Summer 2025, and we’re off to Newfoundland! The last province in Canada that Lisa and I have never been to. Follow along with us as we take a road trip from St. John’s in the east to Northern Peninsula in the west, and points in between.
Our Route
Flying into St. John’s, hanging there for a few days, then the road trip begins. First stop is in St. Lawrence, a small town near the bottom of the Burin Peninsula. Then heading north to Port Union, near the top of the Bonavista Peninsula. From there we head east to Twillingate, near Fogo Island, for a few days. Then a long drive eastward towards the Great Northern Peninsula, staying in Rocky Harbour at the foot of Gros Morne National Park. Then a drive waaaay up to the top of the Peninsula to St. Anthony, before making our way back down the eastern coast of the island for a couple nights stay in Corner Brook. Our flight back to Toronto is out of Deer Lake, just up the road from Corner Brook. Lots of driving, and hope it isn’t too taxing.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Early Saturday morning (4am to be precise) we awoke to be ready for our 5am cab ride to the airport. Porter flight 237 was scheduled to depart at 7:30am for St. Johns. Got to the airport in what was probably record time – 25 minutes door to door – and breezed through bag check and security. Flight was delayed about an hour due to late arrival of plane (from Vegas).
Smooth 3 hour flight and we arrived in St. John’s at about 1pm local time. Picked up the rental car (a white Kia Seltos) and we were on our way into St. John’s. It’s only a 15 minute or so drive from the airport to downtown, and we arrived a the hotel (Alt Hotel) a little after 2pm. The Alt hotel is a “hip” new hotel, right on the harbour, with our room having a great view out over it (and the working wharves, and oil tanks across the bay!). I think the rest of the hotels I have booked on our trip won’t be quite so “hip”!
Went out after checking in for a bite to eat on the Water St pedestrian mall. Its actually just Water St., a downtown main drag, but in the summer they block a section of it off to cars, and restaurants have outdoor patios on the street. The street itself was not exactly hopping, but the restaurants seemed to be doing ok.
After lunch, we walked the rest of the mall, up the hill a bit, and back to our hotel for a late afternoon siesta, before heading out for a dinner reservation at 7. Then back to the hotel, quite exhausted and full.
Sunday morning, we woke (not early!), had breakfast at the hotel, and jumped in the car for our first road-trip.
First on the agenda was Cape Spear, the eastern-most point in Canada. The parking lot at the park (its a national park, which, thanks to Trump, is free due to the fed’s Canada Strong promotion this year) was already quite busy by the time we arrived but we got a parking spot. We spent about an hour touring the hill, the lighthouse, and the observation point. We’re able to see a bunch of whales having a good time out in the ocean off the point.
Then we hopped back in the car and headed down the east coast of the Avalon peninsula with our destination being Ferryland Lighthouse – another lighthouse overlooking the Atlantic. Lisa had ordered us a picnic lunch, which they provide at the lighthouse, along with a picnic blanket, to enjoy a picnic on the grounds around the lighthouse. Great views of the ocean, rocks and seabirds. Day was quite nice – 24 degrees and sunny – with some wind, but just enough to keep you from getting too hot.
After lunch, we headed further down the peninsula, to the very bottom, for a bit of whale watch from the beach at St Vincent. A large rocky beach, in a bay, where humpbacks and pilot whales come in early summer to feed on the fish that are abundant at that time of year. Watch a number of them breaching and splashing and blowing off the shore, then were treated to a couple cruising along very close to the shore, coming up for a breath and just swimming along.
Time then to jump back in the car, and head up the east west coast of the Avalon and back to St. John’s. Was surprised to see once we joined up with the TransCanada a four lane divided highway. Had expected to be driving two lane highways for our full trip here on the Rock.
Back at the hotel now, after dinner on a street patio at a restaurant on Water St. Our first two days in Newfoundland.
Monday, July 14
Today was a local day in St John’s. Seeing a few of the usual attractions.
First up was Signal Hill, with it’s impressive view of the harbor and harbor entrance, along with a decent interpretive center detailing the history of the site.
