I'm going to Charlottetown, PEI this summer for a conference and am looking for recommendations on things to see, but also on ways to get there from the Washington DC area.

We were in PEI this summer. Drove up from DC area via Nova Scotia and took ferry over to PEI from Caribou, NS. We were on PEI for 3 days, but only spent part of a day in Charlottetown as other parts of the island were more interesting to us. Charlottetown seemed nice, but it was raining the day we were there, so didn't walk around too much. PEI is small, so it doesn't take much time to get from Point A to Point B. If you are going to have a car, you may enjoy driving out to the lighthouse at East Point. Great views. Stop at Basin Head Provincial Park for its nice, white sand beach. Greenwich Dunes, which is part of the PEI National Park, is well worth a visit. Spectacular! The island scenery is very bucolic. It reminded me of the English countryside in places. We left PEI via the Confederation Bridge which is the most direct route if you're planning on driving up from DC. It took us two long days to drive back to Northern VA. (There is an airport in Charlottetown if that long drive doesn't appeal to you.)

By air.

There is a direct flight via Air Canada
AC7670 from Dulles (IAD) to
Charlottetown, PEI (YYG) for $536 Canadian

If you fly direct, make sure you rent a car and discover what the Island has to offer. Charlottetown has a great waterfront to stroll, check out the place of Confederation for some Canadian history, make sure you see a play (hopefully Anne of Green Gables). Take a day and drive the Island and don't miss their beaches!

Or you can fly into Halifax, rent a car, and travel to PEI either over the Confederation Bridge or via the car ferry. If my memory serves me correctly, you can do either route in 2-3 hours.