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Newfoundland and Labrador with young children

Newfoundland and Labrador with young children

Old Mar 26th, 2015, 10:08 AM
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Newfoundland and Labrador with young children

Hi!

We'd like to visit this part of the country in August and im wondering if its a good place for young children, ages 7-8yrs.

I've visited the Newfoundland tourism website but im baffled by all the info. Im not sure how to plan this trip not knowing what to see and do with kids this age. I know i need to book our flights and rent a car but other than that, not sure how to plan an itinuary or accommodations?

Hope someone can advise. Lastly, is a 7day trip sufficiant to get the full experience and is including Labrador to ambicious?!

Tks
Nadia
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Old Mar 27th, 2015, 02:46 AM
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if you "don't know what to see or do"...why did you pick this province? surely, something you've researched has interested you. assume you are going to go to gros morne. have you looked at their website to see what it offers. are you going to hike and how many km per day do you want to do? what other activities do you want. out on a fishing boat? do you like small towns or more days in st john? i'd fly into one airport and out of the other but that means a one way car rental...don't know if they charge a "drop off fee". assume a lot of people do this. ask yourself some of these questions and give us more specifics. i don't think 7 days is enough for nfld so i would not consider adding on labrador
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Old Mar 27th, 2015, 03:17 AM
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hi, my children are the same age and they absolutely loved newfoundland. 7 days to include Labrador is ambitious unless you plan to fly, flights within NF and Lab can be pricey.

plan to do a fair bit of driving, we drove the entire island. we loved the northern peninsula the most. some highlights, for 7 days, i'd do the west coast and northern peninsula.

Deer Lake (we flew into this airport,its the main airport on the west coast). deer lake is like any small town, the insectarium is here and the kids loved the butterfly park and the insectarium. from here you can rent a car and drive up the northern peninsula. gros morne national park is here. we didnt climb gros morne but we hike the tablelands with the kids and absolutely worth it. its free, but like any hike, brings lots of snacks, sunscreen, etc. we also drove all the way to Trout river (it was the site of that whale that stank the whole town in 2013?) lots of walking/hiking trails once you are tablelands. some long, some hard, some easy.

check out norris point which is right by gros morne.they have a marine discovery centre with a touch tank which was a big hit with the kids. there are also a lot of small cute beautiful towns. the drive is absolutely beautiful up and down the mountain.

driving up again, you will reach the coastline, the the town of rocky harbour, cow head, etc. winds can get pretty crazy at one section in cow head which the kids thought was amusing (we did too again beautiful coastal drive here. the arches is along this route.

driving towards st anthony, the kids loved the small sandy beaches of main brook. we have family here so we stayed in croque, a tiny tiny town. dont think you will be able to find accomodation here except tuckamore lodge. the kids absolutely loved croque, my son went (fun) fishing by the wharf every day.

l'anse aux meadows is another place where we all enjoyed. its beautiful, you can google the info on this. we drove all the way up to st anthony and had lunch at fisherman's point by the lookout and our view was a ginormous iceberg out in the ocean. can't beat that! icebergs are not really a norm in st anthony around that time but this one was absolutely huge, there was another one at st anthony bight as well. we spent a lot of time at the lookout, you can hike here and we did.

corner brook (this is a town before deer lake) is somewhat the main hub of the west coast. bottle cove is a popular spot for the locals in summer.

if you plan to fly into halifax in NS and take the ferry, you will have to drive to north sydney in NS. the ferry is organised. you can book a night crossing or day crossing. we did night crossing on the way over. it was surprisingly comfy. you will arrive at port aux basques and can drive up from there. we did the day crossing coming back, it was quite boring, nothing much to see so if we were to do it again, we'd do the night crossing and sleep on the ferry.

we also did the middle and east coast of newfoundland (st john's and area). its OK, the middle to us is not much things unless you count fogo island and twilingate which are OK for us (didnt get to fogo though). and its really just the scenery. st john's is a city, cape spear, signal hill, etc is here and its gorgeous.

have fun!
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Old Apr 21st, 2015, 10:06 PM
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We visited Newfoundland in August 2008 (so a little dated info). I now have a 6 year old and2 year old and was searching these forums for "children" as I am contemplating an extended trip with the family. We did not have children while in Newfoundland, but reflecting on what I know now and we did then...

We are birders anyway, but we loved the gannet colony at Cape St Mary's. Thought it was stunning, emotional, so many birds swirling over the ocean and nesting on a nearshore spire. I wouldn't miss it.

We liked St. John's, the old downtown area is walkable.

We did a several day backpack trip orienteering, I think it was called the Traverse, in Gros Morne NP which is unrealistic with kids, but for the intrepid. There was a boat ride in the fjordland lakes of Gros Morne that was our origin point - I'd recommend the boat ride.

I liked the coast south of St. John's, small towns, neat hikes. We booked a whale watching trip with Gatheralls out of Bulls Bay and it was good fun. Worth it. Guidebooks will reference a hike to an abandoned town in that area. We did it but I forget the name. That would be interesting to a 7 year old.

With a week, I'd consider splitting the time half on east side and half on the west, with a long drive across the middle. We never made it to L'Anse, and I long to go back to see it.
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