Over the most recent long weekend I went on a road trip from Halifax to Prince Edward Island (PEI) with my partner and two friends. We spent Friday and Saturday nights in the Capital, Charlottetown, visiting various parks, cafes and restaurants. We then spent Sunday night at an AirBnB in the country. To get to PEI, my partner and I took the bus to Truro where our friends from New Brunswick then picked us up by car took the ferry to PEI. Coming back, we were dropped off in Amherst and then took the train back. It was my first time visiting the Island and I really like the laid back vibe, particularly in Charlottetown. There were lots of signs that when things pick up in the summer months it can get over run with tourists but thankfully May seems to be too early for most people to visit and we sort of had things to ourselves. Here's some of the photos I took from this trip.
1. View from the bus terminal in Dartmouth, NS. The bridge in view is the Macdonald Bridge, connecting Dartmouth and Halifax.
2. View from the bus to Truro. This was a roughly 1.5 hour trip characterized by small but pretty rolling hills, forests and the odd river.
3. View from the Caribou, NS to Wood Islands, PEI ferry. I was surprised that you could see the coasts of each province from each other. This was probably one of the only places in Canada you could see three provinces at once.
4. I thought the urban design in central Charlottetown was quite good. Also, for a small town the nightlife was quite strong, with several bars and clubs within a short walking distance of each other.
5. Waterfront of Charlottetown.
6. Typical streets in the central part of Charlottetown. Nice green trees, outdoor sitting and a very pleasant vibe. One thing that I think stood out to me was how quiet and clean the city felt . While it didn't feel deserted at all, we saw basically no litter, graffiti and the rip and roar of cars seemed absent. In some ways it reminded me of being on a university campus.
7. I believe this was the "main street" of Charlottetown, Queen Street. I thought it was interesting that the street was so wide and able to accommodate perpendicular parking. While there were lots of cars and some loud motorcyclists, Queen still felt very chill.
8. This is Grafton Street which intersects with Queen Street. I was really surprised with how many businesses, mostly restaurants it seemed, central Charlottetown was able to support as both Grafton and Queen were pretty much entirely storefronts.
9. View from walking around Victoria Park which is sort of like Charlottetown's answer to Vancouver's Stanley Park or Halifax's Point Pleasant.
10. Here's some of the housing stock from around the city.
11. One of the things I have learned since moving to the Maritimes is that I love houses with these kinds of shingles.
12. We treated ourselves to some fried oysters and lobster at the Water Prince Corner Shop. To be honest, I find lobster a bit overrated but the oysters were great. Our AirBnB also gave us a $100 gift card which could be used all around the province. Apparently this is something the government has done to help businesses get back after the Pandemic. We were very gracious for this as the bill came out to about $150 and we didn't even order any drinks.
13. No trip to PEI is complete without visiting the Anne of Green Gables house. While the exhibit was very well done, the fact that it's sort of surrounded by a golf course did take us out of the vibe somewhat. It's too bad it wasn't just farms, fields or forest like most of the province as it makes it difficult to feel like you're actually in that Green Gables world.
14. Typical view along the north shore of the island.
15. The beach we stopped at on the north shore. It was quite nice and had the famous squeeky sand. Unfortunately the water was absolutely frigid but it was nice enough for a couple beers.
16. Lighthouse not too far from Summerside.
17. View of the Confederation Bridge, likely to be renamed to "Epekwitk Crossing" to reflect the traditional Mi'kmaq name for Prince Edward Island.
18. Approaching train to take us from Amherst back to Halifax.
19. I could be wrong, but I think this was the Shubenacadie river.
20. Arrived at Halifax only 1 hour late which is not too bad for Via Rail.
Hybrid Mode