Prince Edward Island (twice)

We hadn’t intended to spend much time on Prince Edward Island (PEI) this visit since it hadn’t impressed us over 40 years ago. More accurately, the impression that it left on us was mostly not great–everything a bit kitchy, Anne of Green Gables merchandise references and attractions everywhere–other than the beautiful red beaches and cliffs.

PEI is divided into three counties: Queens in the center of the island including Charlottetown; Kings at the east and Prince in the west (hmmm, why are Queens and Kings plural, but Prince is singular?). We originally planned a very short visit to the east end of the island where we would catch the ferry from Souris in Kings County to the Magdalen Islands later in the summer. But when we found ourselves having to make a quick run into Moncton followed by a few extra days in our itinerary, we added a trip over the Confederation Bridge to spend a few nights in the Charlottetown area so we could visit Queens County.

Charlottetown

We ended up staying across the Hillsborough Bridge from Charlottetown in Stratford. It was a great spot for a base to visit the central part of the province. Bonus points to me for picking an accommodation that was run by a chef where we were served amazing breakfasts each morning. On our first night, we enjoyed the sunset from a Stratford park while looking across the water to Charlottetown. The next day we drove into Charlottetown and explored it on foot before driving back over the bridge and further southeast to Point Prim.

Driving the central north coast and Summerside

We crossed PEI to the scenic north coast and then meandered along the coastal route, experiencing the stunning geological variations of the landscape. The beaches are beautiful and edged by shifting grassy dunes and the iron-rich red cliffs are sculpted by the sea. But along with the beauty we were startled to see hectares of dead trees along the route. This devastation, we learned, was the visible fallout from severe storms like Dorian (2019) and Fiona (2022) followed by insect infestations.

We dropped back down to the south coast to Summerside, a place I’d read had lots going on. In the first week of September, when we visited, it was almost a ghost town–cute, but very quiet with little traffic and even less foot traffic.

Confederation Bridge

You can cross the water to PEI on either an hour-long ferry or a10-minute bridge drive. Until the day before we arrived, the toll for the the 12.9 kilometre Confederation Bridge was over $50 (return). On August 1, 2025 it was reduced to $20 (for the foreseeable future), making it a quick and relatively economical crossing, even when the route to the bridge is a little out of the way as it was for us on our second trip.

Souris to catch a ferry

The second time we went to PEI was to catch the five-hour ferry from Souris on the east coast in King’s County to Îles de la Madeleine (Magdalen Islands). Since we had already driven much of the southern section of the Points East scenic drive, we drove passed Charlottetown on a diagonal to the north coast and drove to the eastern tip of PEI where we stopped at the East Point Lighthouse.

On our way down the east coast we stopped in Basin Head, which is probably a hopping place in the summer but was already closed, at least mid-week, on September 8. Beautiful beaches, though, and we could envision it as a much more boisterous summer fun spot. Our accommodation in Souris was in a funky little cabin complex called Shanty Stay.