Travel dates: July 13-17, 2018
(I messed up and forgot to write this back when I was covering PEI! Read about everything else we did in Cavendish here)
It was the best of campgrounds; it was the worst of campgrounds…
Our stay at Cavendish Campground in Prince Edward Island National Park started off on a very bad note:
So I told the whole story in a post I wrote back when the trip was happening and then I told it again on the Prince Edward Island episode of the RV Atlas….I won’t tell it again here, but to sum up: our trailer was too long to make the tight turn into our site, we got stuck on this tree and had to unhitch and rehitch just right to get out of the mess.
It is really not fair of me to blame this on the campground, though, because once we got into our site it was pretty awesome and we had a fabulous time. Choose your site carefully (or your RV), and you’ll be fine!
Site Selection
Cavendish is one of two campgrounds in Prince Edward Island National Park (the other is Stanhope), and it’s the busier and bigger of the two, with more than 200 sites. As mentioned above, site selection is pretty important, particularly if you have a bigger RV. There are a bunch of sites in the more open area right by the beach that are only appropriate for tents and small RVs and then a whole lot more sites back in the woods (still within easy walking distance of the beach). Most or all of the wooded sites are pull-throughs, so we really didn’t think too much about site selection. Oops. Our site was listed as appropriate for up to a 35′ RV; ours is 34 feet. And it was listed as a “narrow site”–as far as I can tell, most all of the sites are listed as narrow. So we fit just fine in the site; it was very long and not really all that narrow…it was purely getting into it that was an issue (getting out was slightly tricky, but not bad because we knew what to watch out for by then). There are big trees all over the place and narrow roads throughout the campground, and it was just pretty much impossible for us to make the turn into our site. Looking back, I don’t think there was any way we could have done it without running into trouble. BUT! There were plenty of sites in the campground we could have gotten into without trouble. What I’d do if I had it to do again is to look for one of the sites that says it will accommodate a longer RV (I think they go up to 40 or 45 feet). Even though we’re just under 35, I think the way the axle is set on our toy hauler means we need more room to turn than the average 34 foot RV, and the toy hauler is a little wider than the average RV as well.
Booking and Arrival
Reservations for the summer season open up in January. We booked in January and had no trouble getting a spot, but the campground stayed mostly full while we were there (on a weekend in July). We paid $37.50CDN/night for our full hook-up site. You also need to either pay park admission or have a Parks Canada pass.
The drive to the campground is straightforward; you pull up to a kiosk to check in, but there’s also a large parking lot next to the kiosk if you need to pull over for any reason. Of course, getting to Prince Edward Island itself requires some planning; you can either take the ferry or the Confederation Bridge. We took the bridge, because we heard the ferry sometimes required long waits for RVs, and it was a lovely drive.
Campsites
I mostly talked about this already under site selection; I wanted to put it first since it’s pretty important here, but….here’s our site once we were safely parked in it. Most all of the sites in the wooded section look like this: long, private sites with tons of tall trees all around. Some of them are more open than ours was, but not by much. We had plenty of room for our awning and to set up our shade tent (handy, because there were a fair number of bugs). Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring (I’m pretty sure there was a fire ban while we were there, though).
If I remember right, it’s those two trees we have the bikes in between that caused the most trouble for us.
Narrow campground roads:
I’m not sure why I took this picture, but here’s another site:
And here’s an example from the open, mostly for tents, area near the beach. These sites are also near the laundry, playground, and the area with all the campfire programs, so a nice area to be in if you can fit:
Amenities and Activities
Here’s where this campground really stands out. Of course, it’s in a lovely setting, with thick woods giving way to beach and ocean.
And it’s in a great location, just a few minutes drive from all the big Cavendish attractions and a quick walk or bike ride away from Cavendish Beach.
Inside the campground there are very nice bathhouses and laundry facilities:
A playground overlooking the ocean:
…and an excellent assortment of evening programs during the summer months. We saw one all about trees, featuring park workers dressed up as trees and a sing along of Canadian songs (the “Prince Edward Island Island, Prince Edward Island Island….” one is still running through our heads more than a year later).
We also went to a really fabulous program with Mi’kmaq storytelling and dancing. I didn’t realize it was going to be so cool, so I only had my iPhone there for not so great pictures in the fading light:
maybe you would like to pin this?
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