Prince Edward Island will satisfy your appetite — for both food and golf

Imagine a golf vacation spot that provides gorgeous coastal views, greater than 30 golf programs, eating places to suit any style and the power to get virtually wherever in just some hours. That, in brief, is Prince Edward Island, or PEI.

For those that won’t be acquainted, PEI is an island province off the East Coast of Canada — close to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The province is famend for a lot of issues: its hospitality, seafood, potatoes, crimson sand seashores and, after all, its golf. With the assistance of Golf PEI, I just lately traveled there with my spouse for a whirlwind expertise to see all of it. This is how we spent our 48 hours.

My golf companion

Before we begin, I’d wish to introduce you to my spouse, Dana.

She’s an avid golfer and one in every of my favourite individuals to play golf with. Of course, buddies’ journeys are nice, however they are often chaotic to plan and set up. This is why, as a pair with two younger children, we wish to make golf and food an enormous a part of our journeys collectively.

Let’s get began

Our journey began in Toronto, and after a two-hour flight we arrived simply earlier than lunch in PEI’s capital metropolis, Charlottetown. The metropolis’s inhabitants is simply greater than 40,000, which means airport and metropolis visitors really feel nonexistent. From there, it was a 10-minute drive into the guts of the downtown to seize a espresso and start the pursuit of our first restaurant.

We stumbled upon the patio at Merchantman Seafood & Oyster Bar and sat down for lunch, and it didn’t take lengthy for the primary of many historic horse-drawn carriage excursions to clop by way of city in entrance of us. We stuffed our stomachs shortly however had been certain to depart loads of room, as a result of it wouldn’t be lengthy earlier than we trekked down the street to the Inn at Bay Fortune for what we’d been promised was The Main Event: The Fireworks Feast.

The Fireworks Feast is the brainchild of Chef Michael Smith, and for individuals who aren’t seeking to wait out a desk at The French Laundry, it is a fairly darn good various.

The feast kicks off every night between 5 pm or 6 pm (relying on the season) with a full tour of the property’s on-site farm, the place virtually everything of the substances that will be served later that evening are sourced.

From there, the 80 friends at every evening’s meal are taken to the oyster hour, an all-you-can-eat food journey with quite a few stations serving all the things from tacos to smoked salmon. The prized dish throughout oyster hour is — you guessed it — the oysters, that are harvested every morning from both the bay in entrance of the Inn or from different spots across the island.

Then it’s time to start actually consuming. A multi-course tasting menu — crammed with delicacies plucked from the farm and backyard — follows, which is equal elements scrumptious feast and inventive expression.

As food experiences go, the Fireworks Feast is a marvel effectively well worth the $235+ per particular person value. Our evening ended with marshmallows roasted by fireplace, the proper cap to this culinary journey.

The Golf

After a made-to-order breakfast on the Inn, we packed our luggage and headed to the Brudenell River Golf Course lower than half-hour away for our first spherical of the day.

Brudenell River — a part of the Rodd Brudenell Resort — contains a regular mixture of tree-lined corridors, expansive vistas and riverside holes. The standouts are the fifth and the tenth, a pair of par-3s that supply a problem from the again tees and playability from the forwards.

Brudenell River is quirky — equally divided with six par-3s, par-4s and par-5s. The tempo of play is managed strictly right here — we got here in at simply round 4 hours — an excellent (and literal) change of tempo from so many different programs.

Our speediness additionally gave us sufficient time to seize a fast chunk on the restaurant earlier than heading to our ultimate 9 holes of the day on the entrance 9 on the adjoining 18-hole Dundarave course. The resort options two 18-hole golf programs, an indoor pool, rental cottages for bigger teams or households, canoe and kayak leases, tennis courts and even horseback driving. Something for everybody.

In distinction to Brudenell River, Dundarave has a extra open format with fairways bordered by crimson sand bunkers and fescue. Off the tee, it’s visually extra inviting and has extra elevation change by way of the property.

The greens roll gently, and due to the elevation adjustments there is no such thing as a scarcity of views and vistas to soak up throughout your spherical. Refreshingly, the height season price for 18 holes is barely $100.

As the solar started to set we made our approach to the Wheelhouse In Georgetown for dinner and drinks on the water and to settle in for the evening down the road on the accompanying cozy cottage-style inn.

Sunday morning was an early wake-up name as we made our manner from Georgetown to what many take into account to be the crown jewel of PEI golf — The Links at Crowbush Cove in Morell slightly below half-hour away.

We teed off early and the tempo of play was as brisk because the wind sweeping in from the Gulf of St Lawrence. The course begins with 4 inland holes that present views again towards the water earlier than turning round towards the clubhouse and one of the vital thrilling stretches of the course from the sixth to the eighth gap.

My favourite gap on the course is the par-4 sixteenth, which has a forced-carry drive between sand dunes to an elevated inexperienced that when once more items you with views of the expansive seashore.

At the conclusion of our spherical at The Links at Crowbush Cove, we headed to our ultimate eating vacation spot, Fin Folk Food, in York, which sits on Tracadie Bay close to monumental sand dunes that stretch for miles. The restaurant is vibrant, informal and dog-friendly. The menu is seafood-focused and presents classics like fish and chips and lobster rolls to extra fashionable fish tacos. I went the fashionable route.

After lunch and earlier than we needed to catch our late afternoon flight again to Toronto, we loved a 20-minute stroll from the restaurant out previous Tracadie Bay to the ocean for one ultimate dip. Much just like the aspect mirror on your automotive, objects seem nearer than really are on the coast due to the lengthy unobstructed views and the grand scale of the sand dunes.

The wrap-up

Dana and I had been to PEI virtually a decade in the past, nevertheless it was just for a single-night keep as half of a bigger journey. Now, having explored rather more of what PEI has to supply, we’ve found this lovely island province has a lot to supply, particularly for golfers and foodies. For {couples}, buddy teams and even only a single adventurous golfer searching for the best golf-and-food getaway, PEI needs to be on your quick checklist.

Golf.com Editor

Ryan Barath is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s senior editor for gear. He has an in depth club-fitting and -building background with greater than 20 years of expertise working with golfers of all ability ranges, together with PGA Tour gamers. Before becoming a member of the workers, he was the lead content material strategist for Tour Experience Golf, in Toronto, Canada.