PEI the Last Word

This is it.  The final post about Prince Edward Island.  We enjoyed our stay and hope to return next year.  The sights, the beaches, the seafood, the people; We couldn’t have asked for a better experience!  So, here it is, the wrap up of our final days on this beautiful island.

What do you do on a rainy day in PEI? You go to North Rustico and the New Glasgow area to see a butterfly house.

Many other people had the same idea.  We kept thinking the rain would stop and we could go on to view the Gardens of Hope adjacent to the butterfly house but it just kept on.

So we drove to Cavendish and sat in the “Samuels” Coffee house and drank some coffee and used their free wifi. Later we went back to North Rustico and ate an early dinner at the “World Famous” Fisherman’s Wharf with the 60 foot salad bar, unlimited mussels and seafood chowder…need I say more?

It was huge and it was packed- so many people enjoying so much seafood.

We did return to the Gardens of Hope on another, less rainy day…

Besides Butterfly Houses and Gardens, we experienced many beaches on PEI. One of our favorites was Basin Head. It is located on the far northeastern part of the island. Our first trip to Basin Head beach known as “Singing Sands” involved booking a cabin at Campbells Cove for 1 night so we could explore more around the area the next day as well. On the way there we stopped at a visitor center in St Peters.

It is a beautiful town right on St Peters Bay. We browsed in a couple of shops then continued on.

Basin head beach was beautiful, free and very busy (it has been voted Canada’s best beach) It is a 9 mile beach and has a swift current running between 2 beach areas – people were jumping in at one side of the beach and just letting the swift current carry them to the other beach area.

There were kids, adults and even dogs taking part in all the water fun!

We returned to this beach a week later, but as a day trip, because we liked it that much. That first trip to the north east of PEI, we had a primitive cabin reserved at Campbells Cove Campground and it was basically a bed and four walls.

We slept there, got up early the next morning, packed back up and headed to Greenwich Beach and National Park.

Greenwich is part of PEI’s national parks so we wanted to check it out. The beach was at the end of a long boardwalk and was mostly empty when we got there. It was a great beach and the sun was out, sky was clear and we spent several hours there before heading to the other side of the park which had a series of hiking trails- we walked a 1 km trail that just followed along St Peters Bay.

It was very scenic and we learned a little about the area and about mussel farming as we read placards along the trail. Overall a great 2 day adventure on that side of PEI.

Some of our favorite beaches were, Ross and Brackley.  Both of these were only a 5 minute drive from our Harrington campsite.  This is Brackley Beach:

And this is our little friend we met at Ross Beach:

Over the course of our month long stay in PEI we also saw many lighthouses:

The Wood Island Lighthouse welcomed us when we first arrived on the Ferry.

The Cape Egmont Lighthouse (western side of the island)

The Historic Souris Lighthouse (eastern side)

East Point Lighthouse (at the farthest north eastern tip of the island)

Point Prim Lighthouse (south and eastern side)

New London Bay Lighthouse (middle northern coast)

and Panmure Island Lighthouse (east side)

This is just the small selection that we saw of the 63 Lighthouses on PEI.

We found many coffee shops and dairy bars on this little island as well. Some of our favorite coffee spots? Receiver Coffee, Samuels, Tim Horton and last but not least Island Chocolates in Victoria by the Sea…

And then there were the dairy bars- I can’t even tell you all of them but the one that stands out is Cows! We went on a little self-guided factory tour in Charlottetown one day.

Yes, it’s really THAT good!

A few of our favorite places were:  Frenchmans Bay because of the most beautiful scenery.

The village of Montague with it’s waterfront carvings, statues and close proximity to the Confederation Trail:

And Point Prim- there we saw a lighthouse, ate some amazing chowder and saw a starfish.

We arrived on PEI July 29th, 2018 and we headed back to the mainland on September 1 via the Confederation Bridge.

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After 34 days we waved good-bye to PEI.  See you next year little island!