Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island

The Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island are twenty-two estates tucked into thirteen inland and coastal communities, offering an artistic and cultural journey through 200 years of Island history with all the pampering luxuries of today. Fourteen of these homes represent the decades of the 19th century, a time when Canada became an independent nation while her cultural influences were European.

You will peer through the windows of history and discover the elegant lifestyles of Fathers of Confederation, early bankers, shipbuilders, former premiers and mayors, wine merchants, oil industrialists, fox breeders, farmers, and the Island’s first innkeepers and tourists. The Island’s Scottish, English and Acadian heritage is proudly preserved. The restoration of these inns has been so well done, you will find it odd not to be approaching the front entrance in a horse and carriage or vintage motorcar.

The inns of the 20th century include those of a famous Hollywood playwright and wealthy folks who left the Island to seek their fame and fortune, returning to retire. Four of our inns were built within the last five years by innkeepers who fell in love with a special place on the Island, created their dream home and want to share it with you.

Staying at the Inns of Distinction is the most elegant way to discover Prince Edward Island, an Island truly fitting a charming prince. The vistas rival the best coastlines and rural tapestry of the world. The Island offers more compactness than travelling Europe and a thousand miles of sand-duned beaches, auburn cliffs and bays which inspired Impressionist-style painter, Robert Harris (1849-1919), and many modern artists whose works you can view at local art galleries. Harris was an Island painter who studied in Canada, Europe and America, and his works can be seen at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.

Nothing is far away on Prince Edward Island. The Island is 140 miles by an average 40 miles wide. The population is 140,000. The largest towns are Charlottetown (pop. 32,000), its capital, and Summerside (pop.15,000). In 2005, Charlottetown’s will celebrate its 150 birthday. These towns are only an hour apart and offer delightful historic walking tours, art galleries, shops and restaurants and are easily walkable. Charlottetown has eight Inns of Distinction located on quiet, historic streets and another only 15 minutes West of the Town in a quiet riverside setting.

Summerside has two Inns of Distinction in the historic downtown and another about 15 minutes away overlooking farm fields. These inns are close to the Indian River Festival site and within the narrowest region of the Island, only three kilometers between the North and South shores. They are also closest to the Western part of the province which features many beautiful destinations and festivals. The North Cape Wind Farm is located at the Western tip of the Island, where wind turbines, including the largest in North America, generate a portion of the Island’s electrical power.

There are six Inns of Distinction in the central North Shore region of the Island which are close the Cavendish activities, including a diverse range of golf courses and the National Park, and they offer a variety of quiet riverside, woodland, beachside and bay settings. This region offers L.M. Montgomery enthusiasts a romantic and literary tour through the land of Anne of Green Gables and the life of its author. You will enjoy many of the same lovely scenes that she describes in her books and the houses where she spent her early life.

Two of the North Shore Inns are located in the duned-beach region where Island tourism began in the last half of the 19th century, and the original charm and landscape have been carefully preserved. Another inn is located in the heart of the Acadian region and surrounded by some treasures of history.

In the Eastern part of the Island, there are four Inns of Distinction, and they each offer waterfront seclusion. They are close to golf courses and eastern shore, white-duned beaches as well as the newest addition to the National Park at Greenwich.

Prince Edward Island’s only winery, Rossignol’s, in the Southeastern part of the Province, produces not only the usual grape varieties but also local berry wines. They are becoming famous for their dessert wines and, recently, they added a new white wine called, Isle St. Jean, the former French name of our Island.

No matter where you travel on Prince Edward Island, you will be taken back in time. The Island has maintained a fine balance of accepting the new without compromising the best of the old. Many say, “Once you get here, you will understand.” Well, it is true. The serene beauty will overwhelm you. We remain within the top ten islands in the world in readership surveys by Travel & Leisure Magazine. In the Fall of 2004, Conde Nast Traveler awarded Prince Edward Island the number-three position in the top ten islands in North America.

