Newfoundland: Icebergs and Whales

1. Day 1: Arrive in St. John's

   St. John's airport to downtown, Jellybean Row and Water Street

   • Drive about 20 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay: Murray Premises Hotel or similar
   Day 1 details

   Fly into St. John's International Airport (YYT), landing by 3 pm. Your leader-driver meets you in arrivals for the 20 minute drive downtown to your hotel by the harbour, set in old fish merchants' warehouses rebuilt after the great fire of 1846 and your base for three nights. Late in the afternoon we walk together along Water Street, among the oldest commercial streets in North America, and up the steep lanes behind it to Jellybean Row, the wooden row houses painted red, yellow, blue and green that have become the face of the city. Then a welcome dinner, where your leader talks through the week ahead: the boats, the drives, the weather and what the sea might bring.

   Included

   • Pick-up at St. John's International Airport (YYT)
   • Guided walk along Water Street to Jellybean Row
   • Welcome dinner

   

2. Day 2: Signal Hill, Cape Spear and the Witless Bay boat

   Signal Hill, Cape Spear, Petty Harbour and Bay Bulls, about 1.5 hours of driving

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay: Murray Premises Hotel or similar
   Day 2 details

   We start on Signal Hill, where Cabot Tower has watched the Narrows since 1900 and Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in December 1901; when icebergs are in, you can often see them from the top. Then Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America, with its 1836 lighthouse, the oldest surviving in the province, and the gun emplacements of the Second World War. Lunch is fish and chips at Chafe's Landing in Petty Harbour, a fishing village tucked into a narrow cove. In the afternoon we drive to Bay Bulls for a 90 minute boat trip into the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, home to North America's largest Atlantic puffin colony, with humpback whales and icebergs when the season brings them. The evening is free: George Street's pubs and live music are a short walk from the hotel.

   Included

   • Signal Hill and Cabot Tower
   • Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site
   • Puffin, whale and iceberg boat trip from Bay Bulls into the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve with Gatherall's (90 minutes)

   Free time: Free evening

   Activity: The boat trip can move to another time if wind or swell stops it.

   

3. Day 3: St. John's to Gander by way of Terra Nova

   St. John's to Gander on the Trans-Canada Highway, with Terra Nova National Park, about 3.5 hours of driving

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay: Quality Hotel Gander or similar
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we head west on the Trans-Canada Highway, across the narrow isthmus that joins the Avalon Peninsula to the rest of the island, and north to Terra Nova National Park, Canada's most easterly national park. We stretch our legs among boreal forest and the sheltered arms of Bonavista Bay, and stop for lunch on the way. In Gander the afternoon belongs to its airport. At the North Atlantic Aviation Museum you see how this small town became a crossroads of transatlantic flight, where wartime bombers left for Britain. Then the story most visitors come for: on 11 September 2001, when American airspace closed, 38 airliners carrying about 6,600 passengers and crew landed here, and the people of Gander and nearby towns housed and fed them for days. Dinner together, and a night in Gander.

   Included

   • Stop in Terra Nova National Park
   • North Atlantic Aviation Museum, Gander
   • The story of the planes diverted to Gander on 11 September 2001

   Optional experiences

   • Come From Away, the musical, in Gander. Only when its summer run in Gander has begun; 2027 dates not yet announced

   

4. Day 4: Gander to Twillingate: icebergs and whales

   Gander to Twillingate over the New World Island causeways, about 1.5 hours of driving

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay: Anchor Inn or similar
   Day 4 details

   A short morning drive north takes us around Gander Bay and over the causeways of New World Island to Twillingate, a fishing town on two islands at the edge of Notre Dame Bay that calls itself the iceberg capital of the world. Bergs calved from Greenland's glaciers drift past here on the Labrador Current, and humpback whales arrive to feed as the summer warms. After checking in at our small inn, we board a local boat with Twillingate Adventure Tours for about two hours on the water, looking for icebergs, whales and seabirds along the cliffs. After dinner we drive up to Crow Head and the Long Point Lighthouse, high above the sea, to watch the sun go down over the bay.

