42 Photos that Will Convince You to Visit Charlottetown, PEI

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island is Canada’s smallest provincial capital (with a population of less than 50,000) and is heralded as the birthplace of Canadian confederation.

This little city is very cute, with a walkable waterfront and lots of incredible restaurants. It’s also an easy drive from sand dunes, beaches and the famous Green Gables Heritage Place (aka the home of Anne of Green Gables!).

When we visited in October 2021, I was pretty blown away by Charlottetown. I consider myself a big city person but a day of cafe hopping and sitting by the water almost had me wanting to move to PEI!

Have I enticed you to visit Charlottetown yet?

If that description alone didn’t do it, check out 42 photos that will convince you to visit Charlottetown and add PEI to your bucket list!

Let’s start with downtown Charlottetown. Being a city of less than 50,000, there’s pretty much one main road that makes up downtown. But that road is full of cute coffee shops, stores, restaurants and parks. I loved walking down the main strip, popping into shops, and admiring the houses and churches on the side streets.

My favourites were Receiver Coffee Shop, the perfect place to do some required reading for Prince Edward Island while enjoying a little treat, and Anne of Green Gables Chocolates. I’m still drooling over their mint truffle chocolate bar!

Downtown Charlottetown is also home to a number of big beautiful churches, like St. Dunstan’s below, and a fun little scavenger hunt. The Eckhart in the City Scavenger Hunt is a series of nine bronze mice hidden around Charlottetown. We spotted a few during our visit, but didn’t find all nine.

From the main shopping strip, you’ll walk right out onto Peake’s Wharf on the Charlottetown waterfront. We visited on a beautifully sunny October day and loved strolling along the water. There was a piano the public could play, cool street art to look at, Muskoka chairs for relaxing, and what I’m sure is a very popular outdoor food area in the summer.

From the waterfront we walked over to Confederation Park. This is where the boats of delegates arrived for the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, which eventually led to the founding of Canada. The meeting was supposed to be between Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI to discuss a union of the Maritime provinces, but the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) invited themselves to the party to discuss a larger union.

Over the next few years a series of conferences took place, ending in 1867 with the official Confederation of Canada. So since Charlottetown hosted the first conference, they get the distinction of being the Birthplace of Confederation (it’s on their licence plates).

We learned a fun bit of history while at the park: Because there was a circus in town during the Charlottetown Conference, all of the hotel rooms in Charlottetown were full. Many of the delegates had to stay aboard their ships, which acted as floating hotels, since there was no room on the island. Also, because of the circus, only one guy was available to greet the delegates. That’s him, WH Pope, in bronze below, rowing out to greet the founding fathers of confederation.

Completely unrelated to confederation, we also saw a local kids’ dance class practicing in Confederation Park when we walked by. They were doing the most incredible routine to Thriller, complete with zombie makeup and costumes. It was awesome!

You haven’t lived until you’ve had Cows ice cream. Okay, maybe it isn’t life changing (though it is my favourite stop while in Whistler), but Cows definitely is a must-eat when you’re on Prince Edward Island, where Cows originated. So while we were in Charlottetown, we had to visit the original Cows location, go on the factory tour, buy some merch and, of course, get a scoop!

To be honest, the factory tour was a bit of a let down. It’s a self guided “tour” that consists of watching a very dated five minute movie on the founding of Cows, walking past a few rooms that hold barrels of cheese, and admiring some old posters on the wall. But let’s be honest: We were there for the food, not the tour.

Of course, you have to get a scoop of delicious Cows ice cream. But don’t sleep on their other food items! Cow Chips (potato chips covered in chocolate) are amazing and were definitely the fuel for our Prince Edward Island road trip. We also discovered that Cows cheese, particularly their aged cheddar, is pretty phenomenal!

No trip to Prince Edward Island is complete without a visit to Green Gables Heritage Place, aka the home of Anne of Green Gables! While this place isn’t actually in Charlottetown, most people who visit Charlottetown make the day trip out to Green Gables. It is not to be missed!

We were able to visit on the most beautiful October day (which made me quote the famous Anne line, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”). Despite the sunshine and autumn leaves, the place was pretty empty. We were thrilled to have it to ourselves.

While Anne is a fictional character and Green Gables is not a real place in PEI, Green Gables Heritage Place was built on a farm that belonged to author LM Montgomery’s family. Montgomery never lived at the farm but she did grow up nearby and spent summers there. It’s said that Green Gables was based on her family’s farmhouse with many mentions of the nature and towns in the book resembling those found in nearby Cavendish.

Due to the popularity of Anne of Green Gables, the family farm was turned into a National Park and the house was restored to look exactly like the description of Green Gables in the book. It was so cool to see the house in person, tour through the rooms and pick up on tiny details mentioned in the books. Once again, we were so grateful to have the place to ourselves and not have to squish into the small house with a long line of tourists.

Before you actually see the house you walk through an exhibit to learn more about Montgomery, her writing process and life, and the impact of Anne around the world. I loved learning more about Montgomery and felt particularly connected to her work: I was partway through reading the second book in the Anne series and Colin and I had been watching the Anne of Green Gables movies during our honeymoon.

Besides the house, you can also explore Lovers Lane and the Balsam Fir Trail, nature paths nearby that are featured in the book series. Both were beautiful and easy walks. There are a few other little buildings and sign posts to check out, but the main event really is the house. I had hoped to visit Avonlea Village next door where shops and restaurants are set up, but sadly it was closed for the season.

On our way back to Charlottetown from Green Gables, we decided to explore some of Prince Edward Island’s beaches. While there are beaches closer to Charlottetown, we stumbled upon North Rustico Beach and it was the perfect spot for an afternoon stroll. Some PEI beaches are famous for their rolling sand dunes or pink sand and while this beach had neither, we still really enjoyed it.

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If you’re still not convinced you need to visit Charlottetown, PEI, I have one more good reason for you: the food! We ate like royalty in Charlottetown and this post wouldn’t be complete without recommending a few of our favourite restaurants in the city.

On our first night we headed out to Claddagh Oyster House. I enjoyed a delicious surf and turf plate with pork belly and scallops. Colin went for fresh oysters and a bowl of yummy seafood chowder.

Since Avonlea Village was closed on the day we went out to Green Gables, we ended up stumbling upon an incredible shack on the side of the road that just so happened to serve great fried seafood. Route 6 Fish n’ Chips is kind of in the middle of nowhere, but that doesn’t stop it from serving up delicious battered fish and scallops.

It was pretty popular too. We visited in the mid-afternoon on a weekday in October and were surprised by how many other cars pulled in while we were there.

On our final night in Charlottetown we managed to snag a table at Sims Corner Steakhouse & Oyster Bar even though we didn’t have a reservation on a Friday night. The trick? Go at 4:00pm. The place was packed after that!

We started with the seafood chowder and seafood bruschetta. The chowder was decent but the bruschetta was definitely the winner. But the real highlight of our meal was the full lobster dinner. We had been talking about treating ourselves to a proper lobster dinner for our entire Maritimes honeymoon and finally decided to go for it in Charlottetown. It totally lived up to the hype!

 

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Have I convinced you to add PEI to your bucket list? I hope you get to visit Charlottetown soon!

From Charlottetown, it’s an easy hop over to Halifax, Cape Breton Island and the rest of Atlantic Canada!