per cent of the Island's electricity. An interpretive centre provides extensive information on the wind farm, the wildlife on the rock reef and the history of the area.

The centre also introduces the visitor to a new idea at North Cape: the Hydrogen Village. Under a new plan, the area around North Cape will be taken off the electricity grid. When the wind blows, windmills will power the village. When it doesn't, hydrogen created by excess wind power will. The site will be the world's broadest experiment in living with wind and hydrogen energy.

Cavendish

P.E.I.'s most famous literary heroine, Anne of Green Gables, made her home in Avonlea, a fictional village easily recognizable as Cavendish. Author Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up here, making regular visits to the farm of cousins of her grandfather, which she made famous as Green Gables in the Anne books.

This is the landscape that captivated Montgomery and that has moved so many readers of the Anne books. Hills gently roll down to the sea, small homesteads perched on top and streams and quiet country lanes cutting through them. Cavendish has become a major tourist attraction in the years since Montgomery wrote her books, and away from the main roads it is still possible to see what so inspired such a love of place in her.

The Green Gables house is now a National Historic Site and a must-visit for millions of Montgomery fans, from Eastern Canada to Japan. Visitors can see Matthew's room, Marilla's kitchen and Anne's room, complete with the cherry tree outside the window. Watch for special events with a 19th-century flair.

Several trails, through the Haunted Wood and along Lovers' Lane, are also open to visitors. The house where Montgomery once lived is gone, but the location of the home has been preserved, with an interpretive centre on site. It is still possible to walk the same path that Montgomery took when she strolled from her home to Green Gables. For those looking for a more complete Anne experience, characters from the book re-enact famous scenes at Avonlea Village, just down the road. This attraction is built around heritage buildings, museums and the lifestyle of late 19th-century P.E.I.

Attractions at Cavendish go well beyond Anne. Cavendish also has the busiest beach on the Island, part of Prince Edward Island National Park. The beach is backed by sand dunes that soar high over the water, held in place by the complex root systems of the grasses that grow there. A trail along the dunes demonstrates the complex interplay of sea, beach, dunes and streams, and how beach can suddenly end at looming red cliff.

Should the kids tire of the beach, Cavendish has amusement parks and a wide array of other attractions: wax museum, a petting farm, black-light mini golf. The Green Gables Golf Course, designed by Stanley Thompson, offers challenges for any skill level. Cavendish is well centred on the north shore to act as a base for exploring this most popular region of the province, with its many craft shops, restaurants and sites connected with the life of L. M. Montgomery.

New Glasgow

New Glasgow sits in what may be P.E.I.'s most beautiful river valley, where the Hunter River cuts through rolling hills and begins to broaden as it approaches the sea. New Glasgow is also home to an Island institution, the New Glasgow Lobster Suppers, which served its first lobster in 1958. Lobster suppers on P.E.I. have introduced many visitors to this delicacy, and the supper in New Glasgow is one of the originals.

Across the river is a newer institution, the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, which in the last decade or so has established an international reputation for its jams and other preserves. Choose from raspberry and champagne, classic strawberry and rhubarb and sour cherry marmalade, as well as a selection of fine teas and savoury preserves such as peach salsa or red pepper jelly. The Preserve Company also has an excellent restaurant. Serving simple dishes such as meatloaf and crepes, it is known for the freshness of its ingredients. Dine inside, where two glass walls face the river, outside on the deck or just stop for ice cream. The latest attraction is the New Glasgow Country Gardens, a 12-acre ramble featuring constant views of the Hunter River valley, a butterfly house, and extensive annual and perennial plantings.

P.E.I. National Park

The sea has turned the soft sandstone into beach for almost the whole length of Prince Edward Island National Park; it's a beach walker's paradise. The park was established to protect a fragile coastal ecosystem, marked most prominently by sand dunes that climb above fine sand beaches. The dunes are held together by the long, intertwining roots of marram grass. It's a fragile structure, easily broken by footsteps: as few as 10 footsteps can kill marram grass. With the sand loose, the wind can blow large holes through the dune, damaging the stability of the whole system. Parks Canada has built boardwalks across the dunes that give walkers the opportunity to travel through this unusual landscape without disturbing the ecology.

The most extensive system of boardwalks is at Greenwich. A trail with interpretive signs guides you through the environment as you pass through abandoned farmland, spruce forest, salt marsh, a freshwater pond, dunes and beach. The interpretive centre at Greenwich provides extensive information on the local environment, describing both the natural and human history of the area. While there are many beautiful landscapes to see in the national park, the beaches themselves are a major draw: fine, pale sand and the warmest water north of the Carolinas.

Confederation Trail

Built on old railway beds, the Confederation Trail cuts through the very centre of the province. The trail, built for hiking and cycling, provides a different view of the Island. It passes through the rural heartland of the province: acres of potatoes, corn and grain, rolling pastureland and country villages.

Starting in Elmira, the eastern terminus of the railway, the trail follows the curve of the Island, with spurs to Montague and Charlottetown, before heading to Summerside, with a spur to Borden, then north to Tignish. There is also a small, unconnected section completed in the southeast corner of the province, from Murray Harbour to Melville. Maps of the trail are available at visitor information centres, and facilities along it are improving every year; in some sections it is possible to walk for an entire day carrying nothing but a bottle of water.

Walking the Confederation Trail is a rare sort of experience for North America. P.E.I. is Canada's most densely populated province, and you can see it here. There is little of what anyone might call wilderness. Instead, a countryside is laid out before you. Here, away from the cars, the beaches and the traditional tourist attractions, you can see perhaps more than anywhere else how Islanders used to live, digging their living from the soil.

Basin Head

Basin Head is one of the finest beaches on the Island. Split in two by an artificial entrance to a lagoon behind it, the two halves of the beach are connected by a bridge. A sign telling swimmers not to jump off the bridge is the most ignored warning on the Island. On a hot day, swimmers line up for a turn to leap off the rails.

The south end of the beach ends dramatically in a tall red cliff. To the north the beach stretches on and on. This gives visitors the choice of a short walk north to find a secluded spot or sticking close to the many amenities provided by the provincial park: washrooms, canteen, beach-chair rentals, picnic tables and a children's play area.

Apart from the striking views, you can't help but notice that the sands here squeak when you walk on them. Known as singing sands, it is an uncommon phenomenon that occurs on beaches and in deserts around the world. It is caused by sands polished into a spherical shape and with a high quartz content.

Back by the parking lot, you will find the provincial fisheries museum. Upstairs is a large collection of arcane paraphernalia fishermen have used and are still using to bring home the harvest of the sea. Downstairs, model displays show how the equipment was used. The museum also has a temporary space that holds exhibitions on a variety of historical subjects. Outside the main building are displays of different fishing boats.