Then a short trip to Quidi Vidi, a little village built along the rock walls of a cove.
Finally, a visit to The Rooms, Newfoundlands museum/art gallery/archives, a very imposing structure at the very top of the hill behind and looking over the city. It was built on the former site of the main fort protecting the city.
And that was it. Very local day today. Tomorrow, we head off on the big road trip.
Tues, July 15, 2025
Today we left St. John’s and headed out on our cross island road trip. Got up at 7, grabbed breakfast from the hotel cafe (loading up on extras to make sure we got good value for our $50 breakfast voucher), checked out and hit the road.
About an hour and a half drive along the TransCanada and we arrived at Goobies. Where we branch off to head down the Burin peninsula. Goobies. Yup, that is the name of the place. With a big moose right in the parking lot of the gas station/store/restaurant. We didn’t make the short trek off the highway to visit Dildo, or South Dildo, but we did stop at Goobies.
Back in the car after filling the tank (and emptying ours) and we headed down the peninsula on the way to our hotel in St. Lawrence, almost at the bottom and on the east side of the peninsula. The Ocean View motel is definitely not as “hip” as Alt, (though it does have a rather, how should I say it, “authentic” tap room on the bottom floor?) but seems comfortable enough. Room is huge, with a nice view of the Home Hardware across the parking lot. We did make one stop on our way (besides having lunch at the McDonalds in Marytown) – the Tidal Wave memorial, in a little tiny cove out one of the outcroppings just south of Burin. It is a memorial to 29 folks who lost their lives in a tidal wave that came up the cove in 1929. That’s all we were able to learn from the inscription on the memorial (besides the names of everyone lost). Nothing more about it. And it was a fairly large memorial stone and park. In the middle of tiny nowhere.
It was just after 3pm when we got into the room, and after dropping off our bags, we headed back to the car for a drive over the Fortune, on the west side of the peninsula, where the ferries to St Pierre and Miquelon depart from. It was quite a foggy 1 hour drive, so didn’t really get to see much scenery along the way (though what we did see was very much like what we have seen all along – expanses of green covering the rock, with some trees, and lots of ponds). Fortune itself didn’t actually have a lot to offer, so after a short stop on the cliffs just above town, and a drive out to the lighthouse at the Fortune Head Ecological Reserve, we made our way back through the fog to St. Lawrence, the same way we drove out.
Not a lot of dining options in St. Lawrence, so we ordered a pizza from the pizza joint, also on the first floor of the motel, and had some of the cookies we got at the hotel cafe in St. Johns. That was it! Tomorrow, a long drive again, back north to the Bonavista peninsula.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
On our way out of St. Lawrence this morning, we stopped in at the St. Lawrence Miners museum. Its a tiny little one room museum, dedicated to telling the mining history of the St. Lawrence area (as well as a few other things). St. Lawrence once had a fairly large mining operation taking Fluorspar out of the rock in the area. Operated up until the 70’s, when they closed it down because too many miners were dying – the mines had super high levels of radon, which wasn’t really known or anything done about until then. Interesting little museum, that also told us about 3 US warships that ran aground in 1942 with the people of St. Lawrence helping rescue survivors, and provided some information about the tidal wave of 1929 (see above post) which occurred due to a quake just off the coast of Newfoundland, well before there were any kind of tidal wave early warning systems. A very nice employee walked around with us (we were the only guests at that time) telling us interesting little tidbits, including letting us know how difficult payroll was (she was also administrator for the museum!).
After the museum, it was a long drive back up the Burin peninsula (retracing our route down) before meeting back up with the TransCanada, then heading up into the Bonavista peninsula.
We made a short stop in Trinity, a small village on the coast, on the way. We’ll be headed back here tomorrow to see a play that Lisa booked us in to. It was a cute little village, cleared geared to the tourist trade. Fair number of people walking about while we were there, including one or two bus tours.
