The Sonata Inn & Heritage Harbour House Inn – Two Inns in Charlottetown, PEI

I am very excited for this new project for the downtown area of Charlottetown. We are in the midst of so much development…new hotels, new buildings, a new convention centre! I’m so happy to see my little town, grow into a developed city.

Most of you may of heard of this project => The New Convention Centre!

I am very excited for two reasons:

1) A Convention Centre will promote new projects in PEI, and attract larger crowds (which is GREAT for us!,)

2) There will soon be a new viewpoint for lower Queen st, because of the remove of the Canadian Coast Guard building! We may be able to see the water driving down Queen St….that will be such a beautiful sight!

2012 can’t come soon enough!!

I’m still working on a few routes and day trip logs that I can share with you all…soon I’ll be sharing a plethora of random pictures that you can find on our Facebook pages

Here’s the Facebook page for Heritage Harbour House Inn & The Facebook page for The Sonata Inn

Cheers!

Yesterday, Prince Edward Island was #2 on Google’s most queried keywords!! (Now it’s probably around #8.) This is definitely from the exposure we are getting from the Regis and Kelly tapings, going on at the Confederation Landing Park over at the water front in downtown Charlottetown!

I think this exposure is wonderful. The money we spent bringing the dynamic duo here is money well spent! PEI will be profiting from this investment for years!

Thank you, Regis and Kelly, for your fantastic show and wonderful audience! You can follow them on twitter

Soon, I’ll be posting a few day trips my wife, Erin, and I have been having around PEI. We have had very limited time, especially with having to manage two inns at the same time (The Sonata Inn, and Heritage Harbour House Inn!) However, we do get some time off to enjoy some of the islands sweetest offerings, so we’ll be posting our adventures here, soon!

Oh, by the way….The Sonata Inn, and Heritage Harbour House are both on Twitter! Make sure to follow them both!

@sonatainn and @hhhouse

See you around!

Mike

I was invited to see Stan Rogers, a Matter of Heart at the MacKenzie theatre. Having never been a big fan of Stan Rogers, I have to say, that the talent between the performers and instrumental section was phenomenal. The show is located at the MacKenzie theatre, which is at the corner of University and Grafton St, 7 minutes of a walk from our Charlottetown Inn!

The show features Joey Kitson, Terry Hatty (from The Guess Who,) Julian Molnar, and John Connolly. I actually went to school with John when I was younger, and I am very impressed with this budding local artist. He opened for Gordie Sampson recently at the Confederation Centre, and we were very impressed by his compositions and stage presence, good job John.

Joey Kitson, a native of Charlottetown, had some wicked lead vocals in many of the Stan Rogers arrangements, while Julian delivered many passionate melodic lines throughout the show. Terry Hatty made everyone laugh during his solo rendition of Stan Rogers’ “The Idiot,” (I loved the part where the musicians called him an idiot right at the end.)

Speaking of the musicians, I was incredibly impressed by the music, churned from only three musicians. A guitar player, a pianist, and wonderful violist. The violinist , Christina Bouey, is the daughter of a friend of ours, and really helped create a beautiful celtic environment with her masterful playing….a real treat.

I recommend everyone to see this show. The Mackenzie theatre, or “The Mack,” features caberet seating, where drinks can be purchased. It provides a great environment to relax with friends around the table and listen to some good performances.

Peake’s Quay (pronounced “key”) is a wonderful place to stroll. It features a few restaurants and a shopping area. One particular restaurant, or rather…food stop, I want to feature is “Taters.” Now, they don’t have a website, because it is just a simple food stand…however, they serve some of the tastiest PEI potato fries. They also serve yummy funnel cake as a compliment dish. Funnel cake is made by pouring batter through a funnel, and into hot oil. The batter in poured in a circular pattern. YUM- MY!

I’ll take a picture of the place eventually and share it here.

Peake’s Quay is only a 12 walk from our Charlottetown Inn. If you are looking for a place to stay in PEI. Check us out at The Sonata Inn!

I have been trying to book a tour with The Harbour Hippo, but it has been incredibly difficult. Obviously, I don’t have a lot of time during the day, so I can only enjoy PEI with my wife, on a early to late evening basis.

The Harbour Hippo claims to runs from 10:15am to 8pm, but we have been unsuccessful to board, twice now, around 6pm, due to their minimum passenger requirement of 10 people.

This is unfortunate, although I understand the operating costs may not be worth it for any tours under ten…but it is still very inconvenient to walk all the way there to find out you are out of luck for a tour…although the walk is not far from our Charlottetown Inn.

My recommendation: Call them ahead of time, and ask what the passenger load is for a particular time that you want to go…or ask when the passenger load is larger so that you can pick a time that will definitely depart.

I just went with the wife to see “Whitney Rose, and Kirsten Jones,” at The Guild, in the Charlottetown. What a great performance! Whitney Rose is actually a PEI native, who is living in Toronto. Her alternative country tunes really created a spark with the audience last night. She has an amazing voice, and resonates well with Kirsten Jones, another alternate country singer. It was an awesome show.

