Green Gables or the Anne museum?

Is Green Gables Heritage Place the same as the Anne of Green Gables Museum?

No. Green Gables Heritage Place is the Parks Canada farmhouse in Cavendish. The Anne of Green Gables Museum is Silver Bush, a different house at Park Corner, about 15 minutes west.

The name clash catches people every summer. Here are all five side by side:

Seasons for the private sites are Tourism PEI's listings. Prices for the museum and Birthplace are not published officially, so check at the door.

What is the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush?

The Campbell family farmhouse at Park Corner, built in 1872 for Montgomery's aunt and uncle. She married there on 5 July 1911.

Montgomery described the house as Silver Bush. Annie and John Campbell built it in 1872, and Montgomery married Rev. Ewen Macdonald there. The museum shows the organ her wedding march was played on, Anne's Enchanted Bookcase, a crazy patchwork quilt and the Blue Chest from The Story Girl.

Behind the house is the pond that became the Lake of Shining Waters, and Tourism PEI recommends Matthew's Carriage Ride along it. Tourism PEI lists the season as 20 May to 18 October. Where Green Gables shows you the novel, Silver Bush shows you Montgomery's family life.

What is at the L.M. Montgomery Birthplace?

A small white and green house in New London where she was born on 30 November 1874, with period furniture, a replica of her wedding dress and her scrapbooks.

The Birthplace sits at the corner of Routes 6 and 20, overlooking New London Harbour. Inside you find Victorian furnishings, a replica of the wedding dress and scrapbooks with copies of her stories and poems, plus a small shop of books and gifts. Tourism PEI lists it as partially wheelchair accessible.

It is a short stop: the house is small and Montgomery left it as a toddler, after her mother died in 1876. Its season, 19 May to 12 October, is shorter than Green Gables'. Combine it with Park Corner, a few kilometres further west.

What is left of Montgomery's Cavendish Home?

No buildings. The site is the restored foundation of her grandparents' farmhouse, where she lived from 1876 to 1911 and wrote Anne, plus a small bookstore and museum.

The Cavendish Home is run privately by descendants of her grandfather Alexander Macneill. The bookstore holds the original Cavendish post office desk and scales; Maud helped her grandmother, the postmistress, there. Parks Canada includes the ruins in the national historic site, but the Green Gables ticket does not cover them.

You can walk over from Green Gables on the Haunted Wood Trail, and a combined pass is sold at the Green Gables visitor centre. The operator's posted hours, 10 am to 5 pm from 20 May to mid-October with longer days in July and August, come from an older page, so confirm before you go.

Is Avonlea Village a real Montgomery site?

No. Avonlea Village is a cluster of shops, restaurants and heritage buildings in Cavendish. It borrows the name of the fictional village but has no Montgomery connection of its own.

It once ran as a paid theme village with actors. That model ended in 2015, and entry has been free since. Tourism PEI lists a 12 June to 3 September season. The Anne of Green Gables Store is here; its proprietor can sign a Montgomery book, according to Tourism PEI.

Treat it as lunch and souvenirs, a short way up Route 6 from Green Gables, not as a literary stop. It is fine for that. Families with kids who have had enough of period rooms will like the break.

If you only have time for one Anne site, which should it be?

Green Gables Heritage Place. It is the house from the novel, it has the longest season, and the trails and exhibits make it the fullest visit.

Green Gables is the only site run by Parks Canada, open every day from 1 May to 31 October, with programs in July and August. Kids 17 and under get in free. It is also the stop the Green Gables tours on this site are built around.

Pick Silver Bush instead if you have already seen Green Gables, or if Montgomery's life interests you more than Anne's. The wedding house and the Lake of Shining Waters make a strong second stop. The Birthplace and the Cavendish Home are for devoted readers with a car.

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Can you see all the Anne sites in one day?

Yes, by car. Start at Park Corner, drive east a few kilometres to New London, then about ten minutes on to Cavendish for Green Gables and the Cavendish Home.

That west-to-east route is Tourism PEI's own suggestion. A realistic day:

• Morning: the Anne of Green Gables Museum and a carriage ride by the Lake of Shining Waters.
• Late morning: the Birthplace in New London.
• Lunch: Avonlea Village or North Rustico.
• Afternoon: Green Gables after 3 pm in summer, when the crowds thin, then the Haunted Wood Trail to the Cavendish Home and Cavendish Cemetery.

Do it between about 20 May and 12 October, when all four houses are open. There is no bus to Park Corner or New London. Without a car, a private tour is the practical way, but the listing summaries do not name specific Anne stops beyond Green Gables, so confirm the plan with the operator. One of the Cyril listing's photos shows the museum sign.

Which part of PEI is Green Gables in?

The north shore, in the region Tourism PEI calls the Green Gables Shore. Cavendish is about 40 km northwest of Charlottetown, inside PEI National Park.

Tourism PEI nicknames the region "Anne's Land". It takes in Cavendish, North Rustico, New Glasgow, Brackley Beach, Stanley Bridge, New London and Kensington. Most of the Anne sites are here, along with Cavendish Beach and New Glasgow Lobster Suppers, serving since 1958.

Base yourself in Charlottetown for restaurants and theatre, or in Cavendish to walk to Green Gables early. If PEI is only a day for you, one day in PEI shows how to split it between the north shore and the city.

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