We then made our way to our motel (Seaport Inn) in Port Union, about three quarters of the way up the peninsula, where we will be staying for two nights. We had planned to have dinner at the restaurant at the motel, but were informed when we went down that their new cook was feeling too overwhelmed with the guests already in the restaurant, so they were closing it down. We asked about alternatives, and we were advised to either go to another motel up the road that had a decent restaurant, or further up to Bonavista, a larger town, where there would be more options. While we opted to try the recommended other motel restaurant we couldn’t actually find it “up the road”, so we headed into Bonavista which was only about a 15 minute drive. There we found a gastro pub (at least that’s what it called itself) and had dinner. I had a moose burger. Interesting flavour, but not sure I will order it again.
Before heading back to the motel, we thought we would try a late evening visit to the Puffin rock, a puffin viewing area in Elliston. There, we were treated to a delightful visit with hundreds of puffins – many which were on a rock just across from the viewing area, but many whom were right there on the rocks in front of us. There were a fair number of other people there – though not too many – a number of them with their super-long range camera gear and lenses. But my little Pixel did a decent job I think capturing them with its zoom.
Then back to the motel in the twilight. Tomorrow a little adventuring around the environs of Bonavista.
Friday, July 18, 2025
Thursday we spent the day in Bonavista area.
After a hearty breakfast at the hotel (guess the breakfast cook is different from the dinner cook) we first headed to the Bonavista lighthouse, Right at the end of Cape Bonavista. There was the possibility of paid tour of the lighthouse building, but we decided instead just to walk the property and take in the magnificent view of the rocks and ocean from the point. Saw a good number of whales playing out in the ocean, and there were a few puffins here too! There’s also a statue of John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto for the more cultured of you) just a little walk down the hill from the lighthouse that we also visited. Historians aren’t sure, but think he first visited Newfoundland somewhere around here, so they’ve figured they may as well say Bonavista is where he landed.
And the town has made a thing of it too! After the cape and lighthouse, we visited a replica of the ship Cabot sailed on, the Mathew, which is enclosed in a large building near the docks in downtown Bonavista. There was a short musuem with a fictional story of a young Italian lad who was in England learning to be a surgeon, who happened to bump into Cabot (well, save him from some robbers in the story!) and then join him for his trip across the Atlantic searching for Cathay to bring spices back for the King of England. Instead, he found a bunch of fish. But if you know the story of the Newfoundland fisheries, then you know that it was probably worth as much, or more than the riches he would have found if he had made it to the orient.
After the museum, and nice young newfoundland lad gave us a tour of the replica ship (built here in Bonavista in 1979) and told us many times to be on the lookout for getting pooped on by the many pigeons in the building housing the ship. There is actually a second replica, which was built in England, and sailed to Bonavista in 1979 to commemorate the voyage 500 years previously. And the Queen came to Bonavista to greet it when it arrived (it was a big, big, event here, as you might imagine for a small Newfoundland village). (Actually, Bonavista isn’t that small, it is probably one of the larger, if not largest town we have visited so far since St. John’s.)
After a lunch at a pub, we then visited the Ryan Premises. This is a Parks Canada site, that takes up about 6 large buildings a little way around the harbour. It was the location of one of the first merchants of the area – whose name was Ryan oddly enough – and is set up as a museum telling the story of the Bonavista area, the cod fisheries in Newfoundland, and the sealing industry that also was important here. It was an interesting museum. Very quiet, with few visitors.
Then it was back to the hotel, with a short rest, before heading out for a dinner Lisa had booked at a restaurant in East Trinity, across the harbour from Trinity (that we visited on Wednesday). It was a delicious dinner in a small restaurant in the village. Then, after dinner, we drove back into Trinity to attend a local theatre Lisa had also booked us into. The play was called Bingo Ladies, and actually was quite good. The audience was set up at long rows of tables, kind of like you might see in bingo hall, with bingo cards in front of us. While it wasn’t an audience participation play, the actors talked to the crowd like we were part of the bingo night.
