Where to Stay in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

What is Charlottetown known for?

Charlottetown runs the government of Prince Edward Island and the business of Queens County from a grid of streets small enough that a visitor crosses the whole of it on foot. The Confederation Centre Art Gallery holds the province's principal exhibition rooms. St. Dunstan's Basilica sits on the same landmark roll as Trinity United Church and Clifton United Church, while Beaconsfield and Ardgowan carry the older domestic architecture.

Kitchens and bars stand close together.

What are the main landmarks in Charlottetown?

The roll here is unusually domestic. Beaconsfield and Ardgowan head a list of named houses that runs on through Ravenwood, the Batt House, the Dewar House, the James Paton House and the Longworth House. Plain addresses join them: 124 Water Street, 293 Richmond Street and the two recorded buildings at Ole King Square.

Churches supply the height. St. Dunstan's Basilica leads them, with Trinity United Church and Clifton United Church behind it, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery is the one purpose-built public room on the list.

What is the history of Charlottetown?

The founding year on record is 1764. A town grew from that date under the name of Queen Charlotte, and it stayed a town for a long stretch: Charlottetown held no incorporation at all until 1855, when it was made a city. Queens County took it as a seat.

The province took it as a capital, and the two roles have run together since, which is why so much of the recorded building stock here is public or institutional rather than commercial. Houses carry the rest of the record. Beaconsfield and Ardgowan are the largest names on it, and behind them come Ravenwood, the Batt House, the Dewar House, the James Paton House, the Longworth House, the Burke House and the John Whear House.

Older Charlottetown survives in ordinary addresses too, so that Water Street, Richmond Street and Dorchester Street each contribute a building the record keeps under a number rather than a name. Worship marks the same span. St. Dunstan's Basilica, Trinity United Church and Clifton United Church all sit on the list, and St. Paul's Anglican Church Rector is recorded beside them.

The Confederation Centre Art Gallery came later, and the Prince Edward Island Boulder is older than any of it.

Where is Charlottetown?

Charlottetown covers about forty-four square kilometres. That is a small footprint even by the standards of a provincial capital, and it is the reason the street plan of the seat of Queens County can be walked rather than driven. Prince Edward Island sets the limits.

The province is an island, so the sea is never far from any part of it, and Prince Edward Island National Park is within easy reach of the city. The Prince Edward Island Boulder is the one entry on the landmark roll that is not a building.

What is the climate of Charlottetown?

The Atlantic sets the terms. Water on that scale warms slowly through the spring and gives its heat back late, so the seasons at Charlottetown arrive behind the calendar and leave behind it as well. Winter takes the long half of the year.

Snow belongs to the island's calendar, though the sea around Prince Edward Island keeps the coldest air from settling as hard as it does inland in Canada. Warm weather is brief. That is what compresses the walking season between St. Dunstan's Basilica and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery into a few good months.

How do you get to Charlottetown?

Charlottetown is an island destination before it is anything else. Every approach to Prince Edward Island crosses water, and the crossing is the part of the journey that has to be planned around. Arrival is the simple half.

Distances inside the city are short, so St. Dunstan's Basilica, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and the older stock along Water Street all sit inside one walkable stretch, and a car earns its keep mainly on the run out to Prince Edward Island National Park.