“Where is it?” I asked.
“Prince Edward County.”
“Where’s that?”
I should have known. It’s only a two-hour drive east of Toronto, about three-and-a-half west of Montreal. The county (as the locals call it) is technically an island – in the northern half of Lake Ontario – but it should not be confused with Prince Edward Island, the Canadian province that sits in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off the country’s east coast.
My wife told me more. “It says here the county is known for more than 35 wineries, a big artists’ community, lots of nice restaurants, festivals, and Sandbanks provincial park, which has one of the most spectacular beaches in Canada.”
“Stop,” I said. “You had me at wineries.”
It’s only in the past few years that Prince Edward County has really taken off. For generations of Ontarians, particularly those in the Toronto area, getting away from it all meant going north to so-called cottage country. The Muskokas or the Kawarthas or the Haliburton Highlands. But as those regions, particularly the Muskokas, became saturated with weekenders, and the price of even a simple cottage went sky-high, people looked east. And they found Prince Edward County, mostly a farming community of low, rolling hills and charming small towns, all surrounded by beautiful Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte.
About 25,000 people live permanently in the county, and another 6,000 – folks like us – live here part of the time. The area draws more than 550,000 visitors a year, most of those in the summer months when there’s a lot going on, including a cheese festival every June, jazz and classical music weekends and art studio tours. But in the winter there’s cross-country skiing, ice fishing, skating, a maple festival, and best of all, most of those wineries are open year round.
There’s plenty of history, too. For one thing, Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A Macdonald, grew up nearby and practised law in the town of Picton for several years. That bit of trivia may not make the kids jump and down with glee if you’re planning a trip here. But that beach will. There are actually three within the Sandbanks park, all safe and shallow. There are several campsites, and activities besides swimming include boating, sailboarding, hiking, fishing and cycling. You’ll see cyclists all over Prince Edward County.
There are five ways on to the island: four bridges, and a ferry that holds 21 cars. You can drive from one end of the county to the other in about an hour, but it will take a lot longer if you stop in Picton, Wellington, Bloomfield or Consecon. Picton is the largest town, with three large grocery stores, even a McDonald’s, and of course, a Tim Hortons outlet, where Canadians get their daily coffee and donut fix.
But if you’re into finer dining, that’s not a problem. The county’s hot spot is the Drake Devonshire Inn (doubles from £138) in Wellington (an offshoot of the fashionable boutique Drake Hotel in Toronto) where you can eat and drink with a view of Lake Ontario only a few feet away. Our favourite dinner place is the Portabella bistro, in Picton, where we tend to order the pan-seared pickerel (small pike) or the house pasta. Also in Picton is the Blumen Garden Bistro, which does seared Atlantic diver scallops, or pulled braised rabbit with house-made gnocchi.
We also like the food at the Inn on the Mountain, which hugs the Lake on the Mountain, a geological anomaly – a huge lake 62 metres about the Bay of Quinte. When we bought our place, we asked whether the lake had ever sprung a leak, given that if it did, our house would be washed away.
“Not in couple of million years,” the estate agent said.
We took comfort in that.
There’s a strong farm-to-table movement in Prince Edward County. A highlight are the Saturday night dinners – sold out weeks or even months in advance – put on by Jamie Kennedy, one of Canada’s most famous chefs, at his farm in Hillier.
As for accommodation, the Drake Devonshire has great rooms that you’d be advised to book well ahead. The county is light on major hotels. Some of the more familiar chains can be found in the town of Belleville, just over the Norris Whitney bridge on the “mainland”, but there are dozens of B&Bs and several inns. The historic city of Kingston is about 45 minutes away, and from here it’s possible to make day trips to the county for food, drink, or bird watching.
We bought our place in Prince Edward County about 18 months ago, after my wife spotted in the real estate listings of a Toronto newspaper what could be a very nice getaway house for us. My study has a view of the Bay of Quinte, and I’ve seen everything from blue jays to eagles go swooping past.
The Loyalist Parkway, also known as Highway 33, runs from one end of the county to the other, and through all the main towns – Wellington and Bloomfield are particularly rich with galleries – but keep your eye open for signs reading Arts Trail or Taste Trail. They will direct you to food and drink and art that are off the beaten path.
This is the great thing about Prince Edward County. It’s not huge, and yet we’ve been here 18 months and are still discovering new things all the time.
• Linwood Barclay’s latest novel, The Twenty-Three (Orion, £18.99), is out now. To order a copy for £15.57 including UK p&p, visit the guardian bookshop or call on 0330 333 6846
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