Prince Edward Island National Park Destination Overview

Prince Edward Island National Park is a 25-mile-long sliver of land protecting Canada's longest and most popular beaches. Red sandstone cliffs, sand dunes, ponds, and wetlands provide ample habitat for over 300 species of birds, including the endangered piping plover.

Attracting over 800,000 visitors annually, the park has a visitor center, golf course, tennis and lawn-bowling courts, an extensive trail system, and two campgrounds. Of its 14 trails, half a dozen are open to cycling, including a six-mile multiuse trail called the Gulf Shore Way. Both campgrounds are within walking distance of superb beaches and provide interpretive programs in summer. The programs run daily and include shorebird-watching, beach walks, and stories around a campfire.

Green Gables House, the pretty wooden farmhouse that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, is perhaps Prince Edward Island National Park's best-known landmark. Another cultural attraction is the Victorian mansion Dalvay-by-the-Sea, built in 1895 by an American oil industrialist. This national historic site is now a hotel with tennis, a driving range, croquet, and horseshoes.

Greenwich, on the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula—which separates St. Peters Bay from the Gulf of St. Lawrence—is a segregated part of the park, east of the park's main strip. Rare crescent-shaped coastal dunes hold a variety of plant species and archeological relics dating back 10,000 years. The Greenwich Interpretation Centre provides an insight into this precious area with 20 interactive exhibits and a multimedia presentation. The three-mile-long Greenwich Dunes Trail begins with a long boardwalk to the towering dunes to an excellent swimming beach with lifeguards.