As the winter gives way to spring in PEI, a small island province off the east coast of Canada in an area known as the Maritimes, islanders are thinking about summer and their summer homes and cottages dotted up and down the coast, and bordering the riverways throughout the island. PEI has many waterways and really a very large coastline when you include direct oceanfront as well as bays, inlets and rivers. In addition to islanders, up to a million vacationers and summer residents are also considering the trip back to PEI to pick up where they left off last year.

The island offers a quiet relaxed lifestyle to the visitor, the ubiquitous lobster suppers,

deep-sea fishing, beaches and more, including concerts, plays and our craft industry,

potters, fiber artists, glass artists and just about anything that you can think of. Billed

in the latest government tourism ads as the "Gentle Island", PEI is the centre of a quiet contemplative life.

I always understood the summer residents and vacationers coming to this little island to spend the summer months here. I did not, when I first came to live on PEI as a resident myself, understand why it was common practice for islands to own a home in the city, Charlottetown or Summerside, and also a cottage or summer home, literally just a few minutes outside the city. I always though in terms of wanting to go away for holidays and I thought in terms of maybe having a cottage at the other end of the island or even in one of the other Maritime provinces.

Spend a winter here, or I suppose in most parts of Canada and you will better understand. It is important as a working person to have a city home. In the winter time there are many rural areas that are not accessible, and even those that are regularly plowed out, may still be difficult to live in during the winter and be assured that you can get to work. Therefore the practice of islanders owning cottages about a 20 minute drive from their regular winter homes in the city is more about moving out to the cottage during the easy summer months and enjoying the country life as well as having a winter haven from which a regular working life can be easily maintained.

Many of the islanders who enjoy the dual city-country lifestyle do so because their families have rural family homes that now provide that summer, country retreat. While the cost of PEI real estate and certainly waterfront properties has gone up quite a bit in the last 10 years there are still much affordable PEI real estate and it would be possible for someone selling an average family home in Ontario to buy both a city and summer residence here. In terms of real estate, money does go much farther on Prince Edward Island

This is really about having the benefit of both worlds - rural and urban. The important message here is not so much to the new summer resident as they can pretty much buy anywhere and be assured that they can live a wonderful lifestyle in the summer. However if you are moving to PEI as a full-time resident I would strongly suggest that you purchase your first PEI real estate in the cities, Summerside or Charlottetown. If your budget runs to two homes then you might consider also buying a summer home in the country and possible consider a waterfront property.

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