The Guild is a great place to check out some  live entertainment. They host comedy shows…benefits, and countless small plays and skit shows. The Guild is only a 7 minute walk from our Charlottetown Inn, On the corner of Richmond and Queen st. It is basically across the street from the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

I highly recommend most of the performances at The Guild. The production values are not as high as the Confederation Centre, as it is a small stage. However, there is a lot of brilliant local talent showcased there; and I always recommend seeing at least one performance. Tickets are normally cheap, between 10-20 dollars (even less if you are a student!)

I went crazy with the camera today, July 3rd, 2009. I took more shots of the breakfast we served today at my Charlottetown Inn, The Sonata Inn. I focused more on the muffins, scones, and cinnamon rolls this time. We served Potato Strata today as well, I managed to snap a few pictures of it before the guests gobbled it all up.

I placed the pictures in the gallery on the Bed and breakfast page here => http://www.sonatainn.com/breakfast.html

I also placed it on the facebook page

Cheers

Downtown Charlottetown features quite a treat when exposed to a walker. Especially from our location, walking into and around the city is very enjoyable, and I figure I would explain a route that I tend to reveal to guests when they come here.

First and foremost, because we are located right in downtown Charlottetown our location provides a great start to your walking journey. Taking a left out of our driveway, walk up Grafton St, and into town! In a few minutes, you’ll hit Queen St…welcome to the centre of town! On this intersection you’ll see the Box office entrance to the Confederation centre of the arts on one corner….a Cows Ice cream on the other! I typically tell folks to turn right here, and walk towards the water. Now we are walking down Queen St, soon we’ll turn left on Richmond St, this area is actually called “Victoria Row.” This area is blocked off to traffic, so that restaurant owners can seat guests outside. There is also a little gazebo here where musicians will set up and play music! This area is a very popular spot for the P.E.I locals here, and it’s quite an active place to hang out at night time.

Continuing on Richmond St…you’ll see the Province House on your left hand side. Turn right on Great George St…which will take you straight down into Peake’s wharf, which is a collection of shops and general stores (you can find PEI dirt shirts here!!) There is a nice trail that outlines the wharf. You can walk along this trail towards the east side. Eventually you’ll come across a great restaurant “Lobster on the Wharf,” (stay tuned for another segment for my review of this place!) Close to this restaurant though, is “Founder’s Hall,” which is a museum that focuses on the fathers of confederation. This building also doubles as the Visitor’s centre…which I recommend using to checkout any schedules for any musical events happening around town.

From Founder’s hall, you have many choices. I tend to try to convince guests to take a walking tour. Visit that link for schedule and prices. These tours are loads of fun (especially if you brought the kids.) The tour guides act and dress as fathers/ladies of confederation. They are bilingual, and VERY knowledgeable. They’ll take you all around the city and reveal some interesting tidbits!

If you’re tired of walking, I recommend The Harbour Hippo, which also has a kiosk near Founder’s Hall. It is a 55 minute bus tour around Charlottown, combined with a fun excursion out on the sea. The bus is a hybrid Bus/boat! The tour guides are friendly as well. The tour really climaxes when the bus drives into the water…loads of fun!

If it is early in the day, I recommend walking back up Great George St, and back to the Province House….walk around it from the left side, and you should see a small Amphitheater on the left side that belongs to the Confederation Centre of the Arts. From Monday-Saturday, at noon, the Young Company puts on a performance outside…and it’s free!! This year they are performing: Abegweit: The Soul of the Island.

When you’re finished for the day, find Grafton St and turn left. You’ll find our Charlottetown Inn, in no time!

The title says it all! I am so happy that we are slowly receiving positive reviews of our location. It is always a treat to see a new review posted! Although my season is almost half way done, and the reservation book filling up, this is great coverage for next year’s season!

I have received a lot of student inquiries for the Fall season…I only have one room left! They are quite popular, as we are super close to the Culinary Institute of Canada. It’s only a 50 second walk from our Charlottetown Inn, The Sonata Inn.

Speaking of the Culinary institute, they feature a great dining room! It’s called “The Lucy Maud Dining room.” Although they have an odd schedule (Tuesday -Saturday,  11:00 am – 1:30 pm  &  6:00 pm – 9:30 pm,) it is consistently good. The food is served and prepared by the students of the Culinary institute. The prices are very good, especially for what you get, and the service is ALWAYS top notch. The view is very good as well, as it provides a vista of Victoria Park, and the water.

I might be a little biased, because this is where my wife and I got married! But none the less, GREAT food!! Give them a  call at (902) 894-6808,  because  I highly recommend reservations…this is a popular spot, and sometimes they close the dining room down for private conventions.

Didn’t realize I would turn this post so quickly into a Mike’s Advice post!

I just finished programming the breakfast page!!

Breakfast at the Sonata Inn, Charlottetown PEI

This page features a nice picture of a souflé with fruit….as well as a small gallery of guests at the dining room table (yes, permission was asked!)