EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Northwest from New Glasgow, clumped around the junction of Hwy 6 and Hwy 13, is CAVENDISH , an inconsequential village little more than a stone's throw from the park's long sandy beaches. However, the busloads of visitors who descend on the place are mostly headed for Green Gables House (daily: May to late June, Sept & Oct 9am-5pm; late June to Aug 9am-8pm; $5), situated in a dinky dell just 500m west of the crossroads. Part of a tourist complex, with a gift shop and visitors centre, the two-storey timber Green Gables House was once occupied by the cousins of Lucy Maud Montgomery, one of Canada's best-selling authors. In 1876, when Montgomery was just two years old, her mother died and her father migrated to Saskatchewan, leaving her in the care of her grandparents in Cavendish. Here she developed a deep love for her native island and its people and, although she spent the last half of her life in Ontario, PEI remained the main inspiration for her work. Completed in 1905 and published three years later, Anne of Green Gables was her most popular book, a tear-jerking tale of a red-haired, pigtailed orphan girl that Mark Twain dubbed "the sweetest creation of child life ever written". As for the house itself, the mildly diverting ; are worth a quick look, though you may think twice when you see the crowded car park. Surprisingly, many of the tourists are Japanese - the book has been on school curricula there since the 1950s and remains extremely popular. If you decide to stay in Cavendish, go for Shining Waters Country Inn & Cottages (tel 963-2251 or 1-877/963-2251; $60-80; May-Oct), 200m north of the crossroads on the way to the park. They have rooms in the old inn, a pleasant, homely structure with a wide veranda, as well as in a motel-style annexe and a string of modern chalets. The petrol station at the crossroads rents out bikes .

The Cavendish crossroads is about 600m from the national park's Cavendish beach and campsite . From here, the park's coastal byroad travels east, sticking close to the beach and its swelling dunes on the way to the scrawny fishing port of NORTH RUSTICO , the home of the Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant (tel 963-2669; mid-May to mid-Oct), a good place to sample the island's lobsters. Beyond the port, Hwy 6 leaves the park, slipping round the peaceful waters of Rustico Bay on its way to meet - after 15km - Hwy 15 from Charlottetown .