 |
(Please e-mail us with any links you'd like to see added to this page.)
How do you get here? Well, here's the most important link: Marine Atlantic This is the ferry service from North Sydney to Port Aux Basques or Argentia. It's possible to "do the loop," that is, take the ferry to Argentia, go to St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula and spend some some time there, then drive back across the island and spend some time on the West Coast, Northern Peninsula (Gros Morne), then leave from Port Aux Basques. You'll need at least two weeks to do this trip. Talk to us about it.
City of St. John's - North America's oldest city. Dominated by the Roman Catholic Basilica at the top of the Harbour and characterized by ancient row housing and lots of hills in the downtown area, St. John's has character, entertainment, night life (George Street has more pubs and entertainment per square foot than any other street in North America), and easy access to bird watching, iceberg watching, and whale watching. It's a safe city. Here are a few must sees in and around St. John's:
Bird Watching / Whale Watching / Icebergs - The two best known tours are O'Brien's and Gatherall's. I can't recommend either not having done either. Those who have done these tours find them remarkable.
See our trips suggestions to see our recommendations for thing you can do in and around St. John's during an extended stay.
Town of Pasadena - Our home town. Pasadena is a bedroom/retirement community about 30 km East of the City of Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It is a clean, modern community. It's very safe, not as young as it used to be, but with still enough children to support a high school and a primary/elementary school. Located on Deer Lake, in the Humber Valley, Pasadena provides easy access to everything the West Coast of Newfoundland has to offer. The best ski hill in Eastern Canada is just a 15 minute drive down the twinned highway. There are golf courses in Corner Brook (West) and Deer Lake (East), a pitch and putt in Pasadena itself, and a new 18 hole course across the Lake at the new Humber Valley Resort. Gros Morne National Park is only a forty minute drive. The Humber River is one of the best salmon rivers in North America. With new senior's cottages just being opened, Pasadena is becoming more of retirement community. It's a lovely spot for retirement. The community if pretty flat, and traffic is light. Housing and taxes are still pretty reasonable, but real estate values are starting to climb, mainly because many of those working on the Humber Valley Resort properties are buying or building in Pasadena; consequently, there are few houses for sale in Pasadena at the moment. Recently (Jan, 2005), I started a new page entitled My Town. Click here if you'd like to know more about where we live.
While there, visit Meyer's Minerals.
Other major communities, towns, cities in Newfoundland are:
The Town of Grand Falls - Well, actually, it's called Grand Falls - Windsor now. I still can't get used to that. This is where I grew up. It was originally a company town (Anlgo-Newfoundland Development Company). It's a small town, clean and safe. It was actually chosen (by those that do such things) as the nicest community in Canada (taking into account safety, environment, etc.) I question that because in their description of Grand Falls they talked about the nice harbour. Grand Falls is inland. Maybe they were talking about Corner Brook. Corner Brook is a nicer city. (At the time Grand Falls was identified as Canada's best community, Canada was the number one country in the world. Hmmmmm! Does this mean Grand Falls is the best place in the world?) Newfoundland is just a great place to live.
Gander ... is an airport town. It was once "the crossroads of the world." That's when every plane crossing the Atlantic stopped at Gander. We used to drive to the airport (from Grand Falls) occasionally, just to people watch. Those were the days before security kept you away from everything/everyone interesting. Today it's famous because of the treatment Gander (and Newfoundland) gave to folks stranded during the events of 9/11. Newfoundlanders opened their homes to stranded travellers. Those stranded were blown away by the openness and hospitality. (Please, never confuse Newfoundlanders' friendliness, hospitality, openness, naiveté, with anything other than what it is. Let him be anathema who takes advantage of this.)
Stephenville (Every summer The Stephenville Festival offers a amazing variety of theatre, from drama, to Broadway musicals, to avante guarde theatre.)
Attractions:
The Trinity Pageant is a must go theatre experience for theatre lovers and historians. Trinity itself is a beautiful outport and driving the loop is an experience in itself.
