One Day Itinerary for PEI

Going to the Island for vacation is a wonderful experience, if you take the ferry over it all starts with the salt air and the smell of the ocean, then you see the red cliffs and lighthouse come into view and you know you are in for something special. We often take the ferry boat to the island for a day trip when we don’t have time to stay longer. I also enjoy taking the bridge, and it is slightly cheaper but for a day trip the boat is a shorter drive for us and it is part of the PEI experience. I had pre-booked our times for the ferry so there was no chance of us having to wait.

Here are a few pictures of the ferry terminal area before we left:

We booked the first ferry of the morning, unfortunately it was the small boat, Holiday Island but it was still a beautiful morning. Here is a picture of us passing the larger boat, Confederation, which has a Cow's store on board.

We usually eat breakfast on the ferry so we don’t waste a moment of time. Once we were off the ferry we headed straight to Charlottetown, if you are at the back of the crowd of traffic stop at Point Prim Lighthouse, if you stop on the way back it might be closed. This is a lighthouse that you can tour, I’ve been there three times and always missed it being open. It is on my bucket list though.

In Charlottetown headed straight downtown and signed up for the Harbour Hippo. 

This is something I’ve never done before so I wanted to try it. There are other boat tours in that area as well but this is the one we wanted to do this time. The first one was full so we bought tickets for the second one at 11:30 and then headed to Peak’s Warf and the waterfront to look around. We got pictures by the 2017 sign, ate cows ice cream, did some shopping and checked out the small park there. 

Then it was time for our tour. Even though I had lived in Charlottetown as a student for many months, we saw some interesting buildings and business’ that we hadn’t seen before, including the mansion where Will and Kate stayed during their visit to the island. Here are a few of the things we saw:

From there we went into the water and saw the Charlottetown waterfront from an entirely different vantage point. Here is a picture of their skyline.

When we got off the Hippo we thought about eating at the Chip Shack as it is highly recommended but it was crowded and we weren’t that hungry after our cows ice cream so we headed towards North Rustico. (this picture was taken before it opened)

We like to drive through Rustico when we go to Cavendish because it is so picturesque. In fact all of PEI is picturesque, the red cliffs, rolling fields, blue sky and sea, all gorgeous. Around every turn there is another beautiful vista. 

We decided to eat at this place, unfortunately it was not very good (our fries were raw and the fish was iffy, also it was really expensive). 

This happens sometimes on the island (actually a lot). People say it is because they are feeding tourists so it doesn’t matter if the food is good or not because people are just passing through. We ate there because some years there aren’t a lot of choices in Cavendish for eating, this time however, we saw many places we could have eaten, in fact the whole area was booming. 

After lunch we headed to Grampa's Studio to have our picture taken. I did it years ago before I met my husband and it has been on my bucket list for us to do together. The service wasn’t so great there and the pictures are extremely expensive, but it was fun and not something you can do everywhere. My husband was grossed out because they don't clean the costumes between customers. I won't show you those pics.

Normally we would have spent the day doing things and then do the boardwalk in the evening before heading to the hotel for the night but because we were only there for the day we hit the boardwalk early.

We enjoy walking the boardwalk and doing a bit of shopping. We got smoothies and a beaver tail from the BeaverTails kiosk. YUM! As well as Raspberry Cordial - you can't go to the Island and not get it. Another thing to try is the chocolate covered potato chips. I didn't get any this time but they are very good.

Then we checked out Adventure Zone because it is relatively new and we hadn’t done it before. 

You can get a package deal which includes the haunted hotel, laser tag and mini golf but because we were on a tight schedule we just did the haunted hotel. You can’t take pictures inside but I will tell you that they did a really awesome job of this and I did give a little scream at one point. 

The are several other places you can go such as the Ripley’s Believe it or not and the Wax Museum, which has a Tim Hortons and there is also paint ball which is new. You can also do a half day at Burlington or the Anne of Green Gables Village. We have already done those but you can pick and choose which is best for your family - everything is very close together.

From there we drove back to Charlottetown and then on to the ferry, stopping at the Point Prim lighthouse as well as the Information Centre where there is a candy shop and a liquor store. You can also buy new potatoes and vegetables along the side of the road.

We got some fudge there and also some PEI moonshine to give as gifts before we left the island. Sometimes this area is closed when we take the last ferry home so we were lucky to catch it open. If you are leaving that stop for last to buy something specific you might be disappointed so make sure you get anything you really want before leaving Charlottetown.

Here are a few pics from the ferry terminal:

And the ferry ride back:

And this one is when you are pulling up to Caribou:

So that is a one day itinerary for PEI and it just scratches the surface of the things you can do. I’ve also done a two day Anne trip that was exclusively Anne of Green Gables related as well as a trip with children, one doing the East Point Coastal Drive as well as several other day trips. One of our favorite things to do on the Island is to go deep sea fishing and they also have many beautiful beaches. There are so many things to do and see here you are sure to be swept away by the ambiance no matter what you choose to do. I will post another itinerary soon.