After the play, it was a 20 minute night drive back to the hotel. We were hoping for a clear night to be able to stop and see the stars, but it still wasn’t quite dark enough, and there was a lot of high level cloud obscuring anyway. Oh well, hoping we get to see stars some other night while we are here.
On Friday morning, we packed up the car and were on our way to our next destination – Twillingate, an island town way up at the top of central Newfoundland.
On our way there, we made a stop in Gander to visit the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. Its a rather small museum dedicated mostly to the history of Gander Airport, which was built in the late 1930’s as a re-fueling stop for the nascent transcontinental aircraft travel. It had an interesting display – including of course part about Gander’s role during the 9/11 closure of all flights – and a few vintage aircraft on the grounds outside.
Got into Twillingate a bit too early to check in to our motel, so we headed out the the lighthouse (lots of lighthouses in Nfld!!) at the very tip of North Twillingate Island. Commanding view of the sea all around, with fishing boats out of the water and more whales jumping about.
Then, back to the motel (Alphabet Fleet Inn, conveniently located on the outskirts – but the road in – to Twillingate), dinner at a restaurant in town and then back to the motel. Some pics from the last couple days below.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Saturday and Sunday were for exploring the general Twillingate area.
Saturday morning, after breakfast of muffins, yogurt, and coffee at the motel (basic breakfast was included in the price) we first headed to the Beothuk interpretive centre, about an hour’s drive away. The centre is at the site of Beothuk village that was discovered and excavated back in the 80’s. The interpretive centre told the history of the Beothuk, the indigenous inhabitants of Newfoundland back at the first arrival of Europeans, and provided information and displays on the archeological dig and finds. After the centre, it was a 1.5km walk along a trail to the village site. There’s nothing there now, other than a grassed over meadow, with indentations hinting at where the original huts stood. But it was a nice walk through the forest.
After that, we drove another 45mins or so to Lewisporte, a town on the Bay of Notre Dame, for lunch, and a short visit to a train park just outside of town.
There weren’t a lot of other options for visits in the area, so we headed back to Twillingate for an afternoon of rest. Lisa rested by reading her book, while I made the short walk down the highway into town and had a beer at the Stage Head pub, right next to the Twillingate Island Causeway.
After a second failed attempt to have dinner at a local winery (on Friday when we went they were closed for a private function. This time they had no tables available) we had dinner at a local restaurant overlooking the bay, sitting on the deck outside. Then back to the motel for an early night.
Sunday, we were running out of ideas for the area. Lisa decided to stay in the room and do some more reading, and I decided to be adventurous and take on a couple of hikes in the area.
The first hike was a cliffside hike along the coast, a little east of town. It was a fairly easy hike, with great views of the ocean, rocks, surrounding islands, beaches and meadows. About an hour in total.
The second walk, called the Top of Twillingate, was up to the highest peak on the island. A steep walk up and down a mountain, through the forest, gave views of the island and ocean beyond from all directions. About an hour (sweatier than the first) for this walk also.
After getting back to the motel we thought we’d try out luck for the third time at the winery restaurant (the Great Auk winery), and this time we managed to get a table.
After lunch, we drove a short bit longer down the peninsula, for a short hike (both of us this time) to French Beach, a large rocky beach.
Before heading back to the motel, we paid a visit to a small local museum with artifacts of the past from the area, and a large stuffed polar bear – the bear was killed in the area back in 2000 when it floated in on some pack ice.
The rest of the day was pretty chill, sitting in the deck chairs on the lawn outside the motel, just watching the traffic pass by on the highway in and out of town. Weather was nice, breeze was nice, cold Molson Ultra was nice. Just a relaxing end to our time in Twillingate.
Monday, July 21, 2025
It is a four and a half hour drive from Twillingate to Rocky Harbour, where we were staying for Monday night. A pit stop for a donut and a bio-break, and lunch at the truck stop in Deer Lake, and we arrived in Gros Morne park and Rocky Harbour at around 2pm.
