On Prince Edward Island (PEI), you’re always near a shoreline blanketed with iron-infused rust-red sands, where oysters grow in the waters off-shore and small fishing vessels catch bluefin tuna. Moving inland, deserted routes traverse the patchworked landscape, linking isolated beacons with lantern-lit taverns and silvery rooftops of barns. From time to time, one might encounter
Amish
A family will arrive on the carriageway in a horse-drawn carriage.
It has a vintage, surreal feel to it.
Canada
The country’s tiniest province exudes an eerie atmosphere. It’s easy to picture a pensive detective arriving dressed practically to investigate a homicide on one of the bridges. However, during my visit, the local radio stations were only reporting a minor burglary and a stolen computer monitor as their top stories. Despite this, it remains the quaint, idyllic setting often portrayed in rustic narratives.
Anne of Green Gables
That cherished book by Lucy Maud Montgomery follows the spirited redhead Anne Shirley, who affectionately calls Prince Edward Island “the prettiest place in the world.” As she navigates and questions the conventional beliefs prevalent in rural Edwardian Canada, her journey unfolds.
Beyond seafood, more popular activities include watersports or
microbreweries
In the Victorian-era city of Charlottetown, the lush meadows and wooden landmarks that inspired the fictional town of Avonlea fuel the island’s tourist industry. While “Anne fatigue” might affect many of PEI’s 177,000 inhabitants—Even LM Montgomery Elementary School doesn’t include the book series in its curriculum—the story still captivates children around the globe like Harry Potter does. This explains why my guide was Japanese: Hiroko Suzuki, aged 54, hailing from Yokohama.
“Anne Shirley provided inspiration for many Japanese girls,” she mentioned about the early feminist character. “She achieved her own success.” This resonated so strongly with Suzuki that three decades ago, she decided to move and now builds her professional life guiding international visitors through the meticulously maintained childhood locations of Montgomery. As the author’s 150th birth anniversary approached on November 30, Suzuki felt right at home among these landmarks.
Several tours and lectures will be held this week in Cavendish, the North Shore area where Montgomery’s Scottish-Canadian family settled. The setting was wonderfully reminiscent of times past, with only the noise from a leaf blower breaking the turn-of-the-century ambiance. This interruption brought me to David MacNeil, who is related to Montgomery as his first cousin twice removed.
“He mentioned that Maud’s grandparents were his great-great-grandparents,” he stated while standing on the grounds of the humble property.
homestead where their family used to live
–and when Montgomery relocated at 21 months following her mother’s death (£3.50). “She didn’t write about this particular house, but it was where she composed all her work.”
The eponymous
Green Gables
($5) is located just a 10-minute stroll through the forest, a path Montgomery often traversed when he was looking for his MacNeil relatives living nearby. Following this trail led us to the shiny new museum adorned with stories about Montgomery, which we explored before visiting the old weather-beaten white clapboard house. The place has been decorated with elements from her novels, like a bottle of raspberry cordial and Anne’s signature puff-sleeved gown. According to Suzuki, she herself had made over 3,000 visits to Green Gables.
Although Anne might be mistaken for Maud, they are not one and the same; however, it can easily become confusing when navigating Montgomery County, known for incorporating each turrets’ story into their narratives. After losing her mother, the author found herself under the care of her grandparents at their estate following her widowed father’s decision. Both women possessed an intense spirit and distinctive intelligence. It’s worth noting that Montgomery’s twenty novels often received less recognition than deserved; contemporary literary critics tended to dismiss these works as mere Edwardian romance literature aimed at female readers.
Later stops on Suzuki’s itinerary add more details to the narrative. Following Green Gables, we visited the family cemetery, the
Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace
(£3.50) and a
small museum
($6.50) operated by Montgomery’s cousin, Pamela Campbell, within a house frequented frequently by the author. “Should she step into this house today,” Campbell stated, “she would recognize the same furnishings… and her cherished cats.” Upon hearing his signal, an offspring of one of those cats sauntered in from outdoors.
Available from May through October, these sites are safeguarded within national parklands and interconnected via fields of lupins and expansive lawns. However, venturing off the beaten path reveals additional breathtakingly beautiful and enchanting scenery.
