Newfoundland and Labrador

[Treffie]

I've never visited Newfoundland, but it's an ambition of mine before I die!

Whenever I fly out to the US, I always make a point of getting out of my seat to stand at the back of the plane to watch Newfoundland slowly pass by beneath me. From the air it looks incredible, especially in Winter - the only problem is that I wish I had a parachute so that I could just jump out.

[YggsVinr]

Here are a few old pictures from various trips I've dug up:

















Sorry about the quality of some of them.

[Treffie]

Yggs, what is St John's like to visit? It looks inviting, the only problem is that the prices of flights from London to St Johns is very expensive. Zoom Airways used to fly to Nova Scotia, they were cheap, but they are no longer. Any suggestions?

[YggsVinr]

About flight prices. I usually use West Jet that always has cheap prices but unfortunately its only a national company, or Air Canada which usually has some deals. I checked out the Air Canada website just now and they seem to have some flights year round from London to St. John's ranging between $461 CAD and $3796 CAD depending on the package you choose.

St. John's is a nice town, its pretty safe and nice to walk around. The weather in the warmer months is typical around 23 or so degrees at most, often rainy and very windy. The winters aren't as cold as most of Canada typically just below zero and going only about as high as -16 to -17 degrees, but also very windy and the weather is pretty unpredictable. There are quite a few things to see, and Signal Hill is a pretty big attraction. From the top of Signal Hill you can see the most eastern point of North America, Cape Spear (which is also nice to visit, its just on the outskirts). There are also various ruins like a barracks, old tavern, and cannons from when British soldiers were stationed there in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its a great view of the north Atlantic, but has very high winds so if you visit St. John's during the winter time it wouldn't be a good idea to go up there. Plus everything would be covered in snow anyways. But in the spring and summer there's a trail that goes through Signal Hill that you can follow and if my memory serves me well it can take you as far as Fort Amherst. A lot of people like to come see if they can catch a glimpse of the icebergs from end of March to June depending.

Some sights you can see all year around are the Rooms (you can read more about it here http://www.therooms.ca/ ) which is a sort of museum for Newfoundland history. There's the Fort Amherst Museum that I heard is supposed to be quite nice though I've never been there myself, the fluvarium is quite interesting to visit as well. You can read some more here: http://www.stjohnskiosk.com/ Also, if you come in the fall every two years there's a Wayzgoose/printer's festival that is interesting to go to and has all kinds of events about book/print history in Canada. If you like that sort of thing its fun to attend.

Most people that come to St. John's take a trip to George Street, which is most famous because it is the street with the most bars per square capita in North America. There are a lot of dance clubs that I'd stay clear of but there's also some decent pubs like O'Reilly's. I personally love the Guv'nor Inn & Pub, though its not on George Street but Elizabeth near the university. The Duke of Duckworth is a decent place too. Also, if you're going to be trying any of the local brew, don't drink Black Horse even though it says its brewed in Newfoundland. Its brewed by Molson. Try out what Quidi Vidi brewery has to offer. They have some nice ones like Honey Brown and Erik's Red.

It all depends what you like to see, really. When my mum used to come and visit me she used to like walking around downtown St. John's along Water street and around there.