Exploring Charlottetown, PEI
Since cruising only allows for a short period of time in a location, it is nice to find somewhere that we feel like we really got to see and experience, but there was still plenty to do all day to keep us entertained. It is the perfect happy medium and Charlottetown, PEI was exactly that!
My first reaction was that it was a cute quaint town and it delivered. Without an excursion, we decided to wander the city with MIL/FIL coming along for their first experience in a port.
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Table of Contents
City Walking Tour
The port building was a great entry into the city. Not only was it an actual building but there was art and shops throughout which made for a fun entryway into the city.
I had picked a handful of places such as the St Dunstan’s Basilica Cathedral, The Gainsford House, and Confederate Landing as historical sightseeing. Plus when doing execution research I found a few restaurants that were recommended as part of the tour, but we could easily visit on our own and pick what we wanted to try instead.
Once we were outside and oriented ourselves on a map, we quickly saw the cathedral spire towering over the surrounding buildings and made our way there first.
As we started walking we noticed painted lines running all through the city. After a little bit of digging, we realized that the city has created self-guided walking tours throughout the city depending on your interest.
When you arrive you can pick up a free walking map, or download it to your phone (see the city website here).
Yellow is for Shopping/Services.
Green is the Waterfront walk.
Red is the Heritage Walk.
It took us maybe 10 minutes to get to the cathedral. Definitely an easy sight to catch if you don’t have much time here. After a quick peak inside, we were off again!
Ole Dublin Pub
Our next goal was to grab a bite to eat, or at the very least find the first restaurant on the list which was more in the city than the waterfront.
When we got to the Ole Dublin Pub (website here), we remembered that we couldn’t just go anywhere with the walker for MIL. So I peaked inside to see if could make it work and 3 flights of steep stairs with no service elevator meant that was a hard no!
Now I am going to time jump just a bit here. Later in the day, I was still hungry and this was really the only restaurant open that sounded good so we made our way back after we had dropped off MIL/FIL at the ship.
The restaurant was super cool and felt like an authentic Irish pub, but the food wasn’t our favorite. Not bad at all just not flavors we would choose.
I did actually try an oyster! It was just okay, in my opinion, it is not worth the hype or price.
The obvious food choice for me was Potato Nachos, which were HUGE. They were made with a fresh kettle chip which was unique but I did miss having a bit of queso with the kettle crispiness.
Nathan got their poutine but they used more of a white paper gravy that wasn’t quite right for him either.
All in all, I would highly recommend it for drinks and the environment. I would also be willing to try other food here. Everything seemed good, just not what we were prefer.
Farmers Market and Nearby Shops
Jumping back to our city walk with MIL/FIL. After we knew the pub was not going to work for lunch we kept walking further into the city.
Luck was on our side as we stumbled on their weekly farmers’ market! It also happened to be the last day of the season so we couldn’t have been there at a better time.
The booths had a good variety, and it was fun to see how much MIL enjoyed seeing everything. We did have to convince her that she did not in fact have room in her suitcase to buy a handmade wood bird feeder and bring it home 🤣.
One thing we did not expect is the wasps!
We had passed one snow cone place that had a literal swarm around the table and I had felt terrible for the shop owner thinking it was just the sugar attracting them.
As we continued to walk through the city we realized this was just a normal problem they have. No, thank you!
This picture was from a restaurant later in the day and they had these posted every 5 ft or so and they were all full like this!
As we walked through the streets and farmers market, we also had the advantage of seeing all the brick-and-mortar shops as well.
Our first store stop was actually at the Anne of Green Gables Chocolates store (website here). Now I am not up to speed on the history/context of Anne of Green Gables and Charlottetown, but it was a common tourist reference. I was just happy there was chocolate!
They did have a unique treat called “Cow Chips”.
First, hilariously accurate name. Something I would expect to see in Idaho, not here in PEI.
Second, they weren’t bad! They were a potato chip dipped in milk chocolate, giving you the sweet and salty combo.
We ended up getting a box of assorted chocolates, and they were great! Granted I was hungry so I would have been happy with anything, but we actually went back for MIL to get more before we left the city so they had to be pretty good to get seconds.
As we enjoyed our snack we continued walking the city. I was impressed with their pride initiatives throughout this city and others on this trip. They painted an entire intersection with the various pride flag combinations.
We also stopped by Cows (website here) which is a popular local ice cream restaurant. It had some pretty fun and unique flavors such as Cownadian Maple (maple ice cream, maple swirl, and maple cookie chunks). I chose the Cookie Monster which they dyed blue which was unsettling but still tasted good!
At this point, it was time for real food so we made our way back to the waterfront/port area. Since the first restaurant didn’t work out, the second recommendation I had was for Peakes Quay (website here).
Unfortunately, we started to see a trend that would last our whole trip. It seems like we were just a few weeks too early for fall colors, but we were about one to two weeks too late for business season as well. Many stores and restaurants were closed for winter, Peakes Quay included.
So we went with the only place that seemed to be open still, Lobster on the Wharf (website here). It was decent, but one of the larger tourist establishments. They also didn’t have any non-seafood options, which is why I wanted to head to the pub after.
Evening Walk
After our late lunch/dinner, we had about 2 hours left until all aboard. We had missed one of the sights and since I still wanted to grab a bite to eat we split up and went back into town on our own.
After dinner at Ole Dublin Pub, we spent some more time walking parts of the city we didn’t get to see earlier. We saw another church, plenty of small town colorful buildings, and the Gainsford House which we had missed earlier.
One of the fun things about being in Canadian culture, or at least just in the East with a more diverse population, was the restaurant options.
One of the cool places we saw was a Jamaican restaurant, which I am kinda disappointed we didn’t get the opportunity to stop by.
We had about 30 minutes left till all aboard, so we started making our way back to the port. The rest of the family group had gone on an excursion together and were starting to message us about crazy lines at the port.
I don’t know that we have ever seen such a long line to get back onboard the ship after a port day. Apparently, they had multiple excursions getting back at the same time and it just backed everything up.
I think it took us about 45-60 minutes to get through this full line and back onboard.
We were definitely late, but they didn’t seem to mind since it was clear where we all were.
Plus there were still plenty of people behind us.
We really did have a great time here in Charlottetown, PEI and I would recommend self-exploring the city to anyone stopping by. Plus we didn’t get to see as much of the waterfront as we wanted, so we still have more to do next time!
Side Note: The feedback we got from our family on the excursion they chose was a little more rough. So many things were closed that the bus tour and shopping weren’t worth it. So stick with self-exploration here and you should be good!
If you would like to read more about this trip, here are some quick links for you!
Sights of Halifax
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