The Gros Morne Theatre Festival is newer than The Trinity Pageant but it is drawing huge crowds and getting rave reviews. The Festival is just an added bonus to your visit to Gros Morne.
The Newfoundland Insectarium we can highly recommend just on its reputation. It's located only a few kilometers off the TCH east of Deer Lake on the road to Gros Morne. It's fascinating for children. It also features a butterfly pavilion. You can have some chocolate coated ants there.
Gros Morne Summer Music - Chamber Music in the Park along with a variety of other musical experiences. Highly recommended.
Events:
Friends of ours have a wonderful new business that they're hoping to grow over the next several years. It has shown enormous potential and it shows wonderful initiative and entrepreneurial spirit on their part to keep it going and make it grow. Please visit The Newfoundland Bee Company site.
The magazine for expatriate Newfoundlanders and Newfoundland wannabes!
More friends of ours Mike, Ed, and Guy write and sing some wonderful original Newfoundland music. You can visit their site here: www.thesharecroppers.net You may want to look HERE as a source for other Newfoundland music and musicians.
The East Coast Trail - There's a remarkable project taking place on the East Coast. Hiking enthusiasts on the Avalon are piecing together 18 different "paths" to make 520 km network of trails that runs along the coast of the Avalon Peninsula. They have 220 km completed. You can start the trail from many different locations and do short segments. The East Coast Trail promises to be a remarkable hiking experience. (We'll be doing a segment or two the next time we're in St. John's. In the meantime, we'd certainly welcome comments and recommendations from folks who've done any parts of it.)
Atlantic Canada Adventure Tours offers group adventure tours and individual tours tailored to your wishes. Herbert and Bettina are wonderful people who will work with you to make your adventure tour a wonderful experience.
Perhaps the best personal page we've found, one that does much the same thing as ours, is www.bitstop.ca. It features wonderful photography, appropriate links to Newfoundland information, and lots of interesting stuff you just won't find on most commercial sites. This site won the Port of Call award from Downhomer magazine.
I've been looking through this site a little over the past few days. It's a good multi-purpose site for all different kinds of Newfoundland information: events, accommodations, tours, etc. It's a commercial site, so it's probably advertising driven, but none-the-less, I suggest you go there and have a look.
Bed and Breakfasts (Just started this: Jan, 2005 - I'll add the links as I find them.)
We don't know a lot about these. We haven't stayed in any in Newfoundland. There are, however, a couple that are highly spoken of:
Cape Bauld Lighthouse, Quirpon, Northern Peninsula. This would be a unique B&B experience.
Friends of our, Bill and Linda Hudson, run a marvellous B&B right on the Humber River, about a 10 minute drive from us. This is a pretty upscale place, with the highest B&B rating available (I think). We haven't stayed there, but we've eaten there (large banquet/dining room), and it's wonderful.
Leaside Manor, St. John's. Again, I haven't stayed there, but I've looked at their website and it looks very attractive. It's also very upscale, offering suites, Jacuzzis, etc. It's on Topsail Road, in St. John's, no downtown, but quite close to heart of the city.
The Doctor's House is a very nice B&B in Corner Brook (Curling), right on the Bay of Islands. It would be a good center of operations in the Corner Brook/Bay of Islands area.
Trinity Vacations: Accommodation, Vacation guide and map for Trinity, Trinity Bay and Bonavista Peninsula. Trinity Vacations features Bed and Breakfast, Inn, Vacation Homes, Villa Rentals, activities and events in Trinity and Trinity Bight, Newfoundland, Canada
There are several nice B&Bs in Steady Brook, just East of Corner Brook. The Huxter's run one of those; very nice folks.
(Please e-mail us with any links you'd like to see added to this page.)
Canadian Travel Information Forum
<a href="http://directory.classifieds1000.com">Classifieds1000.com Directory</a> <a href="http://directory.classifieds1000.com/Newfoundland">Newfoundland Directory</a>
<a href="http://gravitydex.com"><img
src="http://gravitydex.com/gd_graphics/adbanners/dex-banner1.gif" width=468
height=60 border=0 alt="GravityDex"></a>