Queens County occupies the center of PEI. It's home to the island's largest city (Charlottetown), which is also the provincial capital, and hosts the greatest concentration of traveler services by far.

The county is neatly cleaved by the Hillsborough River, which is spanned by a bridge at Charlottetown. Cavendish on the north shore is the most tourist-oriented place in the entire province; if the words "Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum" or "amusement park" bring up positive images for you, you might consider avoiding this area, which has built a vigorous tourist industry around one fictional literary character (Anne of Green Gables) who fictionally lived here in a fictional time but is now bringing in very real touro-dollars.

On the other hand, much of the rest of the county -- besides Charlottetown, of course -- is extremely pastoral and untrammeled.

Two areas of Queens County merit their own sections within this chapter: Charlottetown on the south shore, of course, and Prince Edward Island National Park on the north shore.