My wife and I just completed the ~300km/200mi confederation trail across PEI, from the Western tip of the island to the Eastern tip.
Posting some of our learnings from the trip I wish I’d known in advance!
Tl;dr:
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Don’t be afraid to go off-piste from the trail itself. Especially on the segment from Cavendish to St. Peter’s Bay. You’ll have to deal with more traffic, but there are dedicated bike lanes along the sea on the north coast that are worth it.
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If you want to eat fancy — and there are a lot of great options to do so — you have to make reservations way in advance. We did not. But we still ate really well – it’s hard to go wrong on PEI, truly. Everything else we were able to just walk in no problem.
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The trail is incredibly obvious – no maps needed. Cell service is pretty hit or miss on PEI. Bring extra tubes, because there are long stretches pretty far away from any population centers.
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We spent about $2000 USD for two people over 4 days, including all transportation, rentals, lodging and food. Not cheap for a bike trip, but mostly bike rental and transfer.
Logistics:
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We rented our bikes from MacQueens in Charlottetown. ~$600 USD for 4 days.
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Transportation – if you want to bike across the whole province, you need to get from one side to the other (duh). MacQueens offers transportation across the island for ~$500 USD. We found an independent guy (DJ transport and delivery) who did it for $350 USD. It’s a little over 3 hours to drive from Elmira (east tip) to Tignish (northwest).
2a. If I had to do it again, I’d leave my car in Charlottetown, and take two shuttles, one from Ch’town to Tignish, and then have them pick us up in Elmira and shuttle us back to the shop. The way we did it added a lot of driving, and a 3+ hour ride with a transport service isn’t the most fun thing in the world.
- We rented ebikes, (because they have saved our marriage 🙂 ) — so that my wife enjoys these types of trips. This same itinerary could easily be done on amish (aka regular) bikes; the distances were relatively modest, with little elevation change, and optimized for food, coffee and ice cream breaks.
Stated range was ~100km, and we got ~70km on normal assist, which means we charged for about an hour a day while having lunch. Worked out perfectly, as we typically stopped at least three times for 30 mins or so. Coffee+lunch+ice cream. Range anxiety wasn’t a big problem once you realize there are standard plugs everywhere. Just be sure to get the key and adapter to be able to remove the bike battery. Most B&Bs let us bring the bikes inside to charge, but it’s a hassle, and restaurants obviously will not.
We averaged ~14mph, and were only technically riding between 2 and 4.5 hours per day. Though there were many more hours of futzing, retreating from the elements, and changing flats…
Lodging:
We broke the trip up into 4 days and 3 nights, so that the first and last days on the trail would be half days to accommodate the car-shuttling.
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Our first night we stayed at the Mill River resort, which has an “aquaplex,” aka pool, hottub and coily water slide. Having a hot tub at the end of the day was amazing. The resort itself was surprisingly cool – I wish we’d had the legs and time to play squash or take advantage of more. Food served just down the hall, so didn’t have to get back in the saddle to eat dinner. Not bad eats — definitely not in contention for great meals we had on the island — but A+ for logistics.
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The second night we stayed at Clinton Pond B&B. The surrounding area was very hilly and beautiful, and our hosts were amazing. Got to do laundry, another hot tub soak, and of course, a box set DVD of Anne of Green Gables, which helped lend context to the surrounding Cavendish region. There was a HUGE hill to get to a great local seafood dinner on the water (Sou’west). If we hadn’t had the ebikes, it would have been adding salt to an already tough day.
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Our last night we splurged and stayed at Mysa Nordic Retreat/Spa. Couldn’t recommend this place more highly, in general, but also specifically for recovering from three days of biking through the elements. Incredible hot/cold/steam/dry saunas, recovery rooms, etc. But the food was even more clutch — without a doubt some of the best food we had during our three week trip to PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This evening completely broke the budget, but was worth it. If we didn’t have to return the bikes, we might have stayed another night altogether.
Food:
Each day we were fortunate to find food, coffee, and dessert that broke up the day’s ride. Some of our favorites:
Day 1: Short day – totally fine dinner at Mill River.
Day 2: Valley Pearl Oysters – the best oysters (and maybe lunch in general) of our entire trip. Across the street is an adorable tea shop (tyne valley teas cafe) where we stuffed ourselves with scones and clotted cream and everything blueberry. Holman’s Ice Cream is a must stop in summerside. Really really good dinner at Sou’west near Clinton. Tried to get into the Table Culinary Studio, but didn’t plan ahead properly for their once-per-day seating…
Day 3. Frothy coffee was best third-wave cafe on the Island we found. Fin Folk Food near Dalvay was one of the best meals of the trip. Incredible fish tacos and unique breading for fish and chips. Awesome view and cool architecture. As said above, dinner at Mysa (guests only I think?) was a top 3 meal on our maritime Canada trip. Same goes with the breakfast. Pork belly breakfast plate!
Day 4. Short day – finished the ride at a local fish shack — North Lake Boathouse — which was surprisingly good.
Note: We had a few fancy restaurants on our list (the table culinary studio, north shore canteen, fireworks feast) but they were booked up seemingly a month in advance. I reckon all of the tours get first crack at these. In our normal life, we’ve found you can just walk into places like these if you show up day-of, but that was absolutely not the case here :/
Honestly, it was a fantastic vacation trip. Not too tough, with great creature comforts, including beautiful scenery, lots of birds, great food. On an ebike it’s even more chill. Highly recommend!
*A hot take: Geographically, the confederation trail itself is fairly flat and redundant, except for a few segments. (Everyone notes that Morrell to St. Peters Bay is gorgeous, but we also liked from St. Peter’s Bay all the way to Elmira.) It makes sense that it’s flat because it’s an old railroad, so obviously it’s going to skip a lot of hills. But for me, this erased a lot of the charm of the island that we experienced when driving backroads and when navigating to our hotels for the evening. If I did it again, I’d opt for more back roads and less bike trail, to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, our time on the trail itself was great — quiet, and pastoral and pretty — but a bit boring if you stay the whole way.
by ddidonna