Rocky Harbour is a small town located right in the park. Just outside the town is the Gros Morne visitors centre, so we had a stop there to get some information on the park, and where might be best to see, in our relatively short time in the area. Alas, it seems like at least one of the interesting features of Gros Morne – the Tablelands, are in the south part of the park, across the East Arm from where we are staying and a long drive in the wrong direction from where we are headed on Tuesday . So we’ll have to see what we can find in the north end of the park.
Since we were too early to check into the hotel – Oceanview Hotel – we drove past Rocky Harbour to a couple spots on the map.
The Green Point geological site has some interesting rock formations along the cliffs on the beach. You can clearly see where the layers of sediment and rock have been laid over millions of years, before being thrust up and on an angle by movement of the earth’s plates. It was an easy walk to get to and a nice walk along the water.
Then we visited – another lighthouse! The Lobster Cove Head lighthouse looks out over the entrance to Rocky Harbour and the East Arm inlet. As an official part of the national park, it had staff on hand and an interpretation centre in the lighthouse, telling of the history of the lightkeepers there and their lives.
We then headed back into town to check in, and have dinner, before heading off on our evening adventure. Lisa had booked tickets to a show at the Gros Morne National Theatre, a theatre company located in Cow’s Head, a little village about 30 minutes up the road from Rocky Harbour. It was a three person “play”, where they sang songs written by common Newfoundlander’s in the past (mostly late 1800’s) that had been passed on from family to family. It also included a few storytellings. Held in a small theatre at the back of the main stage (about 75 seats in total) it was an enjoyable event.
Then it was a late night drive through the driving rain, with constant moose warning signs, back to the hotel for the night.
Tuesday, July 23, 2025
Today was a long drive mostly along the coast up the Great Northern Peninsula – Rocky Harbour to St. Anthony, about four and a half hours, without stops. Of course we made a few stops along the way.
First was Arches provincial park. A natural rock formation of arches along the beach, gave us an opportunity to take a few pictures, walk along the pebble and boulder beach, and breath in the fresh ocean air. Temperatures are now mid-teens – what we had packed for finally!
Next stop was Port au Choix National Historic Site about halfway up the peninsula. Here there was an interpretation centre explaining the historical significance of the site, stretching back 5000 years, when the first peoples occupied the area, to the more modern times as yet another fishing village in Newfoundland. The highlight of this stop was seeing a caribou, just walking along the side of the road (and in the road)! No moose sighted (yet), but check – one caribou!
Rest of drive was straight through to St. Anthony, where we checked into the hotel and had a drive out to the lighthouse, before dinner (our second Jungle Jim’s) and heading back to the hotel.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Two visits on the agenda for today.
First up, L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, about a half our outside St. Anthonys. Arrived at the visitors centre just in time for a guided tour of the site. The guide took us on a 45 minute tour of the archaeological site, providing interesting information about the various building locations, what they were used for and how they determined that based on the archaeological evidence they uncovered. The site was only “found” in the 1960’s, by a Norwegian adventurer who was looking for evidence of Norse visits to North America. His wife was an archaeologist, and together they started the excavations, and it was eventually taken over by Parks Canada. Apparently the Vikings only used the spot for about 3 decades or so, and it was only a stop-over spot in the travels further south to Nova Scotia and north to Labrador. The site also has some sod housing reconstructions, with some in-character Vikings telling us about the various uses and life in the village.
After a few hours visit, we headed for lunch in the area, and then back to the hotel for a rest before our second adventure.
Second on the agenda was a whale/iceberg/birdwatching zodiac tour out on the water. Operated by the DarkTickle company (who also make jams, and teas from the local berries!), there were just six of us, plus the “captain”, on the boat for a tour hour tour out on the waves. Alas, there were no icebergs in the area for us to see, and for the longest time, it seemed like we were going to strike out on the marine mammals also. However, about and hour and a half into the ride, we did catch up with a small pod of dolphins, who were swimming an cresting through the waves, fairly close to the boat. Paul, our captain, said that of the two other tours he gave today, ours was the only one that actually got to see some action!
