Newfoundland and Labrador

On the easternmost edge of North America, icebergs drift past colorful fishing villages in early summer, and humpback whales hunt in the bays. A vacation in Newfoundland and Labrador takes you to St. John's, to the fjord landscape of Gros Morne National Park, and to the oldest European settlement in the Americas.

Landscape and Location

The province consists of the island of Newfoundland and the mainland portion, Labrador. Newfoundland is ringed by a rugged coastline of bays, cliffs, and outports, small fishing communities. Inland you'll find bogs, lakes, and forests, where moose are more plentiful than in many other parts of Canada. Labrador is vast, sparsely populated, and stretches into the Arctic; in the north, the Torngat Mountains protect an area belonging to the Inuit. Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949 and has its own time zone, offset by half an hour, and its own English dialect.

St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula

St. John's is one of the oldest cities in North America. The colorful row houses, known as Jellybean Row, climb up the hills, and George Street is packed with pubs offering live music. From Signal Hill, where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901, you look out over the harbor entrance. Nearby Cape Spear is the easternmost point in North America. Mount Pearl borders St. John's, and Torbay lies to the north on the coast. On the Avalon Peninsula, puffins nest in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, and Mistaken Point, a World Heritage Site, holds some of the oldest fossils of complex life.

Sights in Newfoundland and Labrador

Gros Morne National Park on the west coast is a World Heritage Site, with fjords such as Western Brook Pond and the Tablelands, where rock from the Earth's mantle lies exposed at the surface. Corner Brook is the hub of the west coast and has a ski area. L'Anse aux Meadows in the north is the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America, established around the year 1000, and a World Heritage Site. Twillingate on the north coast is considered the iceberg capital. Gander became well known when thousands of airline passengers were stranded there after September 11, 2001, and were taken in by the locals, the subject of the musical Come From Away. Grand Falls-Windsor lies inland on the Exploits River, and Clarenville is the gateway to the Bonavista Peninsula. On Fogo Island stands an award-winning hotel on stilts.

Nature and Active Vacations

The East Coast Trail on the Avalon Peninsula leads over cliffs and past bays and lighthouses. Boat tours take visitors to icebergs, whales, and seabird colonies, and kayakers paddle in the fjords. In Labrador, Torngat Mountains National Park and the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station, a World Heritage Site, invite you to explore the history of whaling and of the Inuit.

Food, Getting There, and Best Time to Visit

The cuisine draws on the sea: cod as fish and chips or cod tongues, fish and brewis made from salt cod and hard bread, and Jiggs dinner with salt beef and vegetables. The partridgeberry, a type of lingonberry, turns up in jams and cakes. If you want to become an honorary Newfoundlander, you can be initiated with screech, a rum, and a kiss of a cod. St. John's airport has connections to Toronto, Halifax, and, seasonally, Europe, and ferries arrive from Nova Scotia. The best time to visit is from June to September; icebergs are usually seen in May and June, and whales from June to August.