This was our first trip to Newfoundland, and we loved it and cannot wait to go back. We flew into St. Johns and stayed at the Super 8 on Higgins Lane. The room was comfortable and easy to get to, also close to the downtown district.
We only had a few days so we had to make the best of our time, after arriving at the airport and picking up our rental car, we checked in our room and headed out to start our journey, we went to Signal Hill, and Fort Amherst, and wandered around the downtown section and had supper at the Yellow Belly Brewery and Pub, where the food and drink were great.
The next day we headed for Cape Spear, a national historic site which is the eastern most point in Canada, with a wonderful restored lighthouse and keepers home, if you like wind and cool air this is a great place to cool off. I’d suggest bringing an extra coat as we were there in August and it was not exactly warm. Leaving Cape Spear we headed over to Maddox Cove and Petty Harbour to see the views then back up to Goulds. were we had lunch at Keith’s diner, ever have dressing with your fish and chips, well this is the place to try it, it’s unique for sure, but sure tasted good. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest after visiting Fort Amherst and getting some photos of the Barracks area across the harbour opening. Then back to wander around, and watch a cruise ship leave the harbour through the small passage out of St. John’s.
The 3rd day we took a drive down the Avalon Peninsula stopping at places like Witless bay, LeManche and Ferryland. If we had had more time as this took up most of our day, we would have liked to get a little further down the coast. LeManche is the site of a former community that was destroyed in a storm, there is a long trail that you can walk until you get tot he site which now has a cool suspension bridge and some old foundations. Ferryland is a community that was apparently the long ago home to pirates who liked to rob the french and english merchant ships that were travelling around the east coast of Canada. There is a small gift shop and the jail museum where you can look up who was arrested back in the day.
On our last day our flight was leaving just after noon , so we headed our early and checked out a small harbour called Quidi Vidi, where we saw a film crew doing some filming in the harbour, and had a walk around the community, before checking in at the airport for our flight home.
Our lasting impressions of St. John’s was, great food, friendly people and great scenery that made for some wonderful photos.