On our way back to my quaint bed-and-breakfast in Charlottetown, we stopped at Brackley Beach. There, a wooden walkway winds through the rugged crimson sand dunes, reminiscent of a coastal version of Tatooine. After parting with Suzuki, I headed 30 minutes westward towards Victoria, a charming hamlet featuring weathered fishermen’s homes alongside a dockside lobster shed and a single-room schoolhouse. During summertime, three small cabins transform into art galleries. This equates to one gallery per approximately 40 inhabitants. Despite being just a short 15-minute drive from the bridge connecting to New Brunswick—the neighboring continental province—Victoria offers an ideal spot for tourists looking to explore.
I discovered information about the Confederation Trail, a sand-covered, vehicle-free route stretching over 280 miles across former railway tracks, just late the following day when I reached Georgetown. This town, founded as an initial settlement where three rivers converge, used to be known as Trois-Rivières. During the 1700s, the French held dominion over eastern Canada and coexisted peacefully with the native Mi’kmaq people until they were displaced by the British. These newcomers left their imprint until progress seemingly halted.
I gained entry to the path via an entrance located externally.
Wheelhouse
The tavern led me past an unspoiled beach nearly up to the Dundarave Golf Course by the sea (a course known for its subtle hills and lush emerald grass, perfect for golf enthusiasts from Prince Edward Island). This particular former industrial site doesn’t resemble others found throughout North America which often feature raised walkways adorned with artwork. Instead, it simply extends forward much like a crimson pathway bordered by swaying yellow birch trees, sugar maples, and leaning white pines. Within those couple of hours, my only sightings were a playful chipmunk and a hefty, intricately patterned caterpillar.
The Confederation boasts some of its most scenic routes along the coastlines of St. Peter’s Bay in the northeastern part of the island, where an abundance of wild blueberries and apple trees paint the trails with bursts of color from their fruits. On what was unusually warm weather during my last day there, I became captivated by the expansive sandy expanse across the bay at Greenwich. Just before catching my flight, I managed to spend one enchanting hour exploring the accessible Greenwich Dunes Trail as it circled around the peninsula towards a strikingly reddish sand beach. Given how long walking the whole length might take, I chose instead to relax near a dune enveloped in absolute quietness, observing a fishing vessel searching for scallops offshore. The scene felt like something out of the opening scenes of a crime thriller show. Yet here, amidst such natural beauty, your mind wanders freely through countless possibilities.
Essentials
Air Canada
Flies operate throughout the year to Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax, including connections to Charlottetown. As an alternative, you can rent a vehicle in Halifax for the picturesque 2.5-hour journey to Prince Edward Island; driving directly from Montreal would take around 10 hours.
In Charlottetown, stay at
the Elwood Inn
(The B&B rates start at £97), which inspired “Beechwood” in
Anne of Green Gables
A nod to Victorian elegance (complete with 20th-century amenities and VHS cassettes in the library), this place offers breakfast in the charming old-fashioned dining area featuring raisin-stuffed french toast paired with locally sourced maple syrup.
Near Greenwich on the north shore, a retro holiday camp has been transformed into a Scandinavian-style spa hotel named
Mysa
(The room-only rate for double rooms starts at £194.) This place features a row of exclusive cabins and a series of thermal baths along with barrel saunas distributed along the shore. Enjoying dinner on the screened veranda accompanied by a glass of Canadian pinot stands out as a memorable experience.
Seafood shacks pop up during the summer season in each village – the
Malpeque Oyster Barn
offers its renowned Maritime oysters along with take-away lobster rolls. To enjoy an exceptional dining experience throughout the year, consider
Sims
On Charlottetown’s main thoroughfare, head over for some crispy-fried oysters drizzled with Ssamjang sauce and indulge in surf’n’turf featuring a succulent cedar-planked filet mignon.
Ellen Himelfarb was a visitor
ExploreCanada.co.uk
,
Tourism PEI
and Air Canada
Subscribe to the Front Page newsletter at no cost: Your key resource for today’s schedule from The Telegraph—delivered directly to your mailbox every single day of the week.
