Newfoundland & Labrador

We depart from our homes across Canada and fly to Deer Lake on Newfoundland’s west coast. In the evening, a welcome gathering gives us the chance to meet our fellow travellers before the journey begins. 

Glynmill Inn - 1 night

Following the Viking Trail along one of the most dramatic stretches of coastline in North America, we make our way through Gros Morne National Park to reach the Port au Choix National Historic Site, where archaeological finds trace the lives of the Maritime Archaic people who inhabited this area more than 3,000 years ago. 

Plum Point Motel - 2 nights
 

The coastline brings us to St. Anthony and the home of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the celebrated medical missionary who devoted his life to serving Labrador’s coastal communities. The centrepiece of the day is L’Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America, where Leif Eriksson’s people are believed to have arrived around 1000 AD. 

We cross the Straits of Belle Isle to the shores of Labrador, keeping watch for whales along the way to visit the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station, one of the best-preserved pre-industrial whaling sites in the world. We end the day at L’Anse Amour, home to the tallest lighthouse in the province. 

Northern Light Inn - 1 night 

Back on the island, we follow the rugged coastline to The Arches, where the sea has sculpted remarkable formations through Newfoundland’s ancient rock over millions of years. Few places make the province’s geological story quite so vivid. 

Shallow Bay Motel - 2 nights

A boat tour across Bonne Bay brings us to Woody Point and into the heart of Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Discovery Centre frames the park’s story before we reach the Tablelands, an exposed section of the Earth’s mantle that earned Gros Morne its reputation as the “Galapagos of Plate Tectonics.” 

Heading east, we pause for whale interpretation and local art exhibits before arriving in Gander. This quiet airport town became the unlikely centre of one of the most remarkable acts of collective hospitality when it welcomed thousands of stranded passengers in the days following September 11, 2001, a story that inspired the Broadway musical “Come From Away”. 

Sinbad’s Hotel - 2 nights

We take the Road to the Isles out to Twillingate Island, one of Newfoundland’s oldest fishing communities. The day includes a stop at the Long Point Lighthouse in Crow Head, a tasting at the Auk Island Winery, and a visit to the Beothuk Centre at Boyd’s Cove, where we learn about the Indigenous peoples who once called Newfoundland home.

A walk through Salvage, a working fishing village on the Eastport Peninsula, gives a ground-level sense of traditional Newfoundland life. We continue to Terra Nova National Park, where the Marine Interpretation Centre at Newman Sound explores the province’s richly diverse marine ecosystem. 

Clarenville Inn - 2 nights 

This morning we travel to the historic village of Trinity, one of the oldest communities in North America, before heading to Cape Bonavista to walk the cliffs above the Atlantic. The afternoon takes us into Bonavista, the reputed landfall of John Cabot in 1497, where the Ryan Premises offers a window into the inshore fishing traditions that sustained this community for centuries. 

We head to the Avalon Peninsula and board a boat out of Bay Bulls into the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, one of the largest seabird sanctuaries in eastern North America. In summer, thousands of Atlantic puffins, murres and other seabirds nest on the reserve’s islands, and humpback, minke and fin whales feed in the surrounding waters. This afternoon we stand at Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Park, the most easterly point of land in North America, before arriving in St. John’s, the provincial capital.

Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland - 2 nights 

This morning in St. John’s, the oldest city in North America, brings us to Cabot Tower and Signal Hill, where the views over the Narrows and the colourful row houses below feel like a fitting summary of everything Newfoundland is. The afternoon is free to wander at your own pace, perhaps along Water Street, the oldest commercial street in North America. In the evening we gather one last time for a farewell dinner, marking the end of a journey that has taken us from the Viking shores of the north to the easternmost edge of the continent.

After breakfast, we transfer to St. John’s Airport and bid farewell to Canada’s oldest province.