Prince Edward Island, known as the Garden Province, is located in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence north of Nova Scotia and east of New Brunswick, separated from the mainland by the Northumberland Strait. Charlottetown is the capital and largest city situated in roughly the center of the island's southern shore. The second largest city is Summerside, located in Prince County, in the western part of the Island. PEI's total population is about 139,000, with more than a third of it in the capital region. Both Charlottetown and Summerside are built around natural harbors.

The Confederation Bridge was opened in 1997 connecting the west end of the island to New Brunswick. There are still two ferry services remaining: one from the east end of PEI to Nova Scotia and one from the town of Souris to the Magdalen Islands.

An estimated half of the island is covered with woodlands, though very little of the original forest remain. Almost all the island is dominated by agriculture, being blessed by a distinctive red sedimentary soil. Potatoes are a large cash crop, with PEI potatoes exported as far west as Ontario, south into the USA and some twenty countries around the world. There is a fishing industry, being dominated by shellfish harvesting - most notably lobster. As the province is surrounded by sea ice between December-April, the fishery is entirely seasonal.

The island's coastline consists of a combination of long beaches, dunes, short sandstone cliffs, salt-water marshes and numerous small bays. There is a high amount of iron oxide in the rock, which explains the distinctive reddish sand of the beaches and dunes. At Basin Head the grains of white silica sand cause a humming noise as they rub against each other when walked on. On the north shore large dune fields can be found on barrier islands at the entrances to various bays and harbors. The shifting, parabolic dune system is home to a variety of birds and rare plants and is also a site of significant archeological interest.

Prince Edward Island was originally inhabited by the Mi'Kmaq people. They named the island Abegweit meaning Cradle on the Waves. As part of the French colony of Acadia, the island was called