As you drive along the coastline in the early evening, a natural theatre of shorebirds and the hues of the setting sun will consume you until the last glimmer of light falls behind the horizon. In the interior of the Island, the evening sun illuminates the green and yellow fields, so you may find yourself being one of the slow drivers holding up traffic as you gawk out the window.

With hundreds of beaches equivalent to over 800 kilometres, it is easy to find one where you can walk for miles on a secluded, sand-duned or red-cliffed shore which will be magnificently unexplainable to your friends back home. For cyclists and hikers, the Island has a trail network of over 300 kilometres which extends from one tip of the Island to the other and branches out in the interior of the Province.

For golfers, Prince Edward Island has been identified as the best new golf destination in Canada with its 26 courses, one of which has been rated in the top ten in Canada by Score Golf Magazine.

PEI is home to the Culinary Institute of Canada which is producing fine chefs who are winning international recognition and awards creating dishes inspired by the bounty of our sea and land. Each Fall, the Island hosts an International Shellfish Festival where these culinary talents and other self-professed chefs can compete for the top spots, and visitors get to enjoy the feast.

Aside from the fine dining that you will enjoy at many of our inns, you can also find many restaurants offering different styles of authentic cuisine in towns and throughout the countryside. For more casual dining, wharf-side restaurants offer the usual fish and chips, but also chowders, fresh oysters and steamed mussels. There is something delightfully satisfying about enjoying your favourite seafood meal while watching fishing boats, inlet bays and sand dunes in the distance and breathing in the salt air.

It is possible to fill up your evenings with cultural events like ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees), storytelling, musical or live theatre and fine classical music. With the creation of the East Coast Music Awards in 1989, the music industry is burgeoning some fine talent, many of whom have toured internationally.

There are live theatres scattered across the Island, and each year features an increasing number of talented producers, writers and actors. These are good venues to learn more about Island culture and its varied stories. All Winter long, workshops are offered to help budding talents hone their crafts for the next summer season.

The Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown features the Anne of Green Gables musical that has been running for 40 years, as popular as ever, and other stage productions.

PEI is home to the Indian River Festival at St. Mary’s Church in Indian River, near Summerside. This three-day festival is taped and radio broadcast each year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and features classical and jazz music performed by elite international talent. Over twenty other concerts throughout July and August feature classical, jazz, folk and celtic artists, and many nights have full houses. The church’s architecture, as many others on the Island, was designed by the famous Island architect, William Critchlow Harris, and offers an almost-perfect acoustical experience. Harris designed the interior of the church to have the same acoustical qualities as the inside of a musical instrument. During intermission, you can walk outside to enjoy the evening sun illuminating the large, white-shingled church and the cows grazing in the field across the road.

It is impossible to describe Prince Edward Island without talking about its people. The last thing possible is for you to be a neglected tourist. Islanders will leave you alone to enjoy your travels around the Island, but if you look in any way lost, someone will be stopping to ask if you need help with directions. They will look you in the eye and strike up a conversation. Cars will break traffic rules, stopping to allow you to cross the street. And they will be delighted to share their stories of the Island and hear about where you are from. They will likely know about your part of the world, as inevitably they will have a close or distant relative in the area. On a small Island, many young folks have moved away to other parts of the world over the years, but many are eventually drawn back to their beautiful home.

Lucy Maud Montgomery through her fictional character, Anne of Green Gables, made Prince Edward Island famous, but when you experience our scenery, gourmet cuisine and pampering at our Inns of Distinction, you will come to realize as many others have before you that truth can be more powerful and beautiful than fiction.

We have a wonderful selection of inns that offer distinct experiences, so you have the choice to be in our historic towns, by the bay or down by the river, on a secluded coast, in the middle of lush green farmland, in old Acadia, near our fabulous golf courses or by the National Park.

As innkeepers, we love what we do. We have also travelled extensively and are well acquainted with what the discriminating traveller is looking for in a fine inn experience. For many of us, it has been a dream come true to own a beautiful inn on our little piece of heaven called Prince Edward Island, and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Written by Vivian Beer, Merdock Group, 2004, for the Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island.

www.innsofpei.com