   Included

   • Iceberg and whale boat trip from Twillingate with Twillingate Adventure Tours
   • Sunset at Long Point Lighthouse, Crow Head

   Activity: The boat trip can move to day 5 if wind or swell stops it.

   

5. Day 5: Twillingate: a free morning, a screech-in and dinner theatre

   Twillingate

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay: Anchor Inn or similar
   Day 5 details

   No alarm this morning. Walk the coastal trails at your own pace, out to French Head or along the cliffs near the lighthouse at Crow Head, where you might find an iceberg grounded in a cove, or browse the craft shops and the museum by the harbour and have lunch where you like. In the afternoon we gather at Auk Island Winery, which makes fruit wines from wild Newfoundland berries such as blueberries, raspberries and bakeapples, some blended with iceberg water. Here you are screeched in: a short, cheerful ceremony with a shot of Screech rum, a kiss for a cod and a local saying to repeat, after which you are an honorary Newfoundlander. In the evening, dinner and a night of Newfoundland dinner theatre, with music, songs and storytelling.

   Included

   • Screech-in at Auk Island Winery
   • Dinner theatre evening in Twillingate

   Free time: Morning free

   

6. Day 6: Twillingate to St. John's

   Twillingate to St. John's, about 5 hours of driving broken by four stops

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay: Murray Premises Hotel or similar
   Day 6 details

   The one long day of the trip, about 430 km and 5 hours of driving, which we break into easy stages. We leave Twillingate after breakfast and retrace the causeways to Gander for coffee, about 90 minutes away. Next comes Terra Nova National Park, under an hour on, for a walk to a lookout over the park's forest and sounds and a stop for lunch. After a shorter hop to Clarenville we cross back onto the Avalon Peninsula with a last leg stretch at the isthmus, so no stretch in the van is longer than about 90 minutes. We are back in St. John's by late afternoon, with time to rest before a farewell dinner downtown and a last stroll along the harbour.

   Included

   • Stops in Gander, Terra Nova National Park, Clarenville and on the Avalon isthmus
   • Farewell dinner

   Activity: Lunch on the road is not included.

   

7. Day 7: Depart from St. John's

   Breakfast, then St. John's International Airport (YYT)

   • Drive about 20 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   A last breakfast at the hotel. If your flight leaves later in the day, the morning is yours: walk the harbourfront, climb the lanes of the Battery, the old fishing neighbourhood clinging to the foot of Signal Hill, or pick up Newfoundland books, music and knitwear on Water Street. Your leader-driver takes you to St. John's International Airport (YYT), about 20 minutes away, in time for your flight home or onward. Morning fog sometimes delays flights here, which is why we suggest a flight that leaves after midday. If you would like more time, we can add nights in St. John's before you fly, for Quidi Vidi village, The Rooms museum or a drive around the Irish Loop.

   Included

   • Drop-off at St. John's International Airport (YYT)

   Free time: Morning free

Wildlife and weather: Icebergs calve from Greenland's glaciers and drift south along Iceberg Alley each spring. Late May and June are usually the best weeks, but numbers vary a lot from year to year: some years bring many bergs close to shore, others very few, so we cannot promise one. Humpback whales follow the capelin inshore and are usually around from late June, peaking in July. Atlantic puffins nest on the Witless Bay islands from about May to mid-September and are very likely on the boat trip.

• 3 nights · Days 1, 2, and 6

  Murray Premises Hotelor similar

  St. John's · Hotel

  Downtown by the harbour, in restored 19th-century merchant warehouses; breakfast included

• 1 night · Day 3

  Quality Hotel Ganderor similar

  Gander · Hotel

• 2 nights · Days 4 and 5

  Anchor Innor similar

  Twillingate · Inn

  A small inn of 12 units