After that, back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
Friday, July 25, 2025
From St. Anthony, we headed back down the peninsula Thursday morning, making our way to our next stop of Corner Brook. About a 5 hour drive.
On our way back down on the highway along the coast, Lisa spotted something out in the water, in the Strait of Belle Isle, the water way between Newfoundland and Labrador. An iceberg!! What had eluded us on our boat tour the day before, we spotted on our drive. It was a fair distance out in the water, and it was a cloudy foggy day, but Lisa spotted it and we were able to get a few pictures. Yea! We saw one.
We had decided the night before to see if we could fit in a visit to Western Brook Pond, one the highlights of Gros Morne Park. Lisa was able to book us a boat tour of the pond for 4pm, we we had time to get there. From the parking lot on the side of the highway, its about a 45 minute to 1 hour walk along a gravel pathway to the edge of the pond, where we would board a boat for a tour up the freshwater fjord. It was a super windy walk, and when we arrived at the pond, were informed that due to the wind level, the 4pm boat may have to be cancelled.
However, luck was on our side, and the tour went ahead, despite the winds. It was a fairly choppy boat ride for the first 20 minutes or so, on the open lake (or pond as the call them here in Newfoundland), but once we entered the canyon it was less choppy, but far from smooth (Lisa and I, and the rest of the people sitting at the back of the boat got somewhat wet from all the spray). It was a 2 hour boat ride that went right up to the end of the pond, and back. Some spectacular views of the fjord and towering walls of the canyon, with a commentary from the boat’s staff as we went along. While it might have been a bit nicer if it had been a little (lot!) less windy, it was definitely worth the tour.
After, we headed strait to Corner Brook for our hotel for the night. (We had a late dinner at the hotel pub, and happened to sit two booths away from Kim Mitchell, who is in town headlining a local festival on Friday night. Another brush with Canadian celebrity!!)
On Friday, our plan was to head down the south west corner of Newfoundland. A two and half our drive brought us to Cape Anguille, the western-most point in Newfoundland. We have now visited the eastern tip (Cape Spear), the southern tip (St. Vincent), the northern tip (on the boat to the tip of Quirpon Island) and now the western tip. Not bad!
After short walk around the lighthouse at Cape Anguille, we drove down to Port Aux Basque, where the ferry to Nova Scotia lands in Newfoundland. We didn’t say for long – enough for a few pictures – then we headed back to Corner Brook for dinner, and to finish packing for our flight home tomorrow. We do have one further adventure planned for tomorrow, before our flight out of Deer Lake, so one more post to come!
Saturday, July 26, 2025
Heading home today. Our flight was at 6:55 pm (Porter 287) so we actually had most of the day for one last exploration.
Leaving Corner Brook after breakfast, we headed back to Gros Morne National Park for one last visit – the Tablelands. This park is where the earth’s mantle long ago thust up through the crust, and formed mountains of very different rock from all the surrounding mountains. It was quite the site to see. One side of the valley all green and treed, and the other side looking like a martian landscape. The parking lot to the park was on the side of the road, with a half hour or so walk along an easy gravel and boardwalk trail into the canyon of the Tablelands. It was another cloudy day, so unfortunately the tops of the mountains were in the mist, but it was still quite the site to see. Such a foreign landscape from the rest of the island. Not much grows in these rocks.
After the park, we had a short visit in the visitors centre, then went for lunch at a nearby village on the waters edge, across the bay from Rocky Harbour (well, a little south of east of that too). After lunch, one last lighthouse visit – in Woody Point, and we headed back to Deer Lake, and the airport, for the flight back to Toronto.
It’s been a very enjoyable two weeks in Newfoundland, and we covered a lot of ground (put more than 4,000 km on the car!). Now, back to the big smoke!
I’ll be asking you about this part of your trip in the future – my colleague is moving from Clarenville (north of Goobies) to Marystown (that you passed on your way to St. Lawrence).
Interestingly, we were in Clarenville, having lunch, when I saw this comment. And we had picked up a coffee in Marystown on our way out of St. Lawrence this morning. You must be psychic!