Summerside is Prince Edward Island's second city, a low-key harbour town on the island's south shore. It does not have Charlottetown's political drama or Cavendish's Anne crowds, but it has a strong local story: shipbuilding, silver fox farming, harness racing, and a waterfront that has been pulled back into public life.
The best reason to stop is the cluster of small museums and heritage sites around the old core. The Summerside Interpretive Centre and PEI Fox Museum explains the silver fox industry that once made this one of the world's centres of fur farming. The Wyatt Historic House Museum is more intimate, full of the objects and family stories of an upper-class Island household.
Down by the harbour, the Baywalk Boardwalk and Spinnakers' Landing give Summerside its easiest summer rhythm: a walk along the water, seafood or ice cream, then a slow loop through the downtown streets. If you are here in July, harness racing and the Lobster Carnival pull the town into a louder, more Island kind of party.