Nearing the end of our road trip through Atlantic Canada last fall, we dropped in on two lesser-explored Maritime provinces: New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (PEI). Both of these fascinating places deserve a longer and more in-depth visit, cueing us up to return someday.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: QUIRKY CHARM
After our explorations of the famous Cabot Trail on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, we ferried across to Prince Edward Island (PEI) – the smallest of all Canadian provinces and (in our opinion) one of the most charming.
The Capital City: Charlottetown
Charlottetown is named for Queen Charlotte, wife of Britain’s King George III. But to understand Charlottetown’s role in the creation of Canada, look no further than its nickname: the Birthplace of the Confederation. In 1864, the town hosted the Charlottetown Conference, bringing together leaders from Britain’s North American colonies to discuss unification. Based on these discussions, in 1867 the British Parliament passed the British North America Act – uniting Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec as a single dominion within the British Empire.
Today, Charlottetown is filled with beautifully restored and maintained Victorian houses, public buildings, and churches. And it’s where we found lodging nirvana at the gorgeous Sydney Boutique Inn & Suites, housed in a former girls’ school and convent built in 1857.
We LOVED this colorful and historic waterfront city, just the right size for exploring on foot.
Bottles, Beaches, and Breathtaking Foliage
It doesn’t take long to circumnavigate PEI by car. You don’t have to go very far afield of Charlottetown to find a beautiful beach, a picturesque little town, or hill after rolling hill of flaming fall foliage if you happen to be there in October as we were. And yes, lighthouses. Lots of lighthouses, each more charming than the last.
One stop we really enjoyed was the homestead of Edouard Arsenault, a PEI native who created a quirky wonderland of structures built completely of discarded liquor bottles. Today, the Bottle Houses are a PEI institution and a popular tourist attraction, located near the town of Cap-Egmont. In addition to the six-gabled main house, Edouard managed to complete a chapel and a tavern (love the juxtaposition!), cementing together over 25,000 bottles before his death in 1984.
Another enchanting stop is the Dunes Studio Gallery and Cafe in the town of Brackley Beach on PEI’s north shore. It’s not easy to describe this place: cultural center, art gallery and shop, expansive gardens, restaurant. The Dunes Studio offers all of the above, in a serene oasis that showcases local art and craftsmanship. It’s a lovely place to take a break and a stroll.
The “Anne” Mystique
True confession: I wasn’t much of an “Anne of Green Gables” fan growing up. I was more of a “Little House on the Prairie” kid. But prior to this trip, we had watched the “Anne With an E” series on Netflix (it’s great – check it out!). And suddenly we understood why the novels by PEI native Lucy Maud Montgomery are so beloved by generations of young people. The beautifully filmed series also ignited our passion to visit PEI and learn more about this unique island.
For some reason our Anne mojo wasn’t working while we were on PEI. The main attraction for Anne lovers is Green Gables Heritage Place, operated by Parks Canada. The centerpiece is a green-gabled house built in the 1830s and said to be the inspiration for Montgomery’s beloved books. But sadly, we showed up just past operating hours on the only day we could have visited. Nearby is the Lake of Shining Waters (fans of the books know the significance of this), but I somehow didn’t get a good photo. For hard-core Anne fans, here’s a blog post that describes the main points of interest in detail.
NEW BRUNSWICK: LAND OF EXTREME TIDES
After a week on PEI, we drove across the 13-km Confederation Bridge connecting the island to New Brunswick. We had one main goal in mind: to experience the mind-blowing tidal range of the Bay of Funday. We also spent several days in the picturesque NB capital, Saint John. Of course, there’s a lot more to New Brunswick than the Bay and Saint John, so we know we’ll be back someday for further explorations.
The New Brunswick scenery along the Bay of Fundy is incredibly picturesque, especially when it’s alive with fall foliage. And for some reason, this area has some of the most atmospheric cemeteries we’ve seen (and our regular readers know how much we love cemeteries!
Walking on the Sea Floor: Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park
The Bay of Fundy can also be explored from the northern coast of Nova Scotia, but we chose the New Brunswick side because we’d read about the famous “flower pots” of Hopewell Rocks and had to experience them for ourselves. This funnel-shaped bay is home of the world’s most extreme tides, where the water level rises and falls up to 16 meters twice a day. Roughly 100 billion tons of water (!) flows in and out of the bay during a single tide cycle, forcing the flow of incoming water to reverse rivers and create standing waves or wall-like rapids. It’s a force of nature that has to be seen to be believed!
In our opinion, the best place to grasp the enormity of the Bay of Fundy’s tides is at Hopewell Rocks, a provincial park on New Brunswick’s southeastern shore. This is where you’ll find the flower pots, monumental sea stacks that were created by tidal erosion. At low tide, these rock formations tower over visitors who are able to walk amongst them on the exposed sea floor. In addition to the informative visitors’ center, the park offers a system of walkways with panoramic views of the Bay and easy access down to the flower pots. It’s a must-visit!
