Overview

Look across the landscape - red dirt, green fields, blue ocean - and you could swear you're in Hawaii, not in eastern Canada. OK, so the field crop is potato, not sugar cane, and the water can freeze to the shoreline in winter, but Prince Edward Island has - hold onto your aloha shirt - fine beaches and nearly two dozen golf courses.

P.E.I., as the island is often called, is a perfect playground for bicycling and hiking, and working up an appetite has its rewards - perhaps Canada's finest cuisine, based not just on potatoes but lobster, the island's renowned blue mussels, and Malpeque oysters.

Music festivals (featuring the island's famed fiddlers) and story- telling festivals are regular events. And then there's that little redheaded girl. For many visitors, a trip to the island is a pilgrimage to the land of Anne of Green Gables, and the young heroine has spawned a thriving cottage industry. Not only is the green-gabled house that help inspire the famous turn-of-the- century novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery now part of P.E.I. National Park, but fans of Anne can also visit the author's home - and attend a performance of the long-running (nearly 40 years) Anne of Green Gables musical.

 Plan Your Trip

BEACHES

Miles of white-sand beaches are a surprise to many visitors. Those strands, including Panmure Island and Red Point Provincial Parks, are perfect for family outings. At Greenwich, which lies on the north shore in P.E.I. National Park, the dunes are seemingly endless, and the only sounds are those of seagulls and surf.

GOLF

There are more than 20 courses with bargain greens fees - from $15 to $50 - and settings that range from seaside to forest. There's not much argument about the best course; it's The Links at Crowbush Cove, situated among the dunes on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the island's northern shore: Expect wide fairways, fast greens, and nine water holes to test your humility.

BICYCLING

Pack a picnic and pedal out down the Confederation Trail, the island's gift to cyclists (and hikers ­ and, in winter, snowmobilers). Stretching the full length of the 180-mile-long island, the Rails to Trails conversion is mostly flat, and paved with finely crushed stone. A good place to start (and rent a bike) is Mount Stewart, at the trail's northern end, but make sure to explore the Morell- to-St. Peters section, which passes by hayfields and maple groves, saltwater bogs and small, sandy bays.

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