Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada · 2025
Our Newfoundland adventure
Our first trip to Newfoundland for the Canada Summer Games, with time to explore St. John's, Signal Hill, the Southern Shore, Bell Island and the Bonavista Peninsula.
Finally, Newfoundland
Newfoundland had been on our list for quite a while.
We had already visited all the other provinces in Eastern Canada, but somehow never made it to Newfoundland. So when the Canada Summer Games brought us to St. John’s, it felt like the perfect opportunity to finally go.
The Games were the main reason for the trip, but whenever we had some free time, we went exploring. And as it turned out, we managed to squeeze quite a lot into those twelve days.
Canada Summer Games
The Canada Summer Games were at the centre of the trip. We attended the opening ceremony and spent plenty of time at the pool cheering on Team BC swimmers.
It felt quite different from our usual swim meets, with athletes and teams from across the country all gathered in St. John’s. There was a great atmosphere around the Games, but whenever we had a break from the pool, we were usually out exploring.
St. John’s and Signal Hill
We really enjoyed St. John’s, with its colourful houses, steep streets, harbour and views toward the Atlantic.
We spent quite a bit of time wandering around downtown and exploring different parts of the city. The colourful houses were everywhere, and with all those hills, almost every street seemed to lead to another interesting view.
Signal Hill quickly became one of our favourite places, and we ended up hiking there twice.
Our first hike turned into quite an adventure. Starting from our hotel near the harbour, we walked through the city and followed Plymouth Road, Quidi Vidi Road and Forest Road before continuing along Cuckold’s Cove Road toward Ladies Lookout.
From there, we made our way around Signal Hill and onto the North Head Trail, following the rugged coastline past the lookouts and eventually looping all the way back toward St. John’s.
A few days later, we came back and hiked part of the North Head Trail again, this time spending more time along the coastal section.
The combination of cliffs, harbour views and open Atlantic made it one of the highlights of the trip.
Apparently once wasn’t enough.
Cape Spear, the Southern Shore and Bell Island
One of our busiest days started at Cape Spear before continuing south through Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Tors Cove and Cape Broyle, eventually reaching the lighthouse at Ferryland.
The drive itself was part of the fun. Instead of rushing from one destination to another, we stopped along the way whenever something caught our attention: small fishing communities, harbours and beautiful stretches of coastline.
And apparently that wasn’t enough for one day.
On the way back, we still had enough energy to head to Portugal Cove, take the ferry across to Bell Island and squeeze in a little more exploring before finally calling it a day.
It was a very long day, but also one of the most memorable ones of the trip.
Trinity and the Bonavista Peninsula
Another adventure took us on a two-day road trip around Trinity and the Bonavista Peninsula, with an overnight stay in Bonavista.
Our first major stop was Trinity, a beautiful little town that felt completely different from St. John’s. From there, we continued to Elliston, where we saw an incredible number of puffins and other seabirds.
We eventually reached Bonavista, explored the town and visited the lighthouse and surrounding coastline before settling in for the night.
The next morning, we returned to the lighthouse before following the coast toward Dungeon Provincial Park and Spillars Cove. From there, we hiked the Klondike Trail, with rugged shoreline, open ocean and views of The Chimney along the way.
After the hike, we passed through Bonavista again and took Route 235 around the other side of the peninsula toward St. John’s.
There wasn’t really a checklist for this part of the drive. We just stopped whenever something along the coast caught our attention.
A small harbour, a tiny community, a church with a bright red roof, or simply another view that made us pull over.
Those little unplanned stops ended up being some of my favourite parts of the whole road trip.
A few bonus days
Just when we thought the trip was over, the Air Canada strike changed our plans.
Our flight home was cancelled, leaving us in St. John’s for a few unexpected extra days.
Not exactly what we’d planned, but if we had to be stuck somewhere, St. John’s wasn’t such a bad place for it.
A trip to remember
We came to Newfoundland because of the Canada Summer Games, but the trip became much more than that.
Between St. John’s, Signal Hill, Cape Spear, the Southern Shore, Bell Island and the Bonavista Peninsula, we managed to see quite a lot.
And yet, looking at the map afterwards, we realized we’d still only seen a small part of Newfoundland.
For a first visit, it was a pretty memorable introduction.
And it definitely gave us a reason to come back.