Land of Rainbows: Bay of Fundy National Park
Down the road from Hopewell Rocks is the pretty town of Alma, known as the gateway to Fundy National Park.
In addition to other opportunities to witness Fundy’s extreme tides, the park offers breathtaking scenery and one of the prettiest covered bridges we’ve ever seen.
History and Culture: Saint John
For our final New Brunswick stop, we headed to the lovely provincial capital of St. John, Canada’s first officially incorporated city. Saint John was named for St. John the Baptist by French explorer Samuel de Champlain when he arrived at the harbor in 1604. The city’s loyalist roots run deep; Saint John had a big growth spurt in 1783 when thousands of Americans loyal to the British Crown arrived after the American Revolution.
One place to learn more about this interesting history is the Loyalist House Museum. The house was built between 1811 and 1817 by David Daniel Merritt, a United Empire Loyalist who fled New York, and the Merritt family lived in the home continuously for nearly 150 years until 1958.
Sited at the confluence of the Saint John River and the Bay of Fundy, St. John today is an important port city and cruise ship stopover. At the river’s mouth is a phenomenon called Reversing Falls Rapids, created twice a day when the tidal changes force the Saint John River to reverse its flow. Since it’s such a popular attraction for cruise shippers, we did check it out. We didn’t really see what the fuss was about, but there is a nice restaurant there offering panoramic views.
We enjoyed our time in Saint John. It’s another extremely walkable city, filled with gorgeous Victorian architecture, a vibrant art scene, and awe-inspiring nature very close at hand.
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16 Comments
Happened to be sitting and staring at my laptop when this post popped up. Very nice write-up. We spent 10 days on PEI and loved, loved, loved, every minute. And, I didn’t grow up with Anne either, but I’ve been long fascinated with Lucy Maud Montgomery and as such while visiting the land/foundation of where she grew up, we discovered a small gift shop and I asked the young man, (who was a descendent of LMM) which biography was the best. It was 400+ pages and the author had spent something like 20 years researching. LMM had a fascinating life, although it wasn’t a happy life in many ways. Well that hat was a tangent! Safe travels!
Obviously I need to do some more research on LMM. I’ll check out that biography. I can see why you loved PEI so much! It’s got so much charm and quirkiness, coupled with fantastic scenery. But it’s small enough to get your arms around. And I fell in love with Charlottetown, one of two cities on this trip in which we could see ourselves living (Wolfville, NS being the other). Thanks for reading, amiga!
I always enjoy these articles, Susan!
Darrell P
Darrell! Great to see you here. Glad you enjoy the blog 🙂
I’ve always heard that part of the world is beautiful and you were there at the perfect time of the year, when the Fall foliage was in “bloom”! Prince Edward Island sounds like a very interesting place.
Thanks so much, Mimi! I would always recommend visiting this part of Canada in the fall at the height of the foliage season. It gives the place a completely different aura. I think you would love PEI!
What a great tour of these two provinces! I’ve been to both, but only for about a day each so we missed much more than we saw. I’m especially sad not to have seen Charlottetown (it was absolutely pouring rain as we passed through) or to witness the tides coming in at Hopewell. Clearly, a return visit is in order for me as well.
Oh, I hope you can go back and spend more time there someday – especially Charlottetown! It could not have been much fun in pouring rain. Thanks for reading, Diana!
Nice set of images of those 2 provinces of Eastern Canada. We spent 2 weeks in PEI in 2016 and only drove through NB on our way there without making stops so we have never been to the Bay of Funday; something we should do one of these days. (Suzanne)
The Bay of Fundy is spectacular and well worth a return visit! Hope you can make it back someday. Thanks, Suzanne!
I’m so glad you loved PEI and NB! We’ve considered moving to PEI several times, and still are. And as sailors I knew you’d appreciate the high tides in the Bay of Fundy, isn’t it remarkable?! Great recap of your trip. Maggje
Yes!! Those tides are so amazing, and certainly no joke to navigate from a sailing perspective. And I can see why you could move to PEI. I could live there happily. John, not so much – it’s a bit small for him. Thanks, Maggie!
Such beautiful coastal moments — New Brunswick and PEI look wonderfully peaceful through your photos and reflections. Really enjoyed this journey.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the post – thanks for visiting.
What an absolutely amazing road trip, the whole area looks absolutely beautiful. I particularly love Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park and that rainbow is just perfect!!
Thank you, Hannah! I think this is one of my favorite trips, so far. There were so many serendipitous moments, like that rainbow. And the fall colors – magnificent. It’s the best time of year to visit Canada, in my opinion!