Singing Sands, Basin Head Provincial Park, P.E.I.
PEI has more than 800 km of the warmest beaches north of the Carolinas. What makes Basin Head Beach (known as Singing Sands) so special is that it seems to sing, or sqeak, when you walk on it – an intriguing phenomena scientists still don’t completely understand. Located at the eastern tip of P.E.I. near Souris, the supervised beach is in a day use (summer) park that has a play area, food, washroom, shower facilities, and the Basin Head Fisheries Museum.
(Photo: Tourism PEI/John Sylvester)
Havre-Aubert Beach, Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec
Enjoy 12 km of sand and The World’s Biggest Sand Castle Contest! Hundreds compete, thousands watch, at this annual event (August 10-12, 2012.) Havre-Aubert Island also has a community of sand artisans with studio, gallery, and craft shop. The Magdalen Islands, spread across 85 km of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, offering 300 km of long sandy beaches. There’s swimming, hiking, kayaking, and robust breezes for windsurfing and kitesurfing. You can reach the islands by plane, by cruise ship from Montreal, or by daily ferry from Souris, P.E.I.
(Photo: luvmycrows/Flickr)
Martinique Beach, N.S.
Just an hour from Halifax is longest beach in Nova Scotia. With summer supervised waters, 3.7 km of golden sands, and excellent surf conditions, it’s a magnet for beachcombers, surfers, paddle boarders, swimmers and picnickers. There are change houses, outhouses, BBQ pits, and tables. Martinique Beach Provincial Park, with its dunes and white spruce forest, is also an important refuge for migratory waterfowl, and habitat for the endangered piping plover (less than 50 pairs breed in the province).
