Our Trip to Prince Edward County

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far… I’m finding it hard to believe that we are in August! Last month, my family and I spent a week in Prince Edward County. The reason why we decided to head to PEC was because I started hearing more about this mysterious area over the last few years, especially from Jen (Rambling Renovators), she has been talking a lot about it on her blog and through Instagram – her pictures look so relaxing but fun at the same time! So when we were deciding where to visit this summer, we thought it would be a good time to check this place out… by the time we started looking for cottages to rent, a lot of the good ones were booked. I was getting pretty frustrated but then we finally found the perfect one on West Lake. I was happy because it seemed like there is so much to do out there, not too far of a drive and the best part for me…. there are no bears to be afraid of which is a fear of mine when I visit cottages in the Muskoka area.

Our week in Prince Edward County was perfect and I want to share with you what we loved about it and what worked for our family!

Where to stay…

If I’m travelling with family I prefer to rent one cottage/house (I have used Airbnb or VRBO). It’s nice to put the kids to bed and still hang out together in the living area or outside and it’s easier in so many ways… We get to be in one place for most of the vacation together but we still like to explore the area that we are in. I like to see reviews and pictures to know what kind of place we will be staying in.

As for staying in a hotel/motel, the Saylor House Inn looked nice and in a great location. I have heard a lot about the Drake Devonshire Inn and The June Motel. Isaiah Tubbs is apparently nice if you get a place on the beach, it’s worth checking out!

I loved the area we were in… the cottage was on the West Lake. The lake was clean, sandy bottom, shallow close to the shore and there was lots of action out on the water. We were a 5 min bike ride away from Sandbanks Provincial Park, 10 min drive from Bloomfield and 15 min drive from Picton. Being so close to the sand dunes was great for the kids, we often rode our bike over in the morning to let them run up and down the dunes and were back before by 10.

Things to do in PEC….

Visit Sandbanks

I would say this is a must… the beaches are really nice, the sand dunes are fun for the whole family and you get a nice view at the top! Unfortunately the beaches have been affected this year from all of the rain but it is still worth visiting. We went to the Outlet beach which had many access points, I would avoid the main access (with the blue path) because the beach isn’t great in that spot, we headed down to the next access and it was nice.

To access the sand dunes you used to be able to access them from the dunes beach area however when we went it was washed out. I would recommend parking in the dunes trail parking lot (near the dunes beach parking lot) and walk along the trail, we stayed to the left on this trail because the right side had too much water and you will see the dunes. Check out these maps and look at the first map, you will see the trail I”m talking about that starts at the Dunes Trail Parking – P

Go Antique Shopping!

There are plenty of places to check out… Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince my family to check out more than a few so I had to pass by a lot of places that I wanted to just take a quick look (I probably would have taken longer).

Definitely go to MacCool’s Re-Use, I picked up some cool planters from Italy and a few cars for my sons.

I really liked Frugal & Company in Picton. They had so many great items for sale and tons of art. I bought some yard sticks for my umbrella stand (my sons may or may not have used these as weapons within 5 mins of me bringing them in the house)

visit Wellington, Bloomfield and Picton

There are many little shops that were in these towns, because I was with my kids I didn’t get to go in that many but I did like what I saw.

Saylor House Cafe was really cute, I am not sure if I would say it’s very kid-friendly but it’s worth checking out. We love the tea and sandwiches!

County Collective in Bloomfield

Summer House in Bloomfield – I wanted to take everything home with me!

We loved Farmhouse Eats, it’s a local market filled with baked goods, fresh produce and the kids loved the animals! Definitely an easy stop between Bloomfield and Picton.

Make sure you stop at Slickers for some ice cream, they have so many flavours. I enjoyed kids breakfast and apple pie! We actually went to the Bloomfield location 3 times in one week… don’t judge.

Enjoy some wine and cider

There are so many wineries in PEC. We visited Sandbanks Winery which is just west of Wellington, we all enjoyed it. We went to a few others but I would love to go back and check out more. If you go to Sandbanks, I’ll take a few bottles of their Riesling!

I absolutely love cider so when I heard PEC had its very own cider company, County Cider Company, you better believe that was on the agenda. We stayed for lunch and was not disappointed – beautiful scenery and definitely kid-friendly!

Visit the Lavender Farm

I love lavender so I am a bit biased but all of my family enjoyed visiting the farm, Prince Edward County Lavender. We actually went on the same weekend as the annual festival. The kids loved it and you got to pick your own lavender!

So those are some of my suggestions… there is more to do and see, please feel free to share some of the places you love to